Google Plus Events are back! As of January 24, 2017, Google+ is reinstating their events feature. Yay! When G+ rolled out their new look, events went away. Facebook was the only social media network who kept their event promotion feature. They figured they could get companies to pay to boost their events and it worked. LinkedIn, once upon a time, also had events and they went away also. You’d think that a professional networking platform like LinkedIn would give users opportunities to promote their events. Hopefully, with the new changes LinkedIn is making, they’ll bring events back also.

G+’s timing couldn’t be better because we’re starting to plan Greater Phoenix SCORE’s 2017 Symposium in April (more on that later!)

Along with events, Google+ is making some more changes. Apparently a lot of people are participating in Google+ communities. Similar to LinkedIn Groups, there’s a community for just about every industry and interest out there. What’s important is to find an active group where you can mingle with your potential target market and/or potential referral sources and influencers.

As noted in Social Media Today…

“Yes, Google+ still exists, and while it’s hard to know, for sure, how many people actually use it, as of the platform’s latest update last August, Google noted that more than 1.6 million people were still signing up to Google+ communities every day. That seems like a lot, but through the various audience breakdowns and analysis points, all the figures indicate that millions of people are still active on the platform. And Google likely wouldn’t support the product at all if usage rates were too low.”

The key is to find the active people who would be interested in your product or service.

Here’s what else is new on Google+:

• Hiding nasty comments – they call them “low-quality” comments. I call them nasty trolls. Facebook has had this feature for some time. If you do want to see all the comments, you can.
• Image Zoom – this is a nice feature especially for people promoting locations, photographers, and anyone who uses visuals. Google+ has always been a favorite place for photographers to showcase their work. Even amateurs.
• Bye, bye older version – You have to get used the new version. In my opinion, they made accomplishing things harder. Actions that used to take one click to do, now take 2 or 3. Nevertheless, I’ve warned the folks who have taken my classes to learn how to get around the new version because the old one will, at one point, go away. And that will be January 24, 2017.

Like it or not, G+ is here to stay. Still, it’s power is in its connection to the Google search engine and SEO. However, if you can reach those millions of people who are on it with your quality marketing message, it’s going to help drive traffic to your site and get you on that invaluable first page of Google search.

The new Google+ is featured in our Social Media Marketing Master Class. These classes will be separated soon so, if you wanted to take one network at a time, you can. Watch your emails for the announcement.

If you’d like a 1:1 tour of the new Google+ to make sure you’re setup correctly, click here to book your time.

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