After months of anticipation since Google Plus launched and immediately “kicked out the brands,” according to Google’s own Bradley Horowitz, Google Plus Pages are here!
Bands, businesses, hotels, restaurants, brands, sports teams, and pretty much everything else are being welcomed into the world of Google+. We’ve been tracking it since it was announced earlier today but it took a few hours for the service to roll out to everyone. We initially got an error saying, “Google+ Pages isn’t ready for everyone. Thanks for your interest in Google+ Pages, but we haven’t finished releasing them to everyone. Please check back soon.” As with the initial launch of Google+, not being able to immediately sign up caused some grumbling across social media sites. But Google has seemed to figure out that a few hours is a lot better than a few weeks.
It’s easy to create a Google+ page, it will take you all of ten minutes. Simply go to http://www.google.com/+/business/ and follow the instructions. You will have to link a personal Google Profile with your page. At the current time, this is the only person that will have access to the page, unlike how Facebook allows multiple admins.
If none of the categories fit your business exactly, we recommend selecting a one that is relevant but not too specific in case you are unable to change this in the near future (as was the case with Facebook pages for some time). Complete the About section with basic information—introduction, contact info and website—and add some photos and videos when ready.
We look forward to watching Google Plus develop for brands, especially on the local front. Google is betting a lot on social networking and I can’t help but see them tying this all into organic search. Now how much effect will this have on search? Google gives us a little bit of a hint in their post:
People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they’re looking for businesses and brands. Today’s launch of Google+ Pages can help people transform their queries into meaningful connections, so we’re rolling out two ways to add pages to circles from Google search. The first is by including Google+ pages in search results, and the second is a new feature called Direct Connect… Direct Connect makes it easy—even automatic. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you’re interested in (like +Angry Birds). We’ll take you to their Google+ page, and if you want, we’ll add them to your circles.
It’s safe to bet that it would be a good thing for your brand to have some presence on Google+. How much of a presence is yet to be seen. This is another tool that companies will have to figure out how to tailor it to the needs of their own brand and audience. Fortunately, this is something we at Location3 Media do every day and are here to help!
A few other things to keep in mind:
- Google+ does not currently allow vanity URLs for brands (e.g., plus.google.com/location3media). Instead, you are given a string of numbers that identifies your page. If you would like to shorten the URL to use in print or other mediums, create a vanity URL with one of the following non-Google sponsored tools: gplus.to, plus.ly or glpl.us (these work for personal profiles as well)
- To enable Direct Connect, your Google+ page must be verified. This can be done by adding a small line of code to the header of your website. Instructions for adding this code and the Google+ icon can be found here. Please note that Direct Connect does not work for all pages at this time. Google is currently only allowing a few brands to have this functionality, based on “relevancy and popularity.”
- Google+ Pages cannot follow personal users until the users follows the brand, nor can they mention a user unless they are connected. Additionally, Google+ Pages automatically unfollow a user if that user unfollows the brand. These rules were all created in an effort to reduce spam.
You can check out our own Google Plus Page (gplus.to/Location3) and add us to your circles! We’ll be using our page to help you stay current on all things digital marketing.