Targeting Influencers with Google+ Communities

Lauren Owens - January 8, 2013

Google recently added a very Facebook-like feature to its burgeoning social network – Google+ Communities. Almost immediately, small, intensely-focused communities starting sprouting up across the network. Because these communities are full of highly-engaged early adopters, there’s a huge opportunity to use them to connect with influencers in your niche.

The best way to go about this is to join the communities that are relevant to your field, and take an active role in them – creating community-specific content just as you would for your social media profile.

Posts that work best are those that take an active, sincere interest in what you’re audience has to say. You can poll your audience, asking advice based on their experience and perspectives, or propose hangouts and plan events with community members.

This can be especially useful as part of a larger campaign designed to build relationships with social media influencers in your niche.

But make sure not to come on too strong. Because these communities are relatively small, you want to make sure not to overwhelm the feed. The appearance of spamming will not only turn current members off to your brand, it will inhibit the growth of the community.

The best way to behave within Google+ Communities is how you would in real life, with earnest sincerity and interest for what your target audience has to say.