A past social media coaching client, Patrick Van Nice Interiors, has dove into Google+ with gusto. He’s shared with me a way to cross post Google+ posts to a WordPress blog using a plugin.
Google+ is Google’s social network. With approximately 45 million users (compared with Facebook’s 800 million active users), the 
network recently launched brand pages for business (similar to Facebook Fan Pages).
The reason people are excited about Google+ brand pages is that Google will index these sites higher than others on its search engine and we all know how important it is to appear at the top of page one on search results, right? Another reason is that it renders photos and videos larger than Facebook – Google+ doesn’t have their right sidebar full of ads and recommendations…yet.
Here are point-by-point instructions on how to install the WordPress plugin which will allow cross posting of Google+ posts to your WordPress blog. This plugin will really allow your blog readers who aren’t on Google+ yet access to your content via your blog. Here are a few pros/cons from Patrick:
Pros:
- Comments that appear on your Google+ post should automatically appear on your WordPress blog post
- You can import the posts as published, pending, future or private.
- The WordPress plugin will automatically pull in your most 10 most recent Google+ posts.
Cons:
- If you want to categorize your post, you need to go into your WordPress blog post and manually add them. Minor issue.
- The title of your WordPress blog is automatically generated by the first line in your Google+ post
- You need to edit your WordPress post by editing your original Google+ Post. The WordPress plugin checks your Google+ page at certain intervals (which you can set) and will override your WordPress edits if you make them there.
- Very little support from the developer if you have problems.
Take a look at Patrick’s set up and let me know what you think. Is this something you could incorporate into your social media strategy? Here’s Patrick’s Google+ brand page and a link to his WordPress blog.
