Is Anybody Outside of SEO Industry Getting ROI from Google+ ?? Tell the truth!

[EGOL]

I have been watching Google+ and see lots of SEOs sharing ideas and enjoying their circles.   However, I have not seen anything outside of the webmaster community that I would hold up as an example of business engagement - and certainly nothing that seems to be producing a good ROI for a business.

It seems to me that everyone outside of the webmaster community is on FaceBook and doesn't give a hoot about Google+.  And, since FaceBook  has the massive amount of people why should I open an outpost in the poorly populated Google+?

I am not looking for Google+ evangelist answers.  Just looking to hear if anybody anywhere has found Google+ to be a better use of their time than  FaceBook and working on your website.

I do believe that using Google+ as an author verification platform is a good use of your time if you have valuable content - mainly because it helps your visibility in the SERPs.  Beyond that I am looking for validation.

Anybody want to point to something good happening or telling a success story?

Thanks!

[yeagerd]

I had started using Google+ for one simple reason, to save from using the pinging services I had at the time and get quicker crawls of new content.  (The necessity of the pings I am not sure of but to post on G+ and see the bot within moments I have no doubt about it.)

Now, I am thinking about getting more involved as the Google+ hangouts can be live cast on YouTube and then stay available.

You can use your comments section as a user chat and build a nice set of relevant keywords around your video and your link to site.  We are doing some testing on it now.

I have 9300 followers on twitter, a couple thousand on FB and 24 on G+.  I have made my best contacts from social media out of the 24.

[simonberenyi]

I use G+ as a valuable resource tool. It is very visual which is why so many creatives love it. It is one of my first points of reference for finding up to date information on the SEO and SEM industry and it is also very easy to connect with what people like, who they they might be interested in etc. Its like Facebook for for people with a brain.

But - no, as far as I know it has tendered no customers, but has allowed me to access information that enabled me to improve my online activities and revenues.

So It scores A++ for me.

[HandsomeWeb]

My clients demand a google + button, and I'm confided I am the only person who has clicked one.

Google+ is great.  It is better than facebook, but nobody wants to switch. It will go the way of Google Wave

Google Wave was even better, but noone dropped email and started using it.

[gtrotter666]

If you ask anyone outside of the the SEO world what Google+ is and they have rarely even heard of it.  In fact I did a quick poll of my customers to see if anyone was using it and got a nil response (not typical from other things I have asked).  No-one has even heard of it, FaceBook has won hands-down.  It just has all the momentum already!

[loopyal]

This is what I did, but it depends on you having interesting posts for others ANd also finding people who will contribute to your Plus, which means you reciprocating and contributing to theirs.

That is what social is about.

If you connect to Robert Scoble, and watch what he does, you will get a good ide of what works. Because he has "a name" everything he says gets dozens or hundreds of comments. He is always talking to interesting people and passing on interesting information. He also interacts with people, but I was never able to get him to interact with me - maybe because I was a relative nobody. But the interesting thing is you can interact with a few people on your own. You don't have to be Robert Scoble, but you do have to interact with people.

In twitter, for a couple of years, I just pushed out tweets about our stories. We publish 50 to 100 stories per day and I don't tweet them all, just a few dozen. And occasionally, I would RT someone else. After aggressively following people and hoping they would follow me back, I had 4600 followers, but I wasn't getting a lot of action. One of my editotrs did experiments and now I do it differently. I spend more time (too much time) helping other people. I also dropped 400 people I had followed, who hadn't tweeted for 2 years. Since then, about 100 people have followed me and I an engaging with them. I plan to do this for a couple of months and I hope the result will be that I gain a lot of followers who will interact and RT. One follower is doing a great job, I am helping him and he is tweeting about 10 of our stories each day. I'm hoping a few people who have either a big following or a loyal interactive following will RT our stories. I expect this will be more valuable then Google+ - certainly, Facebook already is about 50 times more valuable than G+ and twitter is probably 3-5 times. As I don't seem to be getting any value at all from G+ (I think it is a wasteland) I think thats a better use of my time, and I enjoy it more.

I'm not inclined to boost google so they feel good about themselves, because they give nothing back. They aren't people and they don't get social, in my opinion.

[EGOL]

Thanks for the report, Roy.

I am still not seeing anything on my sites.

So far, Google + is not worth the time.

[AgentsofValue]

Hi Egol,

Honestly, Google+ still has not brought impressive referral traffic to our website...there are few but Facebook and Twitter are our biggest source and Pinterest is also showing a good potential.

Thanks,

Roy

[bronxpad]

I have had success with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. But when it comes to Google+ its a ghost town for me. One thing I've noticed is I can't get a custom URL like I can with the other sites so promoting my G+ account in person is not as easy Or maybe i just don't know how if it is possible. Also I can't get people to join the network. I understand that those who can get G+ will benefit on local seo but getting people to take a moment away from Facebook and twitter to even register for a G+ account has been virtually impossible. How can I entice people to G+ my site? That is the million dollar question. Has anyone found a way to successfully get people onto G+?

[sansonj]

This is my final thought on the subject matter. Take away us small business people and tech people. We are online playing more so in a business fashion than most. I bet we are online more than most. The people online are not out there google+ this and that. I know I do not google+ anything. I do not look on facebook or twitter for anything. I really outside of my niche real estate and working on SEO do anything online. I will book a hotel, a flight, a room, etc online. I might buy an eBook, etc too. So really what do people do online. Yes, there are transactions, etc every second, but really are they from social media?

[sansonj]

I do not know where Photo people go to get business, but the only way I would do any photo work with anybody in any social media is if it was a dear friend I knew rocked at photo work. Otherwise, I am going to bing it, and see what I find.

[sansonj]

Google is like the Miami heat. Not sure when the people will turn from google. In 20 years where will google be?

[sansonj]

Being social online takes a huge amount of time.

[sansonj]

Where are really any of them in any true form of social media?

[sansonj]

Time requires energy, time is money, etc, so what is your true ROI on this. How does it impact your bottom line? You are right it is not set it and forget it, but is it truly the most profitable thing you can do with your time.  I would not waste a single penny on twitter, google+ facebook, etc. However, I do enjoy social places (Not social Media) like www.cre8asiteforums.com here I can give and get, and network for a niche thing or things I need and can hopefully give. All social media will eventually die. I love Chevy, I love Pepsi, and the list goes on, but I am not chilling in their social media areas. Those are giants, so a spending less than .0001% of their money there.

[sansonj]

Google+ Facebook, Twitter, and the list goes on. They are social viruses. They bog you down thinking you will get something out of nothing, and you miss things that actually give you real ROI. I do not know how old you are, but back in the days the hot thing were these live chat rooms like a craigslist in away- real time micro post going on and you go go PM somebody. These were in like MSN or Yahoo or somewhere. Great place to meet the ladies back in the day. Then it eventually migrated to MySpace then Facebook (where 1:3 people state they are board with it) to something new and just straight up wasting your time. Speaking of Facebook I look at it and say really? Where is the value. Then I ask my kids where is the true value in facebook, and nobody has the answer- then bamb it goes IPO and fools buy it. Just make sure you are not buying into anything with social media outside of keeping a super clean image for business reviews.

[kbloemendaal]

I see this A LOT lately, and I have been using Plus since it started in beta.

You get what you put in to it. Period. If you only use it as a "megaphone" to self promote, who cares. If you use it like any other social network (to network and share) you will get something out of it.

Most of the people I see that say they don't get anything out of it, don't try. If you opened a Twitter account, followed 10 people, then sat and looked at it.... only sending out links to your own crappy content, you will get the same results.

I have found that by sharing content, videos, images, etc... and actually engaging with people like you would on FB or Twitter, you get more out of it.

That being said, Google has made it very difficult to get people to circle business pages, so I have learned a trick or 2 to help expedite that. I have a local home builder page that has over 300 people that has circled them, while our FB page only has 130 fans for the same builder. And yes, I have seen it help the SERP's.

We share industry related articles, cool architecture images, and add in a little of our own stuff for that builder, and we are starting to see some traction.

Bottom line, you get what you put in it. I am seeing local groups forming to work together to help promote each other, etc...

Still a very young network. Remember, you can't automate "social".... (not that that was question at hand, just like to remind people social isn't a "set it and forget it" metric in marketing)

[JamesNorquay]

I think the best areas working for Google+ from my experience are people in the IT and Photography, yet I see an uplift in some work we do from a fashion front on the site.

But if you want an example of real world engagement look at H&M, they always have fashion fans on the G+ page, sure they do not have crazy numbers but it is enough for me to say hey this is interesting.

That been said I would not invest all my time into Google+ I would use it as a top 5 social sites strategy and put a few hours each month into it, and post content every 2 days from your brand.

[SEOSHARK]

Thanks Anthony,

HEY,  "ANYBODY GOT A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY" they want to sell???? 

I get it that Google is "PROUD OF THEMSELVES" with G+, and really do get good stuff from a few GURU's. For example, Cutts cleared up his comment about targeting over optimized sites by saying "what I was trying to say was" we are going after spam.... well, hasn't he always gone after different levels of spam....

I had a social butterfly working for me for about 5 months, traffic went way up, conversions went down..

end thought........  I do agree that people do look at your social status before doing business with you....

As a thought, it is likely a GREAT idea to target your social content around the actual BUYER, Become and actually be an authority on your site and social..

Be yourself.... That's who the client is looking for..

Good stuff guys.

Any good feeds on what Google is up to NOW..??

Tom

[Anthony_NorthSEO]

Great point Tom, and great handle.

While I've gotten a few leads from Facebook and Twitter, the true reason for my investing any time at all in those outlets is that potential customers often check these places to validate the popularity, or even the success of a business. If a fan page on Facebook has 4 likes, or a Twitter account has 17 followers, it's not a good signal to a potential customer, especially one researching web marketing providers.

The fact that Google now incorporates social metrics into their ranking algorithm also had some bearing on the energy and resources I've allocated to increase my company's presence on FB and Twitter.

The problem with Google+...

Nobody looks. Nobody cares. That's my experience.

I've invested a very little bit of time and money to add a few +1s to my website in order to increase the rankings, but that's it. I did see an improvement in rankings, and there wasn't much work involved at all, so I consider it a win.

The problem, in my opinion, is Google's almost Narcissistic approach to Google+. It's a Google product, so it matters. Why? Because Google says so.

I can't remember a platform that has had such little impact in the lives of real world users, yet such an effect on website rankings. Could be a good strategy on the part of Google, could fade away... we'll have to wait and see.

[SEOSHARK]

Hey guys/gals, my experience, is to often look, listen, learn, before I get invested. Yes even with Google.

Like facebook,. I have NEVER received a single lead or for that measure a client form social "ANYTHING"..

G+ works great for picking up ideas as does FB and twitter, but to actually bring on business..... Not here, and would never PAY for such an environment.

I get more from network blogs like this than G+

Tom

[OptimizeSmart]

How you can get ROI from Google+ when the target audience is not there? I work in the fashion and medical industry and no one is on Google+, at least not in that numbers where i can think of running a social media marketing campaign. Google+ is predominantly occupied by the tech industry. Period.

[EGOL]

Thank you!  

[EGOL]

Thank you for sharing your experience in such detail.  It sounds like you have a great site.  Congratulations!

[Daylan]

Just going to echo Mcarle as far as photographers go.

A friend of mine is a great photogrpher but it's not since interacting with other photgraphers - sharing, commenting and being shared amongst influential circles has work really started to come his way.

Majority of the 'Hot on Google' posts i see in my feed are photography based posts too. The exposure is massive, but just like search you need to have the good content to make a dent. I love that there is little to no posts with 'instagram' type photos and the ones that do float to the surface are outstanding.

[loopyal]

We started reasonably early on plus, and promote a lot of our stories there every day. From the very start, I thought the idea sucked, and I still do.

Our readership is generally older. Most have no idea what g+ is and they don't care. They also want to know why the hell I've put the g+ button at the top, above Facebook and twitter which A) get more than 10 times the attention B) seem to bring in 10 times the readers

I'm expecting google to limp along with g+ until they finally work out it is a waste of time. We have 250,000 readers per month. Since we added the g+ buttons, we've had maybe 2 million visitors, yet only 600 unique visitors have clicked the g+ buttons.

Google WMT says we have too little engagement to show stats So either this means our site is worthless and the 250,000 readers hate what we're doing, or g+ is only for geeks like Robert Scoble.

I have connected with some good people there, but getting interaction is hard. If you go look at what other people are posting, their g+ area is a wasteland, even if they have some god stuff. I do go and read and interact with others.

I'm not giving up on it yet, but then I didn't give up on gbuzz and they canned that.

I was really expecting to add 20-50% to our readership, so 0.0001% doesnt cut it.

The upside of google+ is the profile. I definitely think the rel author has value.

Google is definitely trying hard and putting big resources into g+ but it looks like a miserable failure to me, and that makes me happy, because if they can't get social working, with all of their money and resources, it tells me a couple of things. A) google really don't understand social B) the people who are making a success of social really do understand it C) people who have tried social and failed are no worse than google - it isn't easy D) when I said google doesn't understand my business yet they are telling me what to do, maybe I was right E) PhDs often have no common sense, no matter how brilliant they are in other areas

[EGOL]

Yes, I can imagine that guy with the million dollar voice saying that line.

[Anthony_NorthSEO]

I'll try to find a clip of it online somewhere and post a link to it here... I laughed so hard I almost crashed into the median the first time I heard it. But on a serious note, I think an advertisement like that sheds a lot of light on how the general public perceives Google+.

[EGOL]

(whatever the hell that is)

ha ha... that's great.  I wish I would have thought of a line like that!

[EGOL]

Thanks.  There are very few in my niche and most of them simply have a google+ presence to claim authorship.

[Anthony_NorthSEO]

I have to agree with you on this one, I've barely heard a soul mention it outside of Digital Marketing circles.

There's actually a short promo spot on a popular radio station here in Atlanta that goes something like this:

Generic deep male radio promo voiceover with delay effects and heavy guitars

**"Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, and add us on Google Plus (whatever the hell that is)!" **

The Hangout feature can be a good tool if you're collaborating on a project remotely, but that withstanding I use Google+  SOLELY to boost SERP rankings for myself and my clients.

[Mcarle]

What is your niche?

[MarieHaynes]

In my niche there is no one I can find to follow on Google+.  I use it to post announcements about my latest articles, because I do believe that it helps my position in the SERPS.

So far anyone who has added me is more of an SEO contact than someone in my actual niche.  And, I have all of my Google+ contact info on my site.

I'm still going to hang around there because it doesn't hurt, but for making connections I spend much more time on Facebook and Twitter.

[Mcarle]

Yes and no,

I would pay a non photographer assistant type person, ie a marketing person.

In a perfect world if I wanted to grow the business I would hire:

Online marketing person:

• Write good content, upload new web pages, tackle SEO, update google+ with relevant content, facebok tumblr. Guest posts on invited blogs...

Office assistant:

-Framing, printing, trimming prints, albums, cleaning, help with set design styling & lighting.

Right now my office assistant does some online marketing but no SEO or content writing & no web updates.

I have looked into hiring SEO people in the past but been not happy with what they have presented me with. The proposals I get are 5 years out of date or they promise me something I have already done on my own.

My current office assistant is great though, but for now for her to take the time to learn what I know about SEO and such would not be good ROI, she sticks to her specialties, Facebook tumblr and office work.

If I could outsource the online web stuff I could do a LOT more networking in person.

[EGOL]

Thanks, it sounds like you are making some connections there.

If you were paying a photographer employee to do this would her effort bring back more value in revenue and ideas than her hourly rate plus overhead?

[Boodreaux]

Eating popcorn in anticipation with this one.

[Mcarle]

Photographers and artists are all over Google+

Sharing images ideas and communicating with like minded people.

I use Facebook as a place to (advertise) to my client base.

I use Google + as a place to connect with artists and photographers and read up on new gear & such.

I use Tumblr to see that the kids like 5 minutes ago, the style if imaginary that is at the cutting edge of popular amongst teens today will be earning cash in 5+ years...

I also know that Google+ does help with rankings and author tags, in my field of work not a lot of people are very SEO savvy, so that tiny bio image advantage I have over the hundreds of studios in 50 miles, I got it, they don't....

So Google + helps me a lot & I don't sell my self as an SEO expert.

(Although the thought has crossed my mind)