All brands should be on Google+ suggests content marketing expert
Google+, Google’s struggling social media network, is being hugely underused by marketers looking to build their brands through content, a content marketing expert suggested today.
Giving an online seminar this afternoon hosted by Digimind, Andrea Edwards, a former IDC, Microsoft and Novus executive, and executive director of the Asia Content Marketing Association, said that more brands should be thinking about Google+ because of its benefits to SEO.
“Seventy percent of businesses are on Google+, and wrapping yourself with Google wherever you can is so important,” she said.
“When I started at [content marketing firm] Novus Asia, I launched them on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, but it was still low down in the Google search results. I set up a G+ page and Novus instantly moved to page one.”
“That’s one example, but the more important stat is 70% of businesses are there because Google is the SEO God,” said Edwards, who now runs content marketing consultancy The Digital Conversationalist.
Google+ has been widely derided by critics, with a Business Insider article from last year pointing out that despite billions of Google users, active use of G+ is very low, while a piece in Forbes wondered last year if the platform had died.
In a typically impassioned talk, the Australian stressed the importance of quality over quantity in content marketing.
Publishing one good piece a week is better than posting five mediocre posts, she said, adding that Google “will still like your content” if posted less frequently.
“Unless your content is awesome, you’re just adding to content shock,” she said.
Edwards: ‘The focus of content marketing should not be about selling, it should be about inspiration’
Edwards said that a common mistake content marketers make is to confuse social media as a destination rather than a channel, and try too hard for content to drive a sale.
“The focus of content marketing should not be about selling, it should be about inspiration,” she said.
She added: “You can’t do content marketing if you don’t have a destination. Social channels are not a destination, they’re channels. You need a content hub – a central destination.
Edwards, who has been pushing the content marketing agenda for the best part of a decade, said the discipline won’t work without serious commitment and internal buy-in.
“True customer obsession is needed to drive home content marketing. If you’re doing it and just doing your job, it’s not going to happen. It’ll always sit in the background and no one will read it.”
“People respond to authenticity. [Donald] Trump appeared to be authentic to a large portion of the American population,” she said, referring to the recent US presidential election result.
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