<\/p>\n

Reason #1<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s another place to claim your online real estate. If you haven\u2019t already, you should start by setting up a Gmail account and then your personal Google Profile and make it public. If you have one and it\u2019s private, Google may have already deleted it. Not only does Google+ revolve around your Google profile, but once you set it up, it will probably rank at the top of the first page of Google with links to your site, blog, etc. How great is that!<\/p>\n

Make sure to fill your profile out with a ton of valuable information about you and your company. By the way, at this point Google+ is set up to work with People profiles only\u2026their business version of this tool is expected to hit later this year, so you need to start by creating a personal profile first.<\/p>\n

Reason #2<\/strong> \u2013 Getting in early makes it easy for people to find you. When you launch Google+ you will see that it immediately lists a ton of possible people you might know and within seconds you can drag and drop them into groups called \u201cCircles.\u201d These mean you can segregate and communicate with different sets of contacts from Family, Friends, Co-Workers, Acquaintances, etc. If you join late and people don\u2019t see you or can\u2019t find you, you\u2019re going to be the one doing all the legwork to find them later on. Right now, Google+ has made connecting with contacts even easier in that you can upload contacts – up to a 100 at a time per day.<\/p>\n

Reason #3<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s a haven of business minded individuals. Google+ is attracting an incredibly high percentage of business people and entrepreneurs. This makes it a great arena for B2B companies and for online networking. I certainly don\u2019t just mean small business owners either. I was immediately able to connect with the likes of Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg (Not surprisingly, he isn\u2019t saying much, not to mention that Google+ hasn\u2019t started to verify famous profiles so who knows if it\u2019s really him). Unlike Facebook where you have to put out a friend request and then be accepted, Google+ works more like Twitter, where you can add anybody to your Circles. When that person provides updates, they can choose if they want the world to see it or only certain circles. So it\u2019s a nicely structured online networking haven.<\/p>\n

Reason #4<\/strong> \u2013 Your Own FREE Virtual Soapbox and Meeting Space \u2013 Google+has a function called a Hangout. It\u2019s got some glitches, so you will definitely want to have a test run before you get too carried away with this. But let\u2019s say you want to share a concept about your business (think webinar) \u2013 you can start a hangout and either invite people in your circle or publicly. You can only have 10 people on a hangout at any time, but it\u2019s free and it is video chat. Talk about an inexpensive conference call tool.<\/p>\n

You can also use it for meetings with collaborators or to present to prospect. It\u2019s not perfect yet, so be careful on the importance of the presentation, would hate to rely on it for a million dollar deal just yet!<\/p>\n

Reason #5<\/strong> \u2013 MOST IMPORTANTLY \u2013 It can drive a ton of traffic to your site \u2013 Since joining Google+, John was saying he\u2019s astounded with the amount of traffic it\u2019s bringing to the Duct Tape Marketing site. Ventureweb.com noted that 67 percent of its online referrals came via Google Plus in one day. The beautiful thing about this is it\u2019s free! Of course it doesn\u2019t just happen. You need to be active on Google+ in terms of posting, and following people and adding them in your circles to see the results.<\/p>\n

So I hope if you are completely new to Google+, I have convinced you to a least take a look at it, and for those of you heavily entrenched, I look forward to connecting and hearing about your discoveries.<\/p>\n

Like this article? Subscribe to Cidnee’s FREE bi-weekly marketing tips at for small businesses and also receive a special report on the 7 Steps of Marketing Success. About the Author Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early adaptors are showing enough cautious optimism that it\u2019s time you become aware of what all the hype is about with Google+, that\u2019s if you aren\u2019t already \u201cbuilding circles\u201d and \u201changing out.\u201d If you think \u201cWhy? It\u2019s less than a month old. How big can it be?\u201d You need to know that in its tiny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[186,187,165],"yoast_head":"\n