Google+ - Get Involved!

Savvy freelancers and contractors should get involved in Google+ and seize the opportunity to market your products and your services in new and creative ways. You have a chance to carve out a niche before competition gets on board and look for avenues of opportunity to move in with a sales pitch. A presence on Google+ may well land you future IT contract jobs!

The more you engage with Google+, the more you will get out of it. No one can doubt the impact that social media has had upon business in the twenty first century and Google+ won’t be one to buck the trend. Adapting to a new platform of communication can be daunting at times, but there are a few steps you can take to make the adjustment a bit easier.

Google+ is a great way for IT contractors to meet others from their sector, and a great opportunity for networking. You can search for people by name, company, interest, location or topic - a handy tool for the freelancer. Circles plays up the idea that the information you share is not suitable for everyone, and offers you the opportunity to share different things with different people; create online circles to mirror your real life social groups, no matter how niche.  Google+ allows you to create targeted circles, so you can keep tabs on the issues that matter most to you and your business.

What’s great about circles is that it isn’t public. Adding someone to a circle isn’t like adding them as a friend on Facebook; instead, it personalizes the stream of information you receive so it fits your interests. Once you have ‘circled’ everyone you know to a circle, start adding people you don’t to widen your network.

Google+ is all about sharing what matters with the people who will appreciate it most. When you deem something to be of interest, you can give it a +1, which offers a signal to the creator that their post was of value. The +1 tool is a great way to meet people who share similar interests to yourself or work within the same field, from which you may just learn something from.

At the moment, Google+ is mainly inhabited by those who work in IT, technology and media so IT consultants and contractors are advised to get involved! The greater your presence on Google+, the easier it is for others to discover you and your services, and more interaction. This can only be a good thing for business!