Google+, What Do I Need to Know About it, and is it Too Soon for my Salon?

Google+, What Do I Need to Know About it, and is it Too Soon for my Salon?

Google+ is Google's answer to Facebook. With the backings and benefits of Google's many pre-built tools, such as email, youtube, and its number one ranked search engine, it is probably not going to flop or go away anytime soon... it will grow and be Facebook's largest competitor....

But, is it too Soon for Google+ for your Salon?

Well, recent statistics show that 68% of Google+ users are Male. These results were gathered by SocialStatistics and FindPeopleOnPlus, third party sites who both reported these results based on examining Google+ user profiles.

In July, they had estimated that the percentage of male users was 87% and 74% respectfully.

Recent Google+ ads and marketing have focused a lot on women, so it is clear to see that Google wants to attract the female user to the new social media platform. However, the platform may need to become more mainstream and less tech based to attract the common user, regardless of gender, as it has been deemed as more of a techie based network at this point.
 
Recently, Google+ introduced brand pages, which allows businesses and media outlets to join for the site. The presence of brands and news outlets has the potential to round out the conversation to new topics — could it also help even out the gender ratio?

If your salon is like most in the industry, your ratio is more women to men, which generally leads to a higher average ticket price when we look at colors, skin treatments, etc...so it's your call, do you think it's too early for your salon to join in on Google+?

I do... but I don't think it's too early to have Google+ on your salon's radar.

My recommendation would be to take this time to learn Google+, create your own profile, mess around, get familiar, watch what other businesses are doing and how they are using Google+... and in a few months you will be ready to jump all over a brand page for your salon, and based on the survey results, the gender ratio may just be ready at that time too!


And if you're still not sure, why not ask your clients?

Make a poll on your website, or even if it's a paper survey, or a tally you keep behind your cash or at your station, ask your client when they are checking in or cashing out,
 

"what social media sites do you use?"

Facebook, Google+, Twitter, MySpace...that should give you a reading on where you and your salon need to be.

Until next time.

Cheers.
Chris.