Most real estate agents focus a lot on Facebook, but Google+ carries SEO weight that cannot be ignored. It is a great way to achieve those awesome website rankings that you dream about. For real estate agents it is more than just a social network, it is a powerful networking tool where you can build a strong online community that will help get you branded and ultimately be a hub for referrals and new clients. If you need a little more convincing then consider reading Why Google+ is an Inevitable Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy as well as Get Over Yourself and Get On Google+.
To get you started, check out this excellent infographic that is literally chock full of strategies for utilizing all that Google+ has to offer. Continue reading after the infographic for a breakdown of the most important steps to focus on.
![64 Google+ Content Strategies [Infographic]](http://netdna.copyblogger.com/images/google-plus-content-strategies.jpg "64 Google+ Content Strategies [Infographic]")
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(This infographic was originally published on Copyblogger.com as part of an article titled “64 Google+ Content Strategies” by Maria Peagle.)
Now, before you get overwhelmed, let’s break it down a little bit and pull the most essential things that you can learn from each specific heading.
Account (steps 1-8): Focus on steps 5 and 6, linking your Google+ account to your blog and other social media accounts. This will allow Google to recognize your blog content and display your picture next to your blog posts when they come up in Google search results. Here is a tutorial that teaches you how to create your own Google authorship account.
Local (steps 9-16): Enter your key business information and add a photo so that people can contact you easily, find your office, and leave raving reviews.
Circles (steps 17-24): A “circle” is basically a certain group of people that you interact with, for example, your family and friends, business associates, clients, etc. This area has the potential to draw people to your blog posts and help you create a network of connections. Once you start creating your own circles and sending posts to them, people will start adding you to their circles, which will allow them to see your posts higher in Google search results.
Hangouts (steps 25-32): “Hangouts” is just code for “live online video chats” where potential clients can see you doing what you do best. You can use Hangouts to host real estate webinars, tour homes, or show off your real estate area. When you do a Hangout on Air, your recording will be streaming on Google+ and YouTube at the same time, and then you will be emailed a recording that you can upload to YouTube and link to your blog.
Dashboard (steps 33-40): Focus on step 36 about Ripples, a Google+ feature that enables you to identify your allies. It literally shows you which people are sharing public posts and how many people they share them with. Why do you care? If you can find the people who share with the biggest audience, you can add them to your Google+ Circles and allow them to spread the news of your posts for you.
Social Search (steps 41-48): This area covers ways to boost your website in the Google search engines. One of the newest features of Google+ is Direct Connect, which is only available on a limited basis to people with a large Google+ following, but it gives you something to aim for. The benefits of Direct Connect are that it allows people to add you to their Google+ Circle directly from Google search results.
Blogging (steps 49-56): These steps reiterate the importance of linking every new blog post to Google+ and then making it public. You can also use Google+ as a “secondary blog” or a place to post a real estate tutorial or how-to and then link it back to your blog for “more information.”
Posts (steps 57-67): The main thing to focus on here is your ability to use hashtags at the end of your posts. Hashtags allow your posts to come up at the top of Google search and go hand in hand with SEO keywords and phrases. You can also tag people on Google+, for example, let’s say you host an open house and then write a blog post about it. You can then tag people that you met at the open house in your post to draw their attention to your online presence.
I know that this is a lot of information to swallow at one time, so just take it step by step and before you know it you will be networking on Google+ like a pro.