It’s no secret that the Google+ community is no more than just a toddler at the heels of the social media movement.

However, Google+ product marketing manager Matt Cooke, confirmed recently that

Google+ has 540 million monthly active users, 300 million of which view their Google+ content stream at some time during the month. It’s secret is all about Google+ communities. So here’s why you should build yours.

Understanding your customers: It’s a great way to get in to the mindset of your customers or clients.

A better way to work out how people talk about your own company, its products and it’s services.

Free Feedback: Allowing people to vocalise what they think about your services or products gains instant credibility. And it’s no secret that the more Google+ clicks you get the better it will be on Google search. People will always trust recommendations from people they know better than any other review.

Divide and Conquer: You can build both private and public communities to nurture different ideas and offer different privileges and pursue different agendas.

Circle It: Google+’s unique circle structure allows you to customise your messages to different groups. It’s a great way to track different types of content you may be interested in as well. You can have a daily check in on search terms and groups that keep you in the know.

Work the Hangouts: It’s now easy to actually put on your own event by using Google+ Hangouts.

You can broadcast on any subject to any number of people. This is a unique way of becoming an influencer in the social media arena. Brands like Cadbury’s have used this to their advantage.

More than 1.5 billion photos are uploaded to Google+ every week. Check out The Economist, Topshop, Ferrari, BMW or H&M for inspiration and then start as you mean to go on.