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Marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air

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by Lindsey Miller Petersen on January 30th, 2014 | No Comments »

Successfully marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air results in awesome benefits for the visibility and engagement of your brand's voice. These benefits can range from having high attendance at your live broadcast to a high average of minutes viewed on your archived event on YouTube.

While marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air has some awesome potential benefits, it requires performing tasks before, during, and after your event. Creating a plan and making the time to adequately promote to your audience, community, network, readers, and/or viewers ensures you have the best results.

This is post five in our seven-part series on Google+. To this point, you've learned 8 tips to maximizing Google+, creative ways to benefit from Google Plus Hangouts on Air, 10 steps to hosting a successful Google Plus Hangout on Air including an infographic with easily accessible information, and 3 tips for preparing yourself and your guests for your Google Plus Hangout on Air.

Now that you know the benefits for embracing Google+ as well as how to prepare and host a hangout, let's dive right in and tackle these 3 tips for marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air.

1. Marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air Before the Broadcast

If you plan your event perfectly, but don't market it, no one will know about it or attend. So, the first step to marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air is creating a promotion plan. Then, you use that plan to market to your audience, network, or community in creative ways with enough advanced notice. The good news is that Google makes it easy to market your event.

When you schedule a Google Plus Hangout on Air, Google creates an event page—or landing page (like the one above)—for your upcoming broadcast, which gives you the opportunity to include the following:

Details about your Google Plus Hangout on Air with a description of your event and information about the hosts and guests
A list of everyone who RSVPs
A comment thread where people who RSVP and/or attend the event can share their thoughts about the upcoming discussion topic or the points as they are shared during the live broadcast
A dedicated URL that can be shared in any of your social spaces to direct your audience to your Hangout
An embedded YouTube video that will stream your event once it's broadcasting live
The option to add a trailer to your embedded dedicated YouTube space to give those that visit your event page something to view before your Hangout goes live.
The opportunity to add an intro video for your brand
The option to invite people in your Circles as well as communities that you are a member of

Promote to Those Who Have You in Their Google+ Circles

Once your event is live and you have your event page, first promote it to those who have you in your Google+ circles or to communities that you are a member of. Invitees could include:

Those who are interested in your Google Plus Hangout on Air's topic
Those who have expertise in the subject matter
Any of those you feel may want to know about your event
Members of subject-related Google+ communities you are a part of

Marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air directly to those who follow you is key. Do so by inviting them from your event page, which allows them to RSVP directly. When they RSVP, Google sends them a reminder email and, depending on their settings, adds your event to their Google Calendar. This gives them a subtle reminder the day of the event to attend.

Promote on Your Google+ Community, Your Page Followers, and Your Hosts/Guests Followers

Don't forget about those outside of your Google+ personal profile who have you in their circles. Consider reaching out to the following when marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air:

Those who are part of your Google+ Community, if applicable
Those that follow your Google+ page
Those who have your co-hosts and guests in their Google+ circles

Use all outlets within the Google+ platform to market your event, exercising caution so as not to spam your followers.

Promote to Your Followers on Other Social Media Platforms

You don't have to have a huge following on Google+ to ensure you'll have a great audience for your Google Plus Hangout on Air. In fact, marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air outside of Google+ is key to getting high attendance. To do this, you can do the following:

Send event information, including the event page URL, via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Vine, and YouTube.
Consider getting creative on other platforms like your blog, Snap Chat, and Tumblr.
Make use of your direct mail capabilities, like eNewsletters when marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air.

Tip! Remember that awareness is the first step via multiple social media platforms at least a week ahead of time. But also, don't forget to remind people the day of your broadcast. We have found that a subtle reminder via the various platforms the day of often generates the most potent buzz.

2. Marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air During the Broadcast

Now that you are all prepared, have fabulous content, have done a great job at marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air leading up to its broadcast, you are ready to push start—or go live! And while your host and guests broadcast live, don't forget about marketing to those who may not have heard about your event prior to it, but who are available to watch.

Simultaneously streaming to other platforms like Facebook and YouTube and tweeting along with the live broadcast are ways to amplify your reach. (See post six in this series for tips for engaging with your audience during a hangout, including how to's for simultaneous live streaming.)

3. Marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air After the Broadcast

If you've associated your Google+ account to a YouTube account, your Hangouts on Air will be instantly uploaded and accessible on your YouTube channel. To ensure that your content can be found again, be sure that your Google+ Hangout on Air video titles are search-engine optimized. In that way, you can increase the number of views your content gains and you'll be able to take advantage of any traffic from related searches in YouTube or via search engine. (See post seven on how to make your YouTube video optimized for search engines.)

Want to learn more about Google+ and Hangouts on Air? Check out these posts:

The Blogger's Guide to Using Google+ Effectively
The Benefits of Hosting a Google+ Hangout on Air
The Basics of How to Host a Google+ Hangout on Air
Tech Tips on How to Prepare to Host a Google+ Hangout on Air
Marketing Tips on How to Publicize your Google+ Hangout on Air
How to Drive Up Engagement During a Google+ Hangout on Air
Content Creation: 6 Tips for Maximizing the Buzz From a Google+ Hangout on Air

What are your best practices when it comes to marketing a Google Plus Hangout on Air?

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Jyl Johnson Pattee

An active part of the Mom It Forward team, Jyl primarily writes about parenting, social good, and all things travel related. In a past life, Jyl was an award-winning copywriter and designer of corporate training programs for Fortune 100 companies. Offline, Jyl is married to @TroyPattee; a mom to two teen boys and a beagle named #Hashtag; loves large amounts of cheese, dancing, and traveling; and lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Topping her bucket list is the goal to visit 50 countries by the time she's 50.