Creative ideas to invite G +1 button clicks
-
Hello,
What's some creative white hat ways to get people to click our G +1 button?
A competitor is offering a coupon in return but isn't that black hat?
What are some 100% white hat ways?
-
Bob,
My first question would be what are you trying to get +1's for? Is it for your domain, specific link or something else? We wanted to have more +1's for our site, so we added a +1 button on our homepage so people could +1 it on the fly. It worked out and we now have 41 +1's more than before.
Also, what we have found is that an incentive doesn't always work. It's a bell-shape-curve and after a while it will actually have a negative affect. I agree with Peter, sometimes all you need is great content but what I do strongly believe in is reminding people to do it. You could be on Yelp but if you don't tell people you are there and the fact that you appreciate their feedback, you won't get as many reviews. Same thing with +1's. Let people know you would appreciate the love, if they enjoy reading your content and they can decide if they want to +1 your link or not. If it is good content, it will work every time.
Add that button to the target, it works like a charm. If people see it, they will remember to do it.
I hope this helps.
Best,
Ashkan Sobhe -
Hi Bob
Is it black hat to encourage +1s in return for a voucher? These are Google's thoughts on what a +1 is for:
+1 is how you signal your appreciation for anything that grabs your attention on Google+ or on your favorite websites. When you read a post that makes you want to cheer, +1 is your applause; when you watch a video that has you in stitches, +1 is your laughter; when you see a photo that perfectly captures that special moment, +1 is your 5-star review.
I guess on that basis that technique is not exactly white hat but perhaps more grey hat!
To answer your question re white hat tips, it is producing anything that fits Google's definition of a +1. I remember 10 years or so now Seth Godin wrote a book called The Purple Cow. The story is that when you see a field of cows you might mention it as you drive past the cows are soon forgotten. But as you drove by if you saw in the middle there was stood a purple cow, you would stop your car, jump out take a photo or a video to tell your friends and the world about it (also via likes, tweets and +1s) because a purple cow is remark-able!
So I'm not sure there are any tips other than that. It's finding the purple cow in your business, in the products or services you sell, in the way you treat your customers or the great information you provide on your blog. If you do then people will want to "remark" about it and tell their friends and the world!
So I don't think there is any secret sauce. Just be remarkable!
I hope that helps,
Peter
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is there a Bug or other problem with Facebook Page 'invite friends' feature ?
Hi Im trying to use the invite friends feature on Facebook pages to send a page invite to some email contacts, as per #3 in this SME recent post of FB tips: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/five-lesser-known-facebook-page-features-for-marketers However whenever i click the 'invite friends' option the dialogue box swirls for a bit then disapears and nothing whatsoever happens, not just not being able to see invite email options but nothing at all happens, the loading box just disapears. Does anyone know if this is a current know issue bug or other way of doing this so it works ? (I have tried on 3 different pages) Many Thanks Dan
Social Media | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Important G+ News: Google to End Forced G+ Integration, Cut Resources. What Does Everyone Think?
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/04/report-google-to-end-forced-g-integration-drastically-cut-division-resources/ Assuming this article is accurate, I am glad this happened. I spent little time focusing on G+ because I truly felt there were better things to focus my time on. It was never well received by the public and SEO's (for the most part). I did not agree with its usability nor its philosophy. Its forced integration was annoying to say the least and I believe by forcing it down our throats, it turned many of us off. I hope that G+ will no longer have any impact on ranking in SERPs. I never dedicated much time to gaining more followers and I hope that was the right decision. What does everyone think about this?
Social Media | | jampaper0 -
Facebook experts, I need help: is this 'strategy' idea legit or nonsense?
Hi guys, I have a friend who works in a large university where each faculty has their own Facebook page. The pages are rarely maintained and experience very poor levels of engagement. The university's main Facebook page has a very large following (195,000+ likes), but again, the engagement is very poor - on average each post gets about 20 likes, 2 comments and 1-2 shares if that. Now, my friend works in one of the faculties and doesn't happen to have a Facebook page (his particular faculty is concentrating their efforts on other areas of inbound marketing). However, the social media manager for the university is insisting my friend’s faculty create a page and contribute to a wider ‘campaign’ being undertaken at the uni - however my friend is not convinced (and neither am I) that the logic behind this campaign makes sense. Here's how the campaign has been described: 1. The main university page (with 195k likes) posts a generic image ('whats happening this week at the uni'), which asks people to ‘look in the comments’ to see what's happening among all the different faculties 2. The faculty pages all at once submit comments on the post about 'what's happening' in their area 3. The faculty pages 'like' the main image post, share it, and like the other comments left by faculties The social media manager says this campaign approach will ensure the main post gets into the feed of the 195k followers (and more) and increase the reach of the other faculties’ pages because of the high level of 'engagement' and 'aggregation' on the post. My friend and I feel this idea is flawed for a number of reasons: 1. Routinely it’s the same people and faculties engaging with the post - so the vast majority of the 195k won't be reached virally anyway 2. The 195k have demonstrated they aren't engaged, due to the poor prior performance of the page – it’s unlikely the posts even make it to their feeds organically 3. The image is generic (it is literally a picture of a building which says 'what’s on this week') and doesn’t entice people to take an action - you can't see the comments as they're collapsed in the feed, so unless users actually are compelled by the image to click into the comments the post is useless 4. The message isn't targeted - a number of random faculties provide comments to the post, so it's very possible what's offered by the faculties isn't relevant to the wider audience. Anyway, I'd really hope someone with a deep understanding of Facebook could help provide some clarity on this campaign proposal. It seems like a flawed methodology which advocates manufacturing engagement and an ineffective use of time and resource. Many thanks
Social Media | | cos20300 -
Google +1 Personal vs Business
A client asked me an interesting question. How do you +1 as your business page and not your personal account. Is this possible to do considering they are under the same login?
Social Media | | Prager0 -
Google + 1
1. does anyone know if these have a huge seo impact and if it is worth the effort to get these. 2. if you had to choose only one to focus on would you pick fb, twitter, or +1.
Social Media | | shiftins0 -
Focus Facebook Likes and +1 to URL or Page?
We are considering adding the +1 and facebook like widget to the footer of all our pages, but we can't decide whether to point them to our URL or to our respective Google Plus / Facebook Page. Ideally, we would prefer poiting them to our pages instead of our site URL, but I'm not so sure if we would get as much SEO advantage that way. I was looking for feedback towards the SEO advantages / disadvantages of this at what strategy you guys use. For example: Having +1 our URL would be shown to their friends at the organic results. Having +1 our page would grow our profile, allowing us to communicate with them and would also enable people search +Duplika at Google (like it happens with big brands). What do you suggest?
Social Media | | Juanzo0 -
Google Plus for Website - Should the button be available on the homepage or just blog posts and other sticky content?
I am trying to understand if I should add the Google +1 button to my client's homepages in addition to "sticky" content. Any insight here would be greatly appreciated.
Social Media | | MattAaron0 -
Google +1 and Facebook
Is it possible to add a link to Google +1 on Facebook to encourage people to click it?
Social Media | | PMC-3120870