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Solve your Google+ problem in just 15 minutes.
Google+ is pretty much dead. I’m going to argue that. I wrote years ago about how Google+ was probably superior to Facebook at the time…and that it didn’t matter. It turns out that I was right in that respect. That doesn’t mean that Google+ can’t serve a purpose for you though. The trick is making sure that it takes exactly zero hours per week to manage. While I’m not much for automation across platforms, I don’t have a problem in this particular case. Everything done here is done with specific criteria and this is content seeding, nothing more.
Step 1: Sign up for Buffer
This one is easy enough. I don’t use Buffer for my regular content scheduling. While their blog is amazing, I’m not a personal advocate of using them for your main content scheduling. It’s not that they aren’t good, I just have a personal preference elsewhere. That being said, they are perfect for this exercise as they have the two things that we need here: integrations to both IFTTT and Google+.
After you sign up for Buffer, add a singular network to your Buffer account, the Google+ page of the business that you’re managing.
Step 2: Sign up for IFTTT
The next step is to sign up for an IFTTT account. While I’m usually a Zapier man, IFTTT is better suited for this simple function as it has two applets that are perfect for this particular exercise. You’re going to want to set up some basic criteria. For now, you’re going to want to sign up for IFTTT with your work email and then attach the following accounts:
- Buffer Account
- Brand Instagram Page
- Brand Facebook Page
Step 3: Set up Criteria
You’re going to want to pull from two sources to create two types of Google+ posts. As I’m sure you already deduced, these are your brand Instagram and Facebook profiles/pages. Here’s which you choose.
Set up two applets for Instagram. Create new Buffer photo posts based on Instagram posts with specific hashtags. (Only use these on business-specific posts. Remember where these will be showing up.) Create a new Buffer Photo post based on Instagram posts with the location of your specific business. This ensures that your potential location photos are as beautiful as your Instagram feed.
The second (technically third) applet that you’ll set up is one for links that you share on Facebook. We do this because we want to seed the content that we share on Facebook for possible discovery and sharing. When it comes to our blog, we’re looking for a possible bump in SEO relevancy. We only use Facebook for links because you SHOULD NOT be adding hashtags on Facebook. You should have hashtags on Google+. That’s why posts from Instagram are much better for this.
Pro tip*: Do set up the links to be shared with 2-3 discovery hashtags when posted to Google+. This is another reason why I prefer automation over dual-posting.
Step 4: Set and Forget
That’s all that there is to it. It really is that simple. You now have a fairly solid Google+ strategy set up in less time than it took me to write this article for you. Go forth and enjoy the time that you just regained in your life.
