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Google Plussification - get plus happy.

Google are taking the word of mouth style recommendation influence on search results one step further by recently announcing their Search, plus Your World movement. It’s all about delivering personalised search results to you based on your Google+ world, and it has big implications for your content strategy. Australia doesn’t see it all just yet but Google plan to launch it internationally. I’d expect it to land pretty soon and anyone who publishes content on the web should be preparing for it right now. Google+ is Google’s own social network offering which is growing at an increasing rate with over 100 million users already, predicted to be 400 million by the end of the year.

So what does it mean for you?

• As a searcher. You can shape your search results based on your Google+ activity. You can follow and engage your favourite content publishers, build your network of respected friends and colleagues to lead you to the good stuff in a never ending sea of information.
• As a content marketer and publisher. It still means you should be putting good meaningful content out there, this will always be rule number 1. But it also means you should hop on board the latest social media train and plussify your content. You want to give your audience the ability to connect with you as easily as possible.

The +1 Button

• Be recommended. When a user clicks your +1 buttons they recommend your content to the world and their network of Google contacts.
• Be shared. The +1 button also gives the option to share the content recommendation in Google+ circles or publicly through your Google+ network.
• Be seen. It gives your content some cred and increases the likelihood of being seen and found.

How do I plussify?

We won’t get too geeky here, but at the end of the day it’s not hard to integrate Google+ and the +1 button into your website- your friendly web developer will plug it in for you without much problem. Your job will then be to keep pushing your updates to your Google+ page to keep the discussion going.

• Create your Google+ page. This is a little different to a personal Google+ profile page which is for a single person (your friends, staff and colleagues will likely have these already!). A Google+ page is for your business or entity to create their presence on the network. Essentially it’s another way for people to follow your content, so you should be publishing it here as a part of your overall social media strategy.
• Add a +1 badge. Add the badge to your website and content posts. This allows your visitors to seamlessly recommend your content to search and friends, as well as sharing it directly to their Google+ circles.
• Integrate Google+. Add your very own Google+ badge to your website. This allows your readers to view or add your Google+ page to their own circles to subscribe to your ongoing activity.