banner-cogo02.jpg

WHERE BUSINESSES GO TO GROW

What Do Google+ Business Pages Mean for You?

BY Peg McDermott on Nov 10, 2011 / IN Google+, Social Media

This week Google finally announced that it was allowing businesses to create Google+ Pages for their brands. Since then there has been a lot of opinion in both directions about whether or not the pages are worth the trouble of signing up, and there are a few things that businesses need to keep in mind when considering a Google+ Page.

 

If you’re going to do it, do it now. Even if you’re not planning on using your business Google+ Page right away, if you think you will want one eventually, you should go ahead and claim it now. At the moment, Google is not requiring any kind of verification in order to claim a page name, so basically anyone can sign up with any brand name. If you want to reserve your name, it’s first come, first served.

 

You will not be able to run contests. Unlike Facebook’s business pages, Google+ Pages do now allow any kind of promotions or contests to be hosted on the page. This may change in the future, of course, but for now if the main purpose of a page for you is to run promotions, you’ll find that Facebook is still the best tool for your needs.

 

It’s a good SEO decision. Remember that this is Google we’re talking about – everything you do on your Google+ Page will be strongly integrated with search results. Your Google+ business posts will no doubt help your ranking tremendously, and of course the more fan engagement you can get going on your page, the better.

 

Hangouts equal conferences. Google+ Hangouts was initially a way for people on the network to have video chats with each other, but now that businesses are getting in on the action, this pretty much amounts to the ability to have video conferences directly from your Google+ account, which is a nice bonus.

 

It doesn’t work like a Facebook page. One of the things people new to Google+ are complaining about is that it simply isn’t as intuitive as having a Facebook page. Users are reporting problems and confusion with the signup, as well as issues dealing with a user interface that isn’t quite as friendly as Facebook’s.

 

Clearly the jury is still out on what sort of impact Google+ Pages will have for business, but there’s certainly a lot of buzz right now, and only time will tell if this social network ends up being the Facebook-killer is was hyped up to be.

0
Subscribe