My Google+ page has been viewed more than 31,000 times, yet none of the viewers has contacted me! What else do I need to do?
My Google + page at https://plus.google.com/b/101134914564497932798/+Garykrupacpa has received a lot of attention according to the number of viewers. What are the best things I can do to encourage those viewers to contact me and become clients? For example, should I change the content, or add new content regularly? Should I highlight a specialty, like cloud accounting services? Or is it just a matter of time until people visit the page more often? I think the page is attractive, albeit a little hard to navigate.
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Jul 22, 2016
You got some good advise below. I certainly do not agree with some of it. I have been helping clients generate more leads than they can handle for more years than I like to say. In 98% of businesses, the problem is always their messaging and that they have not differentiated themselves from their competitors with a strategic message and thus the client has nothing to base their decision on but price. I offer a 4 video series of free education that I know will substantially help you increase your business because it has helped hundreds if not thousands of business do the same. Just register and you will receive 4 pure educational videos (no pitch) that will certainly put you on the right track. We also offer a weekly webinar on a different marketing skil-lset each week, with a Q&A the next day for our members. After you watch the 4 videos, contact me and I will give you a free months access to that series so you can experience the value of these weekly webinars. I will also send you a report "The three biggest lead generation mistakes most businesses make..... and how to overcome them all
Jul 22, 2016
It's a long way from social media to conversion, and I would track every step of the way to see where the problem is. So the first step would be to set up conversions on Google Analytics for your site to monitor the traffic from G+ to whatever conversion. If you're not getting traffic to your site, that means you need to fix your G+ presence. Then, check the quality of that traffic (bounce, session length, pages viewed) and if it's converting, and a conversion could be as simple as hitting a contact button. I imagine your results won't be great -- to be honest -- since your website is pretty horrible. But at least you'll get a baseline before you get into fixing your site. That's where I would start.
Jul 22, 2016
I'll just share a few ideas with you, but before I do that, here's something you need to know about social media... most of the time metrics such as "views", "reach", "impressions" do not always count for anything. What matters is the action they take, which is what you're looking for.
So, here are a few ideas...
- Keep your Google+ page active. Your last post was in 2014 (I'm only saying this because your question revolved around G+. In all honesty, I don't see it as a viable platform to build your business. Maybe it could help with SEO if you are sharing content there from your website, but that's about it.
- Give yourself a new title; Accountant is too generic (even though that's what you are). Something that highlight's what you solve, e.g. "The Numbers Doctor"?
- You'll need to differentiate yourself. If you are saying what every other accountant is saying, then it'll be hard to really stand out
- Don't use G+ or any other social media platform as your primary base for business; use them as channels to build authority, awareness, and attraction; which leads to the next thing...
- Upgrade your website: if you want to stand out and attract clients on the web, your digital presence needs to be crisp. What you have now won't cut it
- Create value based content and share on your social media channels; e.g. "5 ways to pay less tax as a small business" (this is just an idea, you know much more and what to share). This will help you build an audience
- Create lead magnets and sales funnels in order to generate leads and drive sales online. You can consider setting aside some budget to run ads, sending people to access your lead magnet in exchange for their names and email addresses (you can ask for numbers as well if you want). When you start building your list, you're better positioned to acquire business clients down the line
- As time goes on, you might consider creating an info product to market to those within your network (e.g. ebook, book, or tutorials)
The more you find out the pain points people have and then address them, the more you're likely to attract prospects, who may eventually become clients.
I hope this helps!
Jul 22, 2016
Hello Gary the Google page is great, probably one or two more testimony videos, and what you want to keep in mind is not to many people do business through those channels which is most likely the presume the wrong impression, that person can not afford a website, and i am making this statement in a non offensive way, But because I am businessman and specialize in Marketing. Google Page has not hit the industry as a way of consumers searching for services or products right at this point. Even i you had a Standalone webpage you , confirm what I am saying right off the bat.
Jul 22, 2016
Social media is just that, social. There are no rules or procedures that force anyone to do anything specific. The only thing that I know works is positive and frequent posts.
Jul 21, 2016
Hi Gary, I just visited your website, your google+, and mosaic profile, and let me tell you, if you are concerned about content, how to connect with people, how to let them to know you better and polish that multifaceted personality I noticed you have, just by reading and working on the keywords you provided in your profile will help tremendously.
You can share experiences, part case studies, meaningful quotes, and start a QA page one day of the month, week or so. Based on those words that you mentioned, for example, "mergers", "strategic planning", "budgets", "accounting computer technology", just to name a few, you have tremendous topics you can cover and share knowledge about with different target audience: Corporation, start ups, mom/pop store owners, home business entrepreneurs, etc.
Another way that can help and won't hurt trying is giving value to the community around you. How many small business need support creating and understanding their own budgets? how many nonprofits are having hard time with their grant writing? How many entrepreneurs working with friends and close family lack the experience of creating and implementing internal control? Lots of them! and you know it. The difference in your marketing is getting to know, and plan, how are you going to address those potentials. Most of them don't even go online on social media to talk with an account, or consultant. We rarely see that happening directly. Your best way is to come up with strategies to invite them to get more knowledge that will boost their businesses and management in exchange for them to know you better. Your ample audience require different strategies and solutions, of course. And the way you talk to them is totally different, you have to know them to learn their business language. You need to hear their concerns to polish an effective solution. You show yourself as a supporter and a person that is right there when they need you. And something that has always worked for me, in all my different facets, is remembering we are persons, human, with feelings and interest, knowing this helps a lot when recognizing when someone is a potential for a relation and for business. When we don't like someone, we hardly do business with them, if any. That is why is important for people to find some sort of connection with us.
Why don't you try partnering with someone with good skills at communicating and coming up with marketing plans in exchange of your support with numbers in his/her business? That could also help. Well managed, it is a win win relationship.
Bring small events in your area, focus an hour a week to support business owners in it. Create a program that will consist in 1-to-1 half an hour free consultation in a specific topic for business owners, in exchange of testimonials, reviews, etc. Most people appreciate this approach and will be glad supporting you many other ways.
There are so many things you can do, but you need to know your skills, real main interest, priorities, and even time commitment, and as the talk said, create your own strategic alliances.
Success to you.
Jul 21, 2016
I guess I would ask you if there is any benefit to contacting you? There has to be some sort of hook other than simply accounting services. You appear to only have 9 followers and I would encourage you to get more people...namely at least your clients to follow you. But, I do not know anyone that uses Google+...so that might also be an issue.
I think accountants are a dime a dozen...and I do not think there is anything on your page that would set you apart from the rest. What do you do better than any other accounting firm? I think that people want facetime with their accountants and you have to search to even find out where you are located.
Why should someone contact you?
Just my thoughts after look at your page.
Good luck to you!
Jul 21, 2016
There isn't anything current on this page - the posts that I saw were 2014 and 2010 - since you aren't updating and sharing - getting to know your Google Network my very first thing that I would assume (which I did) is that you aren't active in business -
Just because you have the views doesn't mean anything. There isn't any great tips listed - there isn't any interaction with anyone else, there isn't any way that I really know anything about you.
What people need to keep in mind - they have to be active on their social networks - why would I call you when you aren't active? I don't know anything else about you.
A few tidbits to help you out:
1. Update this page - enter all of your links - your information - do a profile and update it - make sure your profile is consistent all across the board
2. Download the Google + app to your phone - when you are out and about - at a training seminar or workshop take a picture and share with your Google + networks
3. Let people in a bit - what I mean by this - if you are a dog lover, walk your dog, or hike, or fish - I am not saying that you have to be real personal but you have to have a way for people to connect with you - If there are pictures of you and your dog on the site - I am going to know that you and I have something in common
4. Learn what links to where - If you have a blog and you have a WordPress Blog - you can install Nextscripts - a great 3rd party app that will sync and link your blog posts to the social networks you want - Google + is one of them, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I think you are getting the picture - Why do I say this? So you can kill two birds with one stone (so to speak) you have some great info you want to share - well, if you do it in a blog post - that post will then go out and post to all the social networks that you have set up - helps to build those networks up without you having to be on them all all of the time
You need to be active - you need to show value - you need to show your personality, your expertise - I am not saying to give away the bank - but you need to be sharing. If you are a family man - you need to be on the networks where other families are. If you are single but are very active in your community - you need to be where those people are. Yes, you do need to be on the main social networks - but figure out who your target audience is then go searching for the social networks where they are residing. You need to join those networks -
One last bit of advice - you are not there to sell - it won't work. You are there to get to know others - to get them to know about you - to have people learn that you are a good guy, upstanding - honest - hard worker and you really do care about other people's financials - you are going to give it your very best
Jul 20, 2016
Hello Gary.
While you do offer a specific service you need to reach out to your audience so they can reach out to you. Give them something worth getting. Everyone needs help with better financial planning, tax filing, and accounting. I suggest you do what folks are doing here MosaicHub, answer questions and give tips according to your expertise. Sign up to about 5 similar discussion boards, Q&A's and article syndication networks and use these channels to created content that can be partially posted to your weekly blog.
Topics: Use the questions on MosaicHub to determine topics worthy of addressing. Discuss matters that the average joe knows nothing or little about that will help them better manage their financial affairs. Give tax, accounting and file organization tips. Write about the positive experiences of your clients and help individuals learn from the less positive ones.
Regarding blogging and writing syndicated news articles, target families entering a new life transition, including the following:
1. Newlyweds
2. Newly engaged
3. First -time parents
4. Children entering college
5. Students graduating
6. Those starting a business.
Center your articles around these new life changes and help them think in terms of better financial planning, personal life changes as well as good time and money management issues. Once you've built up a following on Google, Twitter and Facebook send out personal messages to your followers such as congrats to newlyweds, newly engaged, first -time parents, children entering college, students graduating and those starting a business. Leave one tip or one wise quote regarding self-improvement with contact info in your signature line.
Post snippets and links to your blog posts and news articles on your Google Plus, Facebook and twitter pages as well as on your website.
"The More You Give The More You'll Get"
Message tip: Make people feel respected and highly regarded. freely commend others for their effort, be very polite, honorable, and considerate and always say thank you when appropriate.
Article writing tip: Be enthusiastic, factual, pleasantly funny and ridiculously honest about yourself.
Be the expert, counselor, sage and purveyor of better things to come. In time folks will literally be knocking down your door for help.
Jul 20, 2016
Hello Mark, Thanks for giving generously of your time to help me out. I especially liked what you said about making people feel respected and highly regarded, about being polite, honorable and considerate. Doing that goes a long way towards building a community, that I firmly believe in. Your advice regarding ways of appealing to individual clients is sound. It's very much needed nowadays considering how much in need of useful financial information people are. I made some progress in giving advice by answering a MosaicHub member's inquiry about cloud accounting software recently.
However, my focus is on finding business clients. I understand that individuals can become business clients. If they do it typically takes a long time and there's no assurance they'll become big enough to pay higher fees. Targeting established businesses at the outset will help me do that. Yet I won't rule out targeting individuals as clients. It can only lead in a positive direction.
Jul 20, 2016
May i recommend you focus on your web site,... then share it. Add strong call to actions within your content. Add and share this one to your list of social media accounts. http://trckrs.com/AndreaScafidi/
Jul 20, 2016
Hi Andrea, Thanks very much for your sound advice. I'll do as you suggested. Regarding your social media account, can you provide any examples of ways people have earned money using this approach, with amounts earned and amount of time invested? I have more to do than I have time for these days, so I have to do due diligence on any new project.
Jul 20, 2016
Push a call to action on any marketing platform. Tell people to call you or email you and you'll see better results. Most of the time people need to be told what to do in order to encourage them to act. I noticed you really don't have much of a call to action but you do have everything else necessary to start growing. BTW SEO takes a while for your data to be rated and ranked - However first double check and make sure your meta tags are relevant by using google keyword planner. If no one is searching for your meta tags then you probably won't get very good results, unless it's a niche set of meta keywords.
Jul 20, 2016
Hello Craig, Thanks for your good suggestions. Concerning the call to action, would it be best to give some incentive for calling and e-mailing, something like "Contact me for timely information highly relevant to your business needs? You're sure to find it interesting." ? A motto - would that help bring traffic? ex. "Financial serenity - now". Re: SEO. I'm looking into using a ranking site like http://phponly.com/keyword.php. I used this before but it doesn't work this time. I've used Google Adwords before but found it rather expensive; would Google Keyword Planner be enough?
Jul 20, 2016
Google+ is a waste of time.
Google might be getting rid of it again, as nobody uses it.
Concentrate on getting your website optimised and adding relevant content.
Jul 20, 2016
I understand your view, Google PLus isn't always as active as Facebook, however I'd say never discount a social channel, especially when its branded with Google! Updates and links coming fro Google Plus help with SEO and your website optimisation. It's also very open and you can follow,connect, message and share content with key people in your own industry as well as target customers. It's all about how you use it alongside your other social channels. I really hope they don't get rid of it, the link with YouTube is key I think. If internet TV's become widespread in 5-10 years, Google Plus could run as part of the OS, meaning people would suddenly become very active from the comfort of their own living room - let's wait and see! :)
Jul 20, 2016
Thanks for your good advice about focusing on my website and adding relevant content. However, I'm puzzled by what you said about Google Plus. If nobody uses it, why did 31,000 people view my page on it? I still don't understand why that many people looked at it without taking action, unless, as Craig Jetsetter suggested below, they didn't take action because I didn't direct them to.
Jul 21, 2016
I agree with Robert, even though I personally find google+ a waste of time for most of my purposes using social media... however, it is well ranked, it is a google product taken into account for SMO and SEO, in where they may pivot this product for something unexpected or finally bury it. Let it google decide, in the meantime, having a profile with them, even though you may not update it frequently, support authority content and tracking history that serve well with your connected website.
Jul 19, 2016
Just make sure the content on your page is clear . And like you said if it's a little hard to navigate users will lose interest
Jul 19, 2016
Hi Karl,
Thanks for your comments. The content on the page seems clear, but the "About" section is more of a mission statement than a statement of what specific services are offered. I may need to fill out the page with more information. Or perhaps my time would be better spent on other marketing approaches online, like blogs, Facebook and Twitter, as Ali Zartash-Lloyd suggested? Anyway, the difficulty in navigation I had with Google + had more to do with my learning where the site features are on Google, than on the page content being difficult to find.
Jul 19, 2016
You made some good suggestions right there for yourself, really giving your audience an idea of the services you offer , will give them the unction to contact you.
I recommend you use WordPress to create yourself a free website. And use Facebook pages and your Google plus to advertise your content.
Jul 19, 2016
Hi Gary
Google+ is a social media just like Twitter and Facebook (but a little less successful!). It is an unlikely place to generate revenue and leads for business.
If you are after generating business via the Internet here are your best places to look in order of importance:
1. Website – If you don't have one, we will happy to give you a quotation :-)
2. Blog – Really should part of your website and you should write about subjects that you know about and people are interested in
3. Google My Business – Used to be called “Google Places”
4. Facebook – Promote your blogs, website, services, etc.
5. LinkedIn - Promote your blogs, website, services, etc.
6. Article Syndications – Lots of site available and some are very specialists so pick carefully.
7. Twitter- Promote your blogs, website, services, etc.
Google + is not the place to generate business but think of it as more of a niche forum come social media. Not Google's most glorious moment!
I hope this helps
Jul 19, 2016
Hi Ali,
Wow! You answered that question fast. You must have copied and pasted your answer - I don't see how you could've typed it all that quickly.
Thanks for the helpful tips. I already have a website. I can use help with SEO. I added relevant meta-tags to my web page headers. After my first website was created I used a certain website to help improve Search Engine rankings, but I can't remember what it was. My last SEO Consultant set it all up for me.
It looks as though I'm already on Google Business. It showed up when I looked under Google Plus.
Jul 19, 2016
HI Gary. Thanks for your comments. No copying, I can assure you. If you are doing other things such as selecting the right Keywords, SEO, Blogging, etc. then you should be getting leads from these sources. If not, then you need to revisit them. The take away from my comment is do not expect leads from Google+, or Twitter for that matter, unless you are of specific type of business.
A enticing Call to Action tied to a landing page for quick sign-up. Offer them something worth investing their email address in exchange for something of true value.