Does anyone love your brand? Does anyone “like” it? If you can imagine more than a handful of customers and suppliers being willing to tell Google that they like you (with a plus), then you should not only enable the Google+ functionality for your own site but create a Google+ page.
Why? Right now, Google is practically bribing you to take advantage of Google+ as a business and as an advertiser with Social Extension(s). (As an aside, it’s interesting that in the AdWords interface the Social Extension is listed as plural and not singular, but perhaps that’s just to keep the naming aligned with the other extensions.) Anyway, back to the killer power of the Social Extension used alone or in conjunction with the Google+ platform to amplify your campaign.
Google+ Is Now Focused on Business
Google+ started as a personal social network, but Google is now clearly focusing on businesses as the catalyst for successful adoption and continued use of Google+ by consumers. Individuals – particularly those who author content or are active in sharing content – should have a Google+ profile in order to push their personal profiles into the organic search results. For business Plus pages, Google has made it clear that it behooves you to invest the time and effort into using your Google+ page as one of the touch points with your customers and prospects.
There are lots of great reasons to build a robust Google+ page and then to link that page to your AdWords account, in addition to having Google+ implemented on your site. Before we list these, perhaps it’s worth clarifying a few things about how the Social Extension works by itself and how it works in conjunction with Google+ pages for business.
You can use the Google AdWords Social Extension in several scenarios:
- Consumers decide to +1 you from your site because you’ve given them a button or link.
- Consumers +1 you from their Google Toolbar or an external site link.
- Consumers +1 your site from the ad within a SERP.
- Consumers +1 your Google+ page or within Google+ in general.
For this reason you’ll often notice different manifestations of the Social Extension under the AdWords ad text. For example, you might find messages such as the following displayed:
- 117 people in New York, NY +1′d this
- 496,804 people +1′d or followed [insert brand name here] with a link on that [brand name] to the Plus page of that brand
- 560 people +1′d this page
(via ClickZ.)
