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Google+ has been heralded as the intelligent social network, bridging the gap between Facebook and LinkedIn for brands to maximise their Return On Influence, whilst intuitively communicating with followers.

With over 40 million users already signed up, compared to Zuckenberg’s 800 million, in Google+ Improvements for Brand Pages: What are they? What do they mean for your business?, we explored how Google+ is attempting to entice brands away from Facebook.

Nikesh Arora, Google’s chief business officer, said he didn’t see Google+ as social network however:

“It is a platform which allows us to bring social elements into all the services and products that we offer. We are trying to make sure we use social signals across all of our products… It’s not just about getting people together on one site and calling it a social network.”

Good point Mr Arora, but how exactly do you build Google+ into your social media strategy? We run through some key points to consider before diving straight in:

Claim your page, but know why:

Ensure you know why and even if your resources are best spent on Google+, as opposed to alternative networks. Stake a claim to secure your business’s brand name and then get familiar with the platform before becoming inventive. Some brands may find it more beneficial to promote their services on Facebook or Twitter for example, due to the types of customers already using that particular network.

Google+ is rife with its own targeted demographic of early adopters and tech-savvy bloggers, start-ups, entrepreneurs and marketers – if this fits the philosophies of your brands, great; if not then confirm the reason why you’re creating a page to avoid wasting time and resources creating content to be left unread and unappreciated.

Combat digital waste and get consumers to truly engage:

A recent Digital Life survey found that Britons believe brands are polluting social networks with ‘digital waste’ – irrelevant or spammy content that clogs up users’ news feeds and brand profiles, of no real value to the user.

TNS’s survey is based on the views of 72,000 people in 60 countries, and found that globally half of all businesses’ efforts are wasted. In the UK, 61 per cent said they did not “do not want to engage with brands via social media”.

Just a third of Britons comment on brands online, compared to 74 per cent of Chinese. Google+’s introduction of brand pages may be just the answer to revert this opinion by pinpointing content that has been effective and successfully spread across networks.

Get closer to your consumers:

Google+’s four pronged areas: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and Huddles are customisable features that can be used inline with what suits the brand.

The Muppets, Dell and The New York Times  have recently used Hangouts to directly interact with their audience via video or Q&A sessions. About as close a connection you can make with people when online, Hangouts will be ideal for some businesses to offer feedback and build deep connections.

Check out the Muppets hangout in full:

Track key influencers for your brand:

Due to the wealth of Google’s other tools and products, Google+ for brands offers insightful features that let you track key influencers in your sector, a feat that neither Facebook or Twitter have yet managed to master. Sharing links from Google+ to other networks will help you rank in search results and may let you discover content before anyone else, like Twitter in the ‘old days’.

Known as ripples, take any post that has been shared and a timeline can be viewed of not just people sharing that content, but to pinpoint exactly who influenced that sharing. Such tools are key to widening your distribution, maximising reach of posts and targeting key taste-makers to develop stronger relationships on other social networks and beyond.

Maximise Google+’s tools for market research:

Google’s ethos is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful. By having a social network based on these principles, the outcome for brands can only be positive. With greater access to research and insight connected to search, like its other products, Google+ will reward businesses who utilise its functionality to maximum effect.

Google+ is developing itself into a data hungry research tool taking your information to add a social element to the power of internet search. Due to Google’s hold over the search market, although determined to try, this is something that Facebook can only hope to achieve.

Google+ vs Facebook, the verdict:

Google+ has no desire to be the ‘new Facebook’ and consequently should not be directly compared. Instead it aims to attract the media-minded and tech-savvy amongst us to an outlet to socially share content in a measurable way, as the social element to Google’s stock of services.

Unless brands take heed and understand the segmentation of Google+ users as specific types of consumers before forging a presence, expect to see a lot stuttering before the Google+ engine really kicks into life for brands. For some, managing a presence on Facebook and Twitter is already enough.

The Telegraph’s digital media editor, Emma Barnett, hits the nail on the head: “I’m a bit tired of joining new things”.

Until Google+ is  completely baked-in as an integrated process, moving away from the bolt on service it currently feels, expect to see a host of brands jumping on the Google+ ship only to fall overboad, ending up surfing through the sludge of their own digital waste, whilst average users stick to the likes of Facebook where the rest of their friends are.

Tags  early adopters engagement Google integration New Technology social social media social media marketing social media strategy tastemakers tech tech savvy