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Social media growth reached a new high in 2023, with 4.88 billion total active social media user identities, representing 60.6% of the world’s population.

How do brands grow their own social presence to reach that ever-increasing audience base? We’ve got 10 strategic tips (and 3 tools) for optimum social growth in 2024.

What is social media growth?

Social media growth is an umbrella term that includes many different types of social success. How you define social media growth depends on the most important goals and metrics for your particular organization. Some of the most common ways to measure social media growth include:

Social media follower growth: How many new followers you gain in a set period of time.

Engagement rate: How many people engage with your content vs. how many people see it.

Web traffic from social accounts: How many visits to your website are referred from social posts or your social profiles.

Conversions referred from social accounts: How many people who come to your website from a social link follow through to make a purchase, sign up for your newsletter, or any other conversion you want to measure.

Social commerce sales: How much revenue you bring in from social commerce activities across your social accounts.

10 effective social media growth strategies

1. Be active on your target audience’s favorite platforms

You can create as many (or as few) social accounts as you like. But your audience will only connect with you on the social networks they’re already actively using. You need to put your brand where they can find you easily, rather than expecting them to seek you out.

There are two components to this strategy:

Your target audience

The most popular social media platforms within that user base

For effective organic social media growth, you need to understand both.

If you don’t already know exactly who your target audience is, this is where you need to start. Fortunately, we’ve got a whole blog post on finding your target market that can point you in the right direction.

Once you understand your target audience, you can get even more detailed by creating audience personas.

Now that you understand who you want to connect with on social, you can figure out where to find them. Our blog post on the demographics of the major social platforms is a good place to start your research. You should also do some testing to confirm any assumptions.

Keep in mind that different segments of your audience may be active on different social media sites. Or, people might follow you on multiple platforms but expect a different relationship on each. That means you need to optimize your content for each platform.

For example, look at how differently the Washington Post approached this news story on Twitter and TikTok:

2. Create a consistent posting schedule

Humans are creatures of habit. When you post social content on a consistent schedule, your audience knows what to expect. They understand how often to expect new content, and when to anticipate your posts in their social feeds.

This consistency makes it feel less burdensome for new people who find your content through a search or suggestion to click the follow button. Conversely, it encourages fans to seek out your new content on your profile if the algorithm doesn’t serve it up in their feed.

Just like deciding where to post based on your audience’s preferences, you need to let their social activity guide your plan for when to post too.

Posting when your audience is most likely to be on the platform increases your chances for early engagement, which is a key value signal to virtually all social algorithms.

Hootsuite can show you exactly when your audience is online with customized heatmaps for each platform. You can also find recommended times to post in Hootsuite Analytics based on your specific growth goals.

Try Hootsuite for free

3. Post short video

Short social video – think Reels and TikToks – has become a crucial component of social growth. Creating this type of content is the easiest way to achieve social media follower growth. Why? Because it’s the content that’s most likely to reach people who don’t already follow you.

Instagram specifically says that for Reels, “the majority of what you see is from accounts you don’t follow.” Likewise, Facebook describes Reels as, “content you may be interested in from creators you may not follow.” And TikTok is designed to surface content a user will find interesting, not just content from accounts they follow.

Your short video content needs to align with your overall social strategy and your brand voice. But, it’s a completely different kind of content than you’re creating for feed posts or even Stories.

To get started, check out our guide to making effective short-form videos.

For platform-specific strategies, take a look at :

How to use Instagram Reels for business

How to use Facebook Reels for social media growth

How to create a TikTok marketing strategy

4. Embrace social SEO

We’ve mentioned algorithms a few times already. But when you’re focused on social media follower growth, social search engine optimization may be even more important.

Social SEO is all about optimizing your content using SEO tactics like keyword research, captions, and effective alt text to help the search features built into each social platform understand what your content is about.

That means people who are actively searching for content like yours are more likely to find you

And there’s a bonus: TikTok search results are indexed by search engines, so you can drive new eyeballs to your social content from people who are starting their search outside of social social.

5. Engage with your audience

Remember that social media is not a simple broadcast platform. Your audience wants to see your content, sure. But they also want to interact with you, the brand (or creator) behind the content.

If you want to grow your social media presence, you need to be diligent about responding to comments, tags, messages and mentions. This isn’t optional, folks! Neglected audiences don’t stick around, so leaving your comments and messages unanswered works directly against your efforts for social media growth.

The easiest way to stay on top of your social engagement is to manage all your incoming messages and comments from a centralized social inbox, like the one built into Hootsuite.

6. Get inspired by established accounts in your niche

We talked about audience engagement above, but it’s also important to conduct industry research. In this case, you’re looking for accounts that are already performing well in your space.

They might be competitors. But they might also be potential collaborators. Either way, studying their accounts can give you a good sense of what’s already working in your niche.

Beyond strategy insights, you can also work on social media growth by engaging with popular accounts that already reach your target audience. If they’re not in direct competition with you, try liking and commenting on their posts in a genuine and supportive way. Catching their attention might lead to a return like or follow.

Connections between accounts are a powerful signal for the social media algorithms, so connecting with relevant accounts can help your chances of appearing as a suggested post for non-followers.

Keyword and hashtag searches are a good way to start your research here. And here’s a major timesaver: Search streams in Hootsuite allow you to monitor all your relevant searches across platforms from a single dashboard.

7. Work with content creators

This is another important strategy to expand your audience. In this case, you develop a collaboration with relevant content creators to piggyback on their established audience.

When your focus is social media growth, it’s important to choose your creator collaborators carefully. Their audience needs to be a really good match to the audience you are trying to build. After all, a new influx of followers is only helpful to your overall growth strategy if they actually want to stick around.

Again, hashtag and keyword searches are a good starting point. It’s also a good idea to take a look at what other accounts your existing audience follows to look for a good fit. We’ve put together a whole guide on how to work with content creators to take you from there.

8. Maximize your profile and bio

Sure, creating content is the more exciting part of social media. But developing a strong bio and profile are critical to social media growth. Make sure you have these nailed down before you start putting too much effort into other growth strategies.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First up, your profile and bio tell potential new followers who you are, what you’re all about, and why they should follow you.

Second, your profile and bio are full of opportunities to guide people to your account in the first place. Most fields in social media profiles are searchable and may be indexed in regular search engines as well as in social search results.

That means a profile optimized for your target keywords can lead people to your social account before they even open that particular social platform.

And, finally, your profile offers chances to direct people to your profile through the connective tissues of social platforms, like hashtags and geotags. Address information helps the algorithms connect your content with people in your local area.

9. Develop a strong brand identity

Have we said enough times already that consistency is key in growing your social media presence? Well, we’ll say it again here, because that applies to your brand identity as much as your posting schedule.

We just talked about how your profile can bring in people from outside of the social platforms. If they scroll down and see consistent content in your grid, it’s much easier for them to understand what you’re all about and why they should care.

It’s also important that your content is easily identifiable when it lands in people’s feeds. It’s easier for followers to spot your posts among all the sponsored and suggested content when you deliver a consistent look and feel that supports your brand identity.

10. Experiment with social ads

While the strategies for organic social media growth covered so far are critical to growing a strong social media presence over time, social ads can be a way to get your content in front of a new audience quickly — and boost your growth rate.

Most social platforms allow you to choose growth-oriented goals for your social ads. Look for ads goals like awareness, engagement, and consideration to drive growth with your social ad campaign.

Planning a social ads campaign may seem daunting, but it’s easy to get started. The simplest method is to put some budget behind organic posts that are already performing well for your desired growth goals.

Within Hootsuite, you can set automatic boost triggers to convert your highest-performing posts into social ads without any additional intervention.

Top 3 social media growth tools for 2024

1. Hootsuite

Try Hootsuite for free

We’ve already mentioned Hootsuite several times in this post, and for good reason. It’s got plenty of built-in social media growth tools that should be in every social marketer’s toolbox.

First up, Hootsuite has built-in AI tools that generate social captions, come up with content ideas for your blog or podcast, and suggest the most relevant hashtags to get you noticed. OwlyWriter AI can also rework high-performing posts so you have a never-ending stream of growth-inducing content based off of strategies that have already been proven to work for your brand.

On the publishing side, Hootsuite serves your social media growth strategy by allowing you to build out an integrated multi-platform campaign that reaches followers on every platform at the ideal times for maximum engagement. You can create your content in batches so your themes and messaging are aligned and in tune with your brand voice.

Once your content goes live, Hootsuite helps you hack your social growth by revealing exactly what works and what doesn’t. You’ll also get insights into how your content stacks up against industry benchmarks and top competitors, so you can set realistic growth goals and look for opportunities to improve.

2. HubSpot

Source: HubSpot

HubSpot is a CRM platform that’s specifically designed to help your business grow by bringing in more customers. By integrating Hubspot with Hootsuite, you can use information from your CRM database to help grow your social presence while providing better social customer service.

3. SproutSocial

Source: SproutSocial

SproutSocial is a social media management platform that can assist with social media growth. It includes automation tools and social analytics features that help you refine your social media growth strategy.

SproutSocial has an average per-user seat cost of $332 and offers 26 integrations. Take a look at how SproutSocial compares to Hootsuite.

Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. Publish and schedule posts, find relevant conversations, engage your audience, measure results, and more — all from one simple dashboard. Try it free today.

Get Started

The post How to Build a Social Media Growth Strategy That Works [2024] appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Wanna build your LinkedIn network fast? Don’t wanna spend hours crafting connection request messages only to be left “pending” forever? Not to fear: all you actually need to do is comment on other people’s posts.

But what kind of comments are best? Where do you leave them? What should you say? How long do they need to be? Turns out, maybe not as long as you think…

As the world’s most popular business-focused social platform with over 950 million people, LinkedIn is the best place to build your professional network. This can lead to exciting opportunities, like a new job or becoming better known in your industry with a strong personal brand.

Here’s what really works to build your network.

Hypothesis: Longer LinkedIn comments get you more connection requests

We’ve all seen those one or two-word LinkedIn comments, like “Well said!” or “Agree!”.

Any comment is better than no comment when it comes to attracting new LinkedIn connections. But my hypothesis was that leaving more personalized, specific, longer comments would result in more profile views and connections.

It’s kinda like being at a party. Who do you remember talking to most: the ten people full of weather updates, or the two people you actually had something in common with?

In real life, we all like a bit more substance in our interactions, right? I figured this experiment would be a slam dunk for all of us nerdy n’ wordy people.

But LinkedIn isn’t real life, is it? When you’re purely looking at growing your network and opportunities instead of making a new BFF, which type of comment was more effective? I found out.

Methodology

To test whether short or long comments get better results on LinkedIn, I ran a two-week experiment. Each week, I left the same number of comments on the same types of posts about topics I usually engage with. I did this so the LinkedIn algorithm didn’t change what it showed me week-to-week, which would’ve potentially skewed results. Plus, I only commented on posts by people who weren’t already my connections.

To further ensure the accuracy of this rigid scientific endeavor, I also kept everything else I did on LinkedIn the same as usual. Meaning: I stayed too shy to reach out to anyone, didn’t initiate any connection requests, ignored the 431 recruiter DMs in my inbox, and continued to put links in the body of my posts even though I know I shouldn’t.

The tools I used for this experiment were:

My brain for amazing comments

Hootsuite to auto-schedule my content at the best possible times and analytics

LinkedIn Premium for personal profile analytics

My scientificprocess for this experiment was:

During Week 1, I left a total of 40 short, generic comments on posts by people I wasn’t already connected with.

During Week 2, I left a total of 40 longer, personalized comments on posts by people I wasn’t already connected with.

Here’s what I did each week in detail.

Step 1: Found posts to comment on

Every day, I logged into LinkedIn and found posts to comment on in a few ways:

Scrolling my home feed

Searching for posts about topics I usually read about (e.g. social media, marketing, freelancing, dogs wearing sweaters, etc)

Posts within groups I’m in

Step 2: Leaving a comment

In the first week, I wrote the shortest possible comments I could think of, like this one-word wonder.

Sometimes I didn’t use any words at all.

After a few days, I became surprised at how many new connection requests I was getting, and that my short, meaningless comments were also getting replies.

In the second week, I focused on leaving personalized comments that showed I really read the person’s post or tried to add something new to the discussion.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these longer comments earned more replies than the previous week’s short ones. Even though many of those “conversations” didn’t result in new connections, it was nice to discuss new ideas with others.

Step 3: Tracking the data

The main hypothesis of this experiment was to see whether short or long comments got me more profile views and connection requests. But, I also tracked how many new followers (not connections) I got as well as how many reactions and replies my comments received.

Each day, I tallied up those metrics. I used LinkedIn Premium to see the precise data for profile views and manually counted reactions, replies, and connection requests.

Results

TL;DR

Longer, personalized comments did bring in more connection requests than short, generic ones — though it was not a huge difference (10 vs 8).

Longer comments had a much more significant impact on profile views, earning 24 vs. 14 from Week 1.

Longer comments received way more replies (14 vs 6) than short comments.

Strangely, shorter comments got more reactions (e.g. likes) than longer comments (20 vs 12).

Overall, here’s all the data from the two week experiment:

So, if new connections are your goal, short and generic comments can get you there.

That said, longer comments brought in more replies and opened up great discussions with others. While not proven (yet), it’s realistic to think that this bump in engagement could be picked up on by the LinkedIn algorithm, potentially bringing more eyeballs to your content.

What do the results mean?

As I always suspected, I’m not that popular. But what does this experiment mean for you?

Well, if you’re just after new connections, much as I hate to say this, you could probably spend 10 minutes a day leaving generic comments and quickly grow your LinkedIn network to hundreds — maybe thousands — connections. Ugh.

This really isn’t a bad strategy, as shallow as it sounds. LinkedIn recently updated their algorithm to prioritize “professional” content that focuses on “knowledge and advice” (e.g. no lunchtime selfies!). The changes also mean you’re more likely to see content from people you’re connected with (or follow).

That means to get the most reach on LinkedIn in 2024, you should focus on getting lots of connections. Quantity over quality.

I’ll leave the moral dubiousness of that to you, but when it comes to time vs. value, it is better to leave short comments and get a lot of connections/followers for the least amount of time and effort.

Really, though? Isn’t it better to have 1,000 true fans instead of 10,000 followers who don’t care that much about your content?

It depends on what your LinkedIn goals are. Do you want to become an original thought leader and expert in your field? Land speaking gigs? Book interviews? Best to stick to longer, personalized comments to build in-depth connections and your personal brand.

Or do you want to scale up quickly, building a large following first without focusing as much on your original content or brand, at least for now? Then go forth and spray n’ pray those short, AI-like comments.

There is a middle ground here. Your comments don’t need to be totally generic. Sometimes short comments can still be highly relevant to the content.

Original, thoughtful comments sound like they’re better but when it comes to getting results on LinkedIn, this experiment shows you can get very similar results with a lot less time and effort.

Or, combine the best of both worlds and use an AI tool like EngageAI to automate leaving personalized comments on LinkedIn that are still insightful, but take a fraction of the time to write. (Oh yeah, and it integrates with Hootsuite too — woo!)

You can be the smartest thought leader that has ever lived, but what good is that unless you have an audience to see your content?

Whichever method you choose for building your LinkedIn network, never forget the basics; ABC: Always Be Connecting.

Easily manage and grow your LinkedIn presence alongside all of your other social accounts with Hootsuite, your all-in-one social media management tool. Besides scheduling content, you can monitor and reply to comments, keep tabs on competitors, and boost your posts for more reach. Try it today.

Get Started

The post Experiment: Do Longer LinkedIn Comments Drive More Connection Requests? appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

What if I told you there’s only 5 minutes standing between you and powerful Google marketing tools? I’m talking about Google My Business. It’s free, easy to set up, and can drive serious traffic to your website or store from Google Search and Google Maps.

Let’s set up your Google Business Profile (as it’s now called) together in less than 30 seconds (yes, I timed it) and fully optimize it in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. You’ll also find out how to keep your profile updated and where to fit it into your marketing strategy.

Let’s go!

What is Google My Business (now Google Business Profile)?

Google Business Profile is a free marketing tool provided by Google. It allows business owners to manage how they appear in online tools like Google Search and Google Maps.

When you set up a Google Business Profile, the photos and other details of your business — including location, services, and products — are used across Google, increasing your visibility to prospects in online search.

Most businesses are eligible for Google Business Profile. This includes those without a physical address location, e.g. businesses that sell products through a website.

The 3 most important benefits of Google Business Profile

Get discovered in Google Search and Maps

When putting together search results for someone’s location-based search query (e.g. “bike shop Lower East Side”), Google uses Google Business Profile information — location, phone numbers, descriptions, etc. — to decide which businesses best fit the searcher’s intent. The best matches show up in the top positions on the search results page.

The same goes for surfacing local businesses in Google Maps searches:

Source: Google Maps

Congrats! Now you have a basic understanding of local SEO.

Manage your online business information

You can update your Google Business Profile information at any time. That means you’re always in control of how your business hours, phone number, and other attributes appear online — which helps potential customers get in touch with you via the most recent contact information.

Besides serving as a central place of information for search engines and Google Maps, you can also use your Google Business Profile as a bulletin board of sorts. You can make a post to share key business information, like unexpected closures or temporary business hour changes — or provide some details on your services. Posts are part of your profile, visible to anyone who looks you up in Search or on Maps.

Source: Google Maps

Build trust with Google Reviews

Reviews are a key element of social proof and a meaningful way to build trust and credibility online.

Even if searchers aren’t clicking through to read the content of your reviews, the 1-5 star rating prominently visible beneath each business result does impact their likelihood of checking you out.

Worried you can’t keep up a string of solid 5-star reviews? Don’t sweat it. Google sees a mixture of positive and negative reviews as being more authentic and trustworthy, and ranks you better because of it.

How to set up a Google My Business listing

Step 1: Log in to Google Business Profile

You need a Google account to use Google Business Profile, so go ahead and create one if you haven’t already.

I recommend not using your personal Google account to set this up, as you may want to give others access to your Google Business Profile later and that’s better to do from a dedicated work account (no one needs to see your weird Reddit notifications, okay?).

Step 2: Add your business information

Once you’re signed in, Google Business Profile asks you for your business name. Enter one and click Continue.

Step 3: Select your business type

You can sign up for Google Business Profile as long as you either sell directly to customers online, have a physical location, or provide a service in-person to your customers. You can select all options that apply to you.

Click Next when you’re done.

Step 4: Enter your location and/or location targeting

If you’re an online-only business, Google asks for your website.

For both online and offline businesses, you’ll need to enter the country you’re registered in. This may or may not also be the country where your location is.

If you have a physical location, you’ll enter that instead (with the ability to add your website URL and more information later). You may also be asked to position a marker for the location on a map for accuracy. If your business does not have a location customers can visit but offers in-person services or deliveries, you can list your service areas. Then click Next.

If you didn’t enter a physical address, Google will ask you to specify which region you’re based in. Choose from the drop-down menu and click Next.

Step 5: Add contact information

You can add either a website, phone number, or both. These are publicly viewable on your profile.

Step 6: Verify your business

Even if you don’t have a physical business location, you need to enter a mailing address to become verified.

After that, you can choose to receive a verification code via email or the exciting option of recording a short video showing you working in your business and basically proving that you have a business. I’m not sure why anyone would choose that over a simple email code but sure, more power to ya.

I chose the email code. Wait for it to arrive, enter it, and click Verify.

Becoming verified allows you to publicly reply to customer reviews, use messaging features, and more.

Step 7: Optimize your profile

Now, add all the extra details that will get the most out of your profile. All of these are optional, but if they apply to you, be sure to fill it out.

You can add:

Business hours

Chat, where users can send you a message directly from Google search

Description of your business

Photos

There are many more ways to optimize your Google My Business profile than the options you get in the setup screen. The next section covers everything else you should optimize.

How to optimize your Google My Business profile

Filling out your profile information isn’t a fast track to the top of search results. But, completing your Google Business Profile makes it much more likely you’ll stand out — 2.7 times more likely actually. Plus, people are 70% more likely to visit a business with a complete profile vs. an incomplete one.

Google determines local search ranking based on three factors:

Relevance: How well your profile matches search intent.

Distance: How far your location is from the user.

Prominence: How well-known your business is (based on factors like number of reviews, review score, and other SEO ranking factors).

Use special attributes, if applicable

Some business types — restaurants, hotels, and services — have access to special features, like:

Hotels can display star-class ratings, sustainability information, on-site amenities, check-in and out times, and a direct booking link.

Restaurants and bars can upload menus, dish photos, and accept reservations and online orders directly from search.

Service businesses can display a list of services offered.

Healthcare providers in the U.S. can show health insurance information and accept online appointment bookings.

In addition to those specific examples, there are a range of other types of buttons most businesses can use, including appointment booking, reservation links, and online ordering.

You can also add attribute “labels” to your listing to communicate key information about your business, like if you are open by appointment only. Or, to ensure everyone feels welcome. For example, you may want to share information about wheelchair accessibility, free Wi-Fi, or outdoor seating. You can even share that your company is women owned and/or 2SLGBTQI+ friendly.

To edit these labels, visit your dashboard and click Edit profile. Scroll down to the More section to find these attributes.

Add real images of your business

Photos help generate interest and catch people’s eye in search results. For physical locations, this is easy: take some great photos of your business in operation.

Not great at photography? Hire a professional to do a photo shoot and use those amazing images across your social media profiles, including Google Business Profile, and on your website. Or run a contest by giving away a gift card or product in exchange for your customers submitting their best photos.

According to Google, businesses with photos receive more requests for directions and more clicks to their websites.

You can add a cover photo and additional images during the setup process:

Or add or edit photos anytime from your Google Business Profile dashboard:

Add a custom description

You can add a custom description up to 750 words which appears across Google services, including search and Maps. Use this space to showcase what’s truly unique about your business rather than simply stating what you do.

Include keywords in your profile

Adding relevant keywords to your Google My Business profile increases the likelihood of people finding you. Not sure what keywords to include? Check out popular searches with Google Trends and see if any apply to your business, or do things the “new Gen Z way” with TikTok Keyword Search.

A good place to start is with the keywords people are already using to find you. Snag these from Google Analytics reports for free, or use Hootsuite Insights and advanced social monitoring tools to uncover even more terms people type in to find you.

The idea isn’t to stuff your profile full of a bunch of keywords just for the sake of rankings. It’s important to naturally weave them into your sentences. Keyword stuffing hasn’t been cool since 1999 (and can actually hurt your rankings).

Encourage and answer reviews

A good review can be the deciding factor that tips prospective customers in your favor.

Customers can review your business directly from your profile or Google Maps, but the most effective way to get more reviews is to share your review link. Add it to your email marketing templates, share it on social media, or create your own shortened link to display on in-store signage.

To find your unique Google Reviews link:

Go to your Google Business Profile dashboard and click Ask for reviews.

Copy your link and spread it far and wide!

Pro tip: Use a URL shortener to turn this into an on-brand custom link that’s easy to type, like “www.hootsuite.com/review”.

You can, and should, respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. According to research by Ipsos, customer reviews are still the most trusted information source when it comes to evaluating a product or business.

For positive reviews, take the time to thank your customer for sharing their experience. For negative reviews, also thank your customer and address their issue in a tactful, honest way and try to offer a solution or fix, if warranted.

Afraid of troll reviews from fake people? Don’t worry, you can report inappropriate or malicious reviews and have them removed from your profile.

Find your current reviews under the Reviews tab (once you have at least one).

Verify your street address

If you didn’t already do so during setup, verify your business now. This is especially important if you have a physical location, since verified locations are more likely to show in Google Maps searches.

Not sure if you’re verified? Check your verification status.

Regularly update your information

Make sure to keep your Google Business Profile up to date. Edit your profile if your business hours change, you get a new phone number, etc. Nothing annoys a customer more than looking up your hours online, then making the trek to your location only to find that you’re closed.

For things like operating hours, edit that directly in your profile. For temporary or special updates, create a post to go on your page instead.

To edit your hours or other profile information, click Edit profile.

To create a post to share in your Google Business Profile feed, click on Add update.

You can choose to add an update, offer, or event. Each post type has different attributes to help spread your message.

For this example, I chose Add update. You can add up to 1500 characters, one or more photos, and attach a call to action button.

Post something promotional like your new product launch, or use this space to communicate holiday hours (in addition to changing it on your profile!) or special parking instructions while construction is happening nearby.

Import your products

Last but not least, if you sell physical products via your website, add those products to your Google Business Profile. In addition to appearing on your profile itself, your products can appear in Google Shopping, the most popular price comparison portal in the United States.

Source: IKEA Coquitlam on Google

To manually add products to your Google My Business profile, click on Edit products from your dashboard.

From here, a popup will appear where you can add your first product, including its title, category, price, description, URL, and a photo.

If you only sell a few products, it may be easiest to add them this way. But for anything more than a dozen or so items, there’s an easier, automated way with the delightfully named Pointy app.

You can either connect Pointy to your point-of-sale (POS) system or scan products with the Pointy scanner. Then your products will show up in Google search, Shopping, and on your Google Business Profile.

However, there are certain eligibility criteria to use Pointy, including requiring UPC barcodes on your products.

How to manage Google My Business with Hootsuite

Yep, you can update and manage your business profile on GMB in the same place you manage all your other social media accounts.

You’ll need to create and verify your Google Business Profile first before you can manage it inside Hootsuite.

Install the Google My Business app

Once you have your profile set up, install the free Google My Business app from the Hootsuite app directory.

To finish installing, choose whether to create a new Streams board or add your Google Business Profile data to one of your existing Stream boards. Choose an option and click Add to Streams.

Setup your Google My Business Stream

Next, go to the Streams tab in your Hootsuite dashboard.

If you don’t already see the three columns for Posts, Reviews, and Questions, use the Add a Stream box on the right and click to add them.

Try Hootsuite for free

Click Login to Google My Business to connect the app to your Google Business Profile account. Of course, make sure to login with the Google account you use to manage your profile.

Confirm your business profile by selecting it then clicking Confirm.

If you just created your Google Business Profile, you likely won’t have any customer questions or reviews to reply to, but having this Stream built into your Hootsuite dashboard makes it so easy to stay on top of them once they start rolling in.

Post business updates from Hootsuite

Create new posts and publish directly to your Google Business Profile account from Hootsuite Streams by clicking the New Post icon in the Posts Stream.

Additionally, you can reply to reviews and answer questions, which both show up in Google search results and on your public profile, and help persuade new customers to visit you.

Source: Haven Langley on Google

For a full overview of everything this integration can do, check out this quick 3 minute overview:

Google My Business FAQs

Is Google My Business completely free?

Yes, creating a Google Business Profile is free. As long as you have a physical location, sell goods online, or meet customers in person, you can create a free Google My Business account.

How do I access my Google My Business page?

Access your Google Business Profile dashboard at https://business.google.com by logging in with the Google account you used to create your Google My Business account.

You can also search your business name and, as long as you’re logged in, your business profile dashboard shortcuts will appear at the top of the search results page.

Is Google My Business still active?

Yes, Google My Business is now called Google Business Profile. It’s the same free service, now with additional features for restaurants, hotels, healthcare, and service businesses, plus new ways to get discovered across Google search and Google Maps.

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