Many people are reluctant to dip their toes into yet another social network for a simple reason: they have no idea what they're going to say on yet another social network that they aren't already saying somewhere else.
Many people have cited Twitter as the channel most in competition with Google+, implying that you can adopt the same content strategy for Google+ as for Twitter: short updates, content curation, spur-of-the-moment images and video. But what exactly should you do with these content types on the platform that you aren't accomplishing on Twitter? You can always switch, leaving one of your existing platforms and moving the content strategy you're executing there to Google+. But if your audience is engaging with you regularly on Twitter, Facebook, your community, or LinkedIn, you're not going to abandon it. For most digital professionals, Google+ is going to be an additional channel for some time to come, not a replacement for a channel they're already using.
This makes it important to come up with a content strategy for Google+ that's different from anything else you're doing now. And that challenge has kept a lot of people from fully using the channel.
Mapping out a content strategy is different for everyone. It depends on:
- Your industry
- Your personal style
- Your time commitment, and
- What you want to get out of social media
It's a unique process for every individual and organization-that's why it's social media.
There are overarching themes, though, for strategies that are working on Google+. These are unique to the platform, effective, and form the basis for a strategy that's markedly different from what you're likely doing on Facebook and Twitter:
- Bear in mind that the audience on Google+ right now is early adopters. This really influences the types of content you're going to want to share, the conversations you want to have, and the KPIs for knowing if your strategy is working. Early adopters interact more substantively around topics that interest them, so the bar is set higher for the quality of engagement that indicates a message is resonating. They also want unique content, and have a greater tolerance for the quirky than the public at large (depending, of course, on your usual public). This means content curation has to kick up a notch to be an effective driver of traffic.
- Take advantage of the deeper interactivity Google+ makes available through features such as Huddles. Having a strategy that embraces these features, rather than simply targeting the news feed, shows you know what you're doing. And that helps build credibility, makes your conversations more interesting, and gives people a reason to engage with you on the new channel since you're giving them something they aren't getting from you on Facebook and Twitter.
- Don't be afraid to be meta. That is, reference the channel itself and your journey on it. It's all new to everyone, and we're in this together. Dropping the expert stance and letting people into your process as you find your way in this new landscape, as they are, opens the door to great conversations. It also shows another, more real side than you might be showing on the more established channels.
Finally, don't think the strategy you have today is the same one you'll have in a few months, or even a few weeks. It's new. Get your feet wet. There's always something else to learn around the corner.