Hangouts are probably the most underused and misunderstood feature of Google+, and businesses who aren’t using them are missing out on a powerful opportunity to connect with customers, potential customers, colleagues, and even other experts in the same niche. If you can get comfortable with using Hangouts for marketing purposes, you can turn your company’s Google+ page into a very popular place, which in turn will be good for your Google ranking, as well.
You can use Hangouts in two ways: you can either have a multi-way video conference with up to nine other people, or you can broadcast one-way video to one of your Circles, allowing an unlimited number of people to see what you have to say. Although they cannot participate themselves, they can comment in real time on your Google+ page.
Although the idea of making yourself so personally available may seem intimidating, remember that face-to-face contact is a great way to get feedback from your customers and audience, and to find out what you are doing right, as well as what you could be doing better. In addition, customers appreciate transparency when it comes to dealing with businesses online. Trust is a big issue when conducting online transactions, so if your potential customers can see you and know that they can reach you and put a face and a voice to the name, this can help a lot with your online reputation.
In addition to just chatting with customers in Google+, you can also hold more formal Hangouts that read more like a presentation. For these you’ll want to prepare, either with a product presentation or some sort of multimedia content. The great thing about Hangouts is that they integrate easily with Google Docs and Sketchpad, so you can use all your Google tools to make the best impression.
You can also create Hangouts of an educational or general informative nature. For example, if you sell cookware on your site, you might have a monthly hangout where you share a recipe or even prepare a dish in the kitchen for your audience. If your business is information-based, you can create Hangouts where you share tips and tricks or even host a monthly question-and-answer session.
Have you used Google+ Hangouts in your business marketing yet? Can you think of some ways that you can help draw customers in with a Hangout?
