Yifat Cohen knows as much about Google+ as anyone. As one of 100 beta testers of the new social media site, Yifat has been involved from the start. “I sucked at Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn,” she says. “I had no success and nothing happened. But in Google+ I found I started meeting people and we connected right away. We have something in common so we started building relationships.” Because of the hangouts feature, Yifat was able to form better connections using Google+ than she had on other social networking sites and she set out to help other people do the same and effectively leverage this new medium for forming personal and business connections.

Effective marketing on Google+ only works if you present yourself authentically and personably, just like on any other social media site. “Come in, not as a business, but as a person,” Yifat says. “Engage with people as a useful user. If you are selling underwater basket weaving, there are probably 10 people out there who care about your topic passionately, so if you connect with them, they will go out and talk about you.” Additionally, word-of-mouth marketing is so effective on Google+ because of its tie-in to Google; when someone tells you about something, your first response is usually to search for it on Google. By having an active Google+ account, you and your business can be that much closer to the people searching for the services you provide.

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