Just Paint It: How To Share Posts on Google+

There is still room in this week’s BYOB & Paint Class – Fleur de Lis. We’d love to have you!

I wanted to share a couple of tips for posting on Google+. Of course you can upload photos or cut ‘n paste links. If you’re on Blogger, when you hit “Publish” you’ll get a pop up asking if you want to share on G+.

See that little thumbnail pic? That’s what shows up if you auto-share from Blogger. Which is fine.

But if you want to maximize your presence on Google+ and get some google ‘juice’ a few extra steps will go a long way towards that.

Let’s go through these steps quickly so you’ll see how easy it is.

Upload a pretty pic.

C’mon now bloggers, we all know the power of photos. We take tons of pics, aiming for the best one to showcase our projects on Pinterest. Take that “pretty” shot and upload it to Google+.

Write a Title and BOLD it

Yes, this takes a little extra time but it’s oh-so worth it. Google+ is not just a social media platform, it’s also a blogging platform. Google provides text enhancements so our posts will be noticed. Take advantage of it.

How do you bold text? Insert an asterisk “*” before and after the text your want bolded. You can find all of the Google+ text enhancements here.

Write an Intro Blurb

More time, I know. But let me ask you this, how many times are you scrolling thru Facebook, or G+ for that matter, see a thumbnail pic & a link to the post but don’t bother to click over? Give your followers and potential followers a reason to click to your post.

I’d also recommend using some keywords in this blurb. Something that is relevant to your post. Remember, google search is indexing every word on Google+. Here’s another opportunity to add some keywords to increase your search rankings.

Add Hashtags

Yes, #hashtags work on Google+ just like Twitter. Better actually because G+ Search is used so much. Just take a few of the keywords from your blurb and put them in your post with hashtags.

Can you just add a hashtag within your text? Sure. I do it sometimes. I guess it depends on how many you’re using since #s can make text difficult to read.

I realize at first this will seem like a lot more work than an autopost from Blogger or Hootsuite. It does take more time. But why not take advantage of the tools Google offers if there’s a chance to increase your search ranking. Not just Google+ search – GOOGLE search.

That’s SEO, my friends.

You can’t do these things on Facebook or Twitter. Of course, Facebook & Twitter don’t give you any google ‘juice’ either. But then, you know that, right?

So do I mean you have to do this every single time you post on Google+? No, of course not. But put it to the test – scroll through your feed and see which posts pop out to you. Then do a trial for your own posts for a week or two. Go back and see which posts receive more +1’s and shares and which posts don’t.

For me, I want to see nice big photos, a little info, and some hashtags to tell me what the post is about. More often than not, I’ll click over.

Which explains why I spend more time online than painting. Well . . . almost.

Read more about Google+ for Creative Bloggers here. Subscribe below so you don’t miss any future posts on Google+!

Colleen

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