How to Comment on a Conversation on Your Google+ Marketing Page

By Shiv Singh and Stephanie Diamond from Social Media Marketing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Commenting on a conversation can be a useful tool to social media marketers. As you put people in to your Circles, their updates appear in your stream. Sitting there and watching them go by is a missed opportunity. Each update is an opportunity to have a conversation with a potential customer, client, collaborator, or fan.

The more you engage, the more others will trust your brand. Also, when others see you commenting in their friends’ Circles, they’re also going to put you in their own Circles. Commenting and participating is a great way to build your Google+ Community. Commenting is simple and intuitive. All you have to do is add your two cents in the Add a Comment field.

Here are some best practices for commenting on Google+:

Comment to connect with your community, not to sell. Don’t make a comment about you or your brand unless the conversation is about you or your brand or specific brand-related questions that are being raised. You’re just another person in the conversation, not a salesperson.
Avoid using links. Don’t include links unless they’re absolutely relevant to the conversation, and even then avoid links! Posting links to your content or sales pages is seen as self-serving and spammy.
Tag any people who you’re replying to by putting a + symbol in front of their names. If you’re responding to a specific commenter or if you want to refer to another person on Google+, tag the appropriate people by using the + symbol. These tags send a notification to the people you’ve tagged to alert them, and they’ll appreciate that you’ve taken the time to acknowledge them.
Add something of value to each conversation. When you respond to a comment to say “LOL” or “I agree,” you add nothing to the conversation. It’s better to respectfully add your opinion for discussion purposes than to add a comment that brings nothing to the table.
Understand you’re representing the brand. Everything you say on Google+ is representative of your brand. Be careful when responding in anger or disagreeing in a defensive manner — you don’t want to come off as confrontational. Always comment in a respectful manner. Just because you’re behind the computer, that doesn’t mean you can act differently than you would if you were having a conversation with a colleague in person.
Stay on topic. Don’t talk about your Aunt Tilly’s dentures in a conversation about peanut butter, unless the peanut butter has something to do with the dentures. If you’re always off topic, people will ignore your posts or uncircle you altogether.