The flagship feature of Google+ when it first launched was Circles. It?s one of the key factors that help distinguish Google+ from Facebook or Twitter. Circles allow you to create private groups consisting of your business contacts, customers, colleagues, etc. It?s a very cool concept, but some doctors and dentists aren?t aware of how to use Circles to their advantage quite yet.
Many medical professionals just share all the content they post with everyone. However, you need to get in the habit of using your Circles to selectively choose who gets to see what information. You might not want your business contacts to see the information you post for your patients or for the people who work in your office.
In the same respect, other specialists that you may have in your referral network are probably not interested in some of the content you would post for your patients and vice versa. Circles make it easy for you to share content with a specific audience segmented however you would like.
Set up Circles in accordance to the relationship they have with your practice. For example, your Circles might be separated as:
- Email subscribers
- Referral network
- Employees
- Top industry influencers
- Patients
This way, if you want to post a question or comment that only relates to a certain Circle, you?re not bothering people who have no interest in what you?re posting.
Being able to separate who sees what content increases the likelihood of the people viewing your content, and clicking through to your site. It will also decrease the likelihood that they will stop following your posts because content having nothing to do with them keeps showing up in their stream.
Getting your Circles in order should be a top priority for any Google+ PRO.