Why your business should enter Google+? Some tips

Google + is a new social network launched in the past june, 2011. It has attracted the attention of millions of people in just more than six months and it’s close to reach the number of memberships Linkedin already have (135 million  members approximately).

At its beginning Google + did not have much concern on Business as far as they were worried to provide enough features to their new members for them to engage with their own online community and prefer G+ rather that its closest competitor and the king of Social Media: Facebook.

But this situation changed in early November, when Google+ finally rolled out business page. For the time being, Google + not just allow companies to have their own niche in its platform, they also encourage them to grow their following. “I expect brands will notice this and will build marketing plans around it”, Bradley Horowitz, VP of a product from Google + says. The big question is “How to manage my google company page?.” 

First steps into Google+ world

On the day Google announced the birth of G+ business page, social media experters, media outlets and all people involved in Social Media World covered the story and drew attention to its importance. But some of them decided to start the polemic by writing about a rivalry between the baby Google Fan Page against the powerful Facebook Fan Page. It’s a controversy hasn’t been solved yet and seem to endure forever.

But that is not what I want to talk about here. First of all we should resolve an inquiry by ourselves: what is Google+ and why it matters?

G+ is a social network powered by the search engine giant Google. This is a plus if we talk about SEO ranking and online visibility. Furthermore, G+ allows companies and business to develop relationships with prospects and customers in multiple levels thanks to Google Circles, a form of categorizing users according to interests and points of view they share in common. Apart from all these features, G+ provide companies with tools to share pictures, content, endorsement and one important and peculiar characteristic: video conferences call.

This element distinguishes Google+ from other existing social networks. According to Dennis Tropper opinion, Product Manager Director of Google+ Pages, their intention is give business enough tools to direct engage with their fans like they would be together in real life. Video call helps switch this into reality.

10 quick facts about Google +

1. Pages can’t add people to circles until they have been added first or mentioned.
2. Pages can be made for a variety of different entities, whereas profiles can only be made for people.
3. The default privacy settings for elements on your business page is Public.
4. Google+ pages automatically unfollow you if you unfollow them.
5. Pages have the G+ button.
6. Pages don’t receive notifications via email, text, or in the Google bar.
7. Pages don’t have the option to share “extended circles”.
8. Pages can’t endorse other Google+ pages nor can they endorse content on the web.
9. Local pages have special fields that help people find the business’ physical location.
10. Google+ pages can’t even mention you unless you are connected.

In this post I just wanted to introduce you to Google+ and give you some clues to decide if it’s convenient for your business to enter in this G+ world. In a future post I will convey how to make your own business page and start to engage with your fans.

Here you have the latest video on Google +.