How are you using Google+?

[#1]

Being someone slow with computers, I'm just now finding G+ and set up an account.

In less than a week, I've got 10 followers and 3000 views. While I've been careful to include a link to my etsy page, there hasn't been a big uptick in my stats on etsy.

I've joined 18 communities that somehow tie into the blacksmithing that I do. Interior design, recycling, preppers, DIYers, and even Steampunk communities seem to be doing well over there, but is there more I can do?

What am I missing? What have you found works?

[BlueStockinette]

lmao...yep I used to do that until my hubby made me promise to not argue w/our mutual friends-so now I just (try) to keep my big yap shut :-X

[Former_Member]

Google+ puzzles me so I work at it off and on.

Vaughn are you referring to your personal G+ or biz G+ page. I have both but found that I couldn't make my biz G+ the default, then I had to add to my circle the same people to the biz page. Thanks for the tip on the settings, I'm going to take another look at it.

Anyway, I hadn't updated or even looked at either of my g+ pages for over a month. I was surprised to see the view number for the biz page and so I'm now going to get back to keeping it updated. My focus is to promote my brand and my own new commerce website. I'm finally learning that I need to be much more selective in which social network platforms toI use.

[ThreeRiversForge]

Annsliee, I'm pretty sure I have a business page, though I could be wrong. Feel free to look me up (three rivers forge) and tell me what you see. I'm a luddite, admittedly, and computers confound me.

I don't know if you can switch the priority between personal and business, especially if they use the same user name, password and everything else. It looks to me like whichever was started first gets top billing.

You might be better off changing the name of your business page to something like "Ansliee P&C" to differentiate them and tell the potential customer what you do.

Also make sure that your photos are open to the public. I just checked out your G+ pages and am not allowed to see your work because you haven't shared them with me. If they're public, customers can see examples.


The good news???

You have a personal page under your given name and neither of your store pages have so many followers or views that you would feel it if you just canceled one or the other. This would streamline what you have to deal with, and you would more than make up the views and followers if you just get active on a dozen of the various communities.

As of today, I am over 113,000 views.

I'm in 25 communities, but I only ever post to them maybe once a week. Even the etsy-only sites only get one post a week, or so, to keep my name at the top of the screen. It doesn't take much to show that you're there and involved, invested in the community.

Oh, and think about opening a shop over on Bonanza. I just opened mine last night. The fees are cheaper than on etsy, which I really like!

http://www.bonanza.com/booths/three_rivers_forge

[Former_Member]

Thanks Vaughn, I did look at your g+ page, it looks great! I like your upbeat tone and photos. Started following you. I haven't listed photos but I will start asap! Maybe that's why you didn't see anything. I did join one community the other day and will look more into it to become more active.

I had already had the personal g+ page & later read about the biz page. With the biz page, you can set up a short url address. For example, mine is google.com/+Annsliee. You can tell if your page is the biz by clicking on that left hand bar. The top option will say "My Business Page." That's your dashboard and you can view your analytics info there. (My understanding is that you can't change your personal page as your default. I just keep getting confused between viewing as myself or what the public sees but I'll keep working at it.)

I have tried a long list of ecommerce sites, including Bonanza. For a variety of reasons, dropped them and changed. I'm finally happy with Shopify which I just transitioned to about 3 weeks ago. All of my marketing efforts now are focused on that site. And so am now in the process of backtracking and updating wherever I have my blog or etsy references. More and more I'm beginning to see the harm in branding as etsy-annsliee vs annsliee. But that's another story.

[MoonlightnWaterfalls]

I am very pleased with the responses on G+ even though I have not had any sales from it yet. I guess that takes time, but I am getting tons more views as a result. I was reading the reply in this thread about a business page, so I am going to work on that next. I am so glad I joined this team. Thanks everyone.

[ThreeRiversForge]

Raye Ellen, so glad to hear that you're doing well with the G+. I've gotten a ton of positive feedback on that site, but it hasn't translated to much traffic on etsy or any sales. Still, I love the kind words and getting my work seen by tons of people. You never know when one of the viewers will turn into a buyer!

Annsilee, I must have a "business" page because my menu starts with "MBP" as you mentioned. I checked out that Shopify site and it looks very good. If it wasn't for the monthly charge, I'd open a shop over there.

I'm heading out to the forge to get more stuff made so I can list it all over. Here's to high sales for all of us!!

[UniqueChiqueJewelry]

I just set up my account (at least I hope I did) and I have to say, my head is spinning:) I hope I did everything right. The only problem I seem to have, is to verify my website. I did click on the link and I went to my Etsy shop, so it might be working after all:)
Now I just try to understand how this site works, and hopefully, I will get some views or sales!!

[UniqueChiqueJewelry]

How long does it take for the website to be verified?

I also don't know if I have a business page or not. I have one page under my name, and one with my Etsy shop name. So far I have 1005 views in 3 days, not too bad. But I noticed, I always have to add the link to the item I posted, otherwise only the picture shows up. But I am still new there and try to figure things out:)

[ThreeRiversForge]

You'll always have to add the link if you want to connect an esty listing to your G+ page.

As far as I can tell, if you have two pages, one under your personal name and one under the business name, that's two separate pages and there's no way to connect them other than putting the address in the other page's "website" area where you can link anything.

The key to getting views and followers is to participate in the communities. Remember, your view-count includes all of the stuff you post outside of your page. It's quite literally a count of all the views you've received.

I'm up to 181,000 views and 107 followers. I think I have about 10 people in my circles and usually spend about a half an hour every day just going through the various groups and "+1" a lot of photos and listings to show people I'm still there. They get notified every time you "+1" their post and this will make them feel good and/or get curious. You never know who's going buy, so the more folks see you being active, the better.

There's a Google Small Business Community that's really top notch for answering a lot of these questions. They've been around a long time and have gobs of stuff to read through. Very fun site!

https://plus.google.com/b/102358017089267789244/communities/109232418125793730353

[UniqueChiqueJewelry]

Thank you Vaughn:)