Wondering why your link drop and run isn’t working on Google Plus? I’ve got answers for you! Google+ is the only social media platform that provides formatting for their posts. I’m going to break down the elements of a great Google Plus post and show you what works for successful Google Plussers.
Because you have unlimited space to use, Google+ posts need to have more gravitas than a tweet. On Google Plus, it’s considered link litter if you drop and link with no reason why you posted it. The bottom line is, if you are taking the time to share something, take the time to post it properly. Don’t just drop link litter, it causes people to tune out and ignore your post. It can also get you banned from communities. Think about why you want people to read it and give them a taste of the post. Build interest and create the opportunity for people to discuss your post on it’s own.
What you need before you are ready to post on Google+:
- A great article that you’ve written or curated from one of your favorite blogs
- An image in 735 pixels x 1102 pixels or 735 pixels x 735 pixels
- Pin the image to Pinterest and grab the link
This post has all the essential ingredients to a great Google Plus post!
- An interesting title that explains what the post is about formatted with *bold* text. (more about how to format below)
- +Mention the person who wrote the post or maybe some people who you’d like to involve in a conversation if you think they’d like it (don’t over-do that)
- A summary that talks about why you like the article or item that you’re sharing.
- Link to the post
- I like to pin all my posts to Pinterest first and add a link to pin it for later so people using their smartphones can save it on the go. You can view the Pinterest pin for this post here. It did pretty well too!
- Add relevant hashtags to the bottom of your post. This helps Google put it together with other content about the same thing.
Formatting text within a post is easy.
- If you want bold text, add *asterisks* before and after the word or phrase without spaces.
- If you wanted italicized text, add _an underscore_ before and after without spaces.
You can also load the Post Editor for Google Plus Chrome extension that makes it even easier!
If you are sharing a blog post, you have a choice if you’d like to add a separate photo or let Google+ pull in the Open Graph photo from the blog post. There are pros and cons to both methods. When I add blog posts, I add a large photo because they get more sharing and engagement on Google Plus. You may get more +1’s flowing through to the blog post if you let the photo embed automatically but in my experience, overall the post doesn’t do as well.
The next decision you have to make is who to share this photo with on Google+. I post all of my posts with the public setting and don’t share to circles or extended circles. You may accidentally annoy people by sharing posts with them that they don’t want to receive.
A great option is to create an opt-in notification circle for your blog content. When I post an article that I’ve written, I add some text at the bottom that says “people in my notification circle received a notification when this post was published, if you’d like to be added to this circle, please leave a comment below.” This allows interested people to ask to be in your notification circle and you can thank them in the comment to the post. Each time I post my own articles, I’ll share to public and my notification circle.
Try using this method of posting articles to Google+ and I think you’ll see that your posts will receive more engagement in the form of comments, +1’s, and shares. It may take a little more time than dropping a link but if you take the time to write a great piece of content you want to make sure that it will be seen and read by others, right?
