Social Media Guide for Wattpad

Practice (Google+) (answers)

Popularity

Let’s look at some really popular Google+ posts, and see what they’ve got in common. 

Here’s one –

https://plus.google.com/102371865054310418159/posts/9YDNRBHkPiq

Why is this so popular? 

Let’s start off with the obvious, that here we have a post by NASA. But it also calls out the Cosmos TV show with a hashtag. The image is beautiful and compelling. The prose is easy to follow. 

Here’s another one –

https://plus.google.com/107499215004519214139/posts/i6WbefxHaCv

Mike Allton is one of the top individual contributors to Google+ (psst follow him to learn a lot more about Google+ than I could ever teach you). This post helps to show why. 

Once again, there’s a great image. But that’s not all. The message is short. There are links to Pinterest and LinkedIn, which is where the post originated. Mike also made sure to write his own hashtags, assuring that they would be right (sometimes Google’s automated algorithm for adding hashtags is a little weird). And he did one more thing – he answered and thanked everyone who bothered to spend a little time and respond. Mike’s courtesy and professionalism shine through and elevate this post from okay to great.

What Should You Do?

Beautiful images win the day, like they seem to everywhere else. Courtesy helps. Correct hashtags help. Formatting helps. As on other platforms, redefinitions of success also help. Keep one thing in mind – Google+ has a value outside of itself, because placement of content on it can help you rise in search rankings. Hence the number of likes and shares is lovely, but it’s not the entire story. Google+ participation is probably more valuable for how it helps you with search, than for anything else. 

The media links are the same as last time, to give you a refresher. The link is to the Social Media Puppy (that’s me!). The image is an infographic about how to format your posts. The YouTube video is an excellent explanation of why Google+ matters for search engine results. 

Did this chapter help you? Did it hold your interest? Do you want to see more? Then please vote! You know the puppy wants you to. ;) Oh, and be sure to comment with links to your own pages so the community can follow you.