Once you claim your Google Plus Authorship and start seeing some of the results it can generate, you may decide that you want to get even more serious about content marketing. If that’s the case, there are actually quite a few ways that you can use the Google Plus platform to make your content marketing efforts even more effective. When you share a post through Google Plus, the first tip for increasing the number of people who notice it is to add some formatting in the form of bold, italic or even strike-through text. This will help grab people’s attention and lead to them checking out the post for themselves.

The second tip that can take your Google Plus content marketing to the next level is to take time to find a great image to include with each post you share. Even though Google Plus isn’t quite as visually driven as Pinterest, including a really catchy image with a post you share can help it stand out and ultimately attract more clicks.

The next way to get more mileage out of your content is to prompt users with personalized opportunities to engage. For example, instead of just sharing a post and then asking people who see it what they think, ask a specific question about that post. Although this tip is really just a small tweak, it can significantly boost the amount of engagement that your posts create. Another example of boosting engagement through personalization is to share an image and then ask people to come up with a clever or funny caption for it.

Speaking of small tweaks, another seemingly minor but potentially powerful change is to add a better cover photo to your Google Plus profile. While some people dislike the fact that cover photos are 2120 pixels wide by 1192 pixels high, this actually provides a really great opportunity to create something that’s very visually stunning.

While many people associate hashtags with Twitter, they’re also a powerful tool that you can use on Google Plus. In general, the best way to utilize Google Plus hashtags is to identify which ones are relevant and popular, and then find creative ways to use them for the content that you already share.

Finally, even though they may seem like a big investment of time, it’s worth exploring Google Plus communities and hangouts. Since these features can seem like a big jump at first, don’t feel pressured to create or host your own. Instead, get a feel for how both work by participating in others. Then when the time seems right, you can take the next step of creating your own community or hosting a hangout. Find one Google Plus community that’s relevant to your business, join it and contribute a piece of valuable content from a source other than your own blog.

Could your company benefit from a better social media marketing strategy? Web Strategy Plus offers a free quote or consultation to help you identify the areas of your marketing plan that need improvement. Learn More