One of the hallmarks of Google+ is that you’re actually sharing information with fewer people. The social media tool allows you to place contacts into separate groups called Circles, so users can keep their work colleagues in one group, personal contacts in another group, and so on. Before this segmented approach was available under Google+, we had two choices: Create multiple accounts (all of which need unique content and take time to sign in and out of), or send the same message out through one central account and risk only being relevant to a small percentage of your audience. As part of our three-part series on Google+, we’ll look at how the social media tool can help you target your marketing more effectively.

Vertical targeting: Wouldn’t it be great if every tweet or post was directly relevant to every reader? Google+ will bring us a lot closer to that, since you can create different Circles and place contacts in various groups as you please.

Consider a company that has prospects in every stage of the sales pipeline. Google+ will allow you post pieces introducing your work and trade show invitations to prospects, while targeting incentives to current customers to work with you once again or to refer new business to you.  The ways you can sort your clients and prospects are endless, including location, company size, value of the sale, how much of a priority the target audience is and even the age of the decision-maker.

This isn’t to say that transmission services and segmented Google+ Circles are mutually exclusive. While e-blasting services also allow you to send information to specific verticals – and, unlike Google+, will provide you with analytics – Google+ offers a free supplementary outlet for targeted marketing. What’s more, it’s entirely possible that people are more willing to link with you on a trendy new social media outlet than to sign up for your e-newsletter. Simply put, marketers can use Google+ as a tool to increase the number of people who view their e-communications pieces and opt in to receive more of them in the future.
Remember that not every social media outlet is for every company. Some B2B companies offering five products total don’t need to segment their customer base any further. But for those that could benefit from segmentation, Google+ offers a powerful new way to accomplish that goal.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s entry – Google+ as a cloud-workflow tool.