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Google+ Hovercard Has Marketing Benefits

By Donna Gilliland on Aug 21, 2011 in Google+, Social Media

The Marketing benefits of your Google+ Hovercard. Read on for the Google+ hovercard marketing tips and tricks. Video included.

What happens when you hover over a  name link in a Google+ post?

A pop-up card appears, known as a hovercard. The information contained within is, to date, pulling information from the person’s Employment field they have defined as their current employer. You may have noticed that some people have more displayed on their hovercard than others. This is because they typed more than their company name into the seemingly tiny employment field. More about how you can do the same in just a moment.

Why you may want to include more than your company name.

When people are reading through the comments in a post they may stop to over over your name but they may not stop at that moment to view your full About profile because they are busy reading through posts. In fact, they might not ever get back to your Profile – you know, out of sight and out of mind. This is the very reason you might want to consider putting a bit more information in your employment field.

Now, you are probably asking about now – how many characters can you type in the employment field? I haven’t determined that yet nor can I find any documentation that tells me a length. If you find out post the answer to this blog. I can tell you that my information is 473 characters in length.

Tips 

Tip 1: I suggest that you write your information in a Word document so you can spell check. You can then cut and paste into your employment field when ready.

Tip 2: Be creative and brief. I suggest that you start with the name of your company first and then proceed with the details about you.

Tip 3: You can include a web link URL but the link will not be live when displayed in the hovercard nor does Google make it live within the display of your employment field when viewed from your About page.

Tip 4: Do not sell to people in your description. The idea is to let people know a bit more about you when they hover over your name, enough so that they might want to stop and visit your full profile and/or do business with you.

How-to instructions

If you are more visual, you may prefer to watch my video at the close of this post. Otherwise, you can just read the instructions and look at the screen shot below.

  1. Go to your About page
  2. Click Edit Profile
  3. Scroll down to your Employment section and click to activate
  4. Paste your description in the employment field you have marked as current
  5. Click Save
  6. Click Done Editing (you will see it at the top of your screen)
If you like this blog post, your +1 is appreciated. You will find all the social sharing icons in a toolbar at the very bottom of the screen. Oh and be sure to leave comments and/or questions.

Don’t forget the instructional video at the close. Enjoy!

Instructional Video

About the Author

Donna Gilliland is the Founder of MOSTraining, Inc. She is a certified and award-winning instructor. Donna provides training and consulting in Office and Social technologies. When Donna isn't teaching she is writing about what she teaches - she is a writer for OfficePro magazine.