By Alexandra Reid
As many of you probably already know, Google Plus finally rolled out brand pages this week. Upon first review, brand pages look very similar to Facebook pages, but a closer look reveals added benefits that will help businesses make closer connections with their supporters.
I’ve read lots of articles this week about whether or not businesses should create a brand page right away. Google Plus has been growing at an astounding rate, hitting 20 million users by its first weekend, and millions have joined since. Google Plus is now the fastest growing social network, already boasting 40 million users and attracting large enterprises including Pepsi, Toyota, H&M, CNN and the Dallas Cowboys. As Business 2 Community puts it, “Facebook may be at the center of the social world, but Google is positioned firmly at the center of the business world.” For these reasons, and because of its unique features, I think businesses should begin establishing their presence on the channel as soon as possible.
Google Plus brand pages are similar to Facebook in both appearance and layout, but some publications, such as Wired, have argued that Google Plus trumps Facebook, and even Twitter, in functionality.
The unique features of Google Plus brand pages
Direct Connect
Google Plus brand pages let users take advantage of Google’s powerful search engine. Searchers can simply add a “+” before a search query and be directly forwarded to a business’s Google Plus page. Direct Connect trumps Facebook’s terrible channel search feature.
SEO
According to product management director Dennis Troper, Google will add up all +1 button clicks, from brand pages for Google Plus, websites, and search results, and the single total will be used to determine relevancy in Google Search results.
Inbound links
Christopher Penn offered a great suggestion in a recent post that businesses should stuff inbound links into their About section to encourage clickthroughs. This is an added benefit which Facebook does not provide.
Business categorization
According to Search Engine Land, Pages for Google Plus can be created in five categories: local business or place; product or brand; company, institution, or organization; arts, entertainment, or sports; and other. This allows businesses to distinguish themselves and helps users search businesses by category.
Local pages
Local pages are different from other pages categories, allowing customers to easily connect with a business’s physical location. For example, local pages include a map of the business’s location and feature its address, phone number, and hours of operation. From the Search Engine Land article, “Local pages help customers find local businesses on Google Maps and local search, while a Google Plus page provides business owners with additional ways to engage, build relationships and interact directly with customers.” Local pages and Google plus pages must be managed separately.
Circles
Circles allow users to group followers in specific categories. This is a great way for brands to target messaging to specific audiences. However, at this point, businesses cannot circle users who have not circled the brand page. This is a good feature for consumers, but a challenging one for businesses.
Hangouts
According to Google, this feature allows brands to hang out with followers or customers through video chat. This is a great feature for customer service and could potentially also be used to host live events.
Messages have a longer shelf life
This isn’t a real feature of Google Plus brand pages, but it is certainly an added benefit. This idea was offered from INC.’s Abram Brown, who suggested that because of Google Plus’s relatively sparse audience, company content won’t have to cut through as much clutter in a Google Plus stream.
Some setbacks
Mashable posted a great article yesterday listing the top 10 features users want from Google Plus’s brand pages, which highlights the major setbacks of the platform. Among the multiple user complains is that brand pages are only bound to one personal account and cannot be transferred, deleted or shared. Furthermore, there is no verification process for smaller companies, so others can create a page under your brand’s name and Google won’t do anything about it. I suggest you read the full article to understand all of the challenges brand pages present to businesses.
What have been your first impressions and experiences with Google Plus brand pages?
/// COMMENTS
10 Comments »Larry Arnason
November 11, 2011 5:44 pmGreat article, we launched our Google+ page today and have been struggling with finding out how to use some of the features and if there are features that would allow for a Google+ vanity URL and inviting people on Google+ to follow us. We are hoping over the next week that the user experience will become clearer. Thanks, Larry
our Google+ page: https://plus.google.com/114177998946633290750/posts
Paul
November 12, 2011 10:27 amThis was a great article! I had no idea of all the benefits of Google Plus Brand Pages. There is no doubt that Google Plus has Facebook Beat.I think it’s awesome that G+ now offers brand pages, and I think it will be less spammy than Facebook’s business pages. One less thing Facebook can claim to have over Google Plus. I made a podcast for my class debating Facebook vs Google Plus. One of the points the Facebook debator said was about business pages. The very next day Google announced brand pages! Weird huh? Anyway, if you want to you can vote for my podcast here: http://bit.ly/u9vo5h. You don’t have to. No pressure, but if you do mine is Social Force’s Podcast. Great post by the way! I like d it a lot!
Batman
November 21, 2011 1:29 pm“I think businesses should begin establishing their presence on the channel as soon as possible”
And then what? So I now have a Google Plus Business page, but all my visitors have Facebook accounts.
milda
November 22, 2011 8:11 amThanks for the article, was really interesting! However, I tried adding + before search query (with adidas and pepsi) and was hoping to be taken to their google+ page, but nothing happened. could you please comment this? maybe i did it in some wrong way?
Alexandra Reid
November 25, 2011 5:51 pmLarry: Thank you for commenting. Once you discover more on vanity URL’s, please post your findings here. We’d all benefit from your experiences I’m sure 🙂
Paul: I just went to vote for your podcast but the polls have closed! I’m so sorry for the delay in my response. Thank you for your comment. In my opinion, Facebook Pages are still way ahead of Google Pages in terms of functionality. However, I see great potential in Google Pages for businesses based on some of the articles I’ve read, reflected here. Please let me know how you progress on the channel. I’d love to have your feedback as you move forward.
Batman: While many businesses aren’t yet on Google Plus, getting your feet wet early will help your business stay ahead of the game. Be an early adopter, play around with the tools and make suggestions to Google for improvement. Awesome name btw 😉
Milda: To ensure my report on Google Plus was accurate, I typed in +Pepsi into Google search and was directed immediately to Pepsi’s Google Plus brand page. What’s important is that you don’t include any spaces between the + and the brand name. Thank you for your question. Let me know if this works for you now.
Bryan
December 15, 2011 7:24 pmWhile the excitement of a new social media site with better features is a fun thing to talk about, the people who start using google+ quickly realize all their friends are talking on Facebook. It’s like showing up to a boring party while all your friends are at a different, more exciting party.
The features are only better when people are interacting with you. There is no real way to reach out to potential followers and gain their interest. Let’s just wait and see if someone magically finds us.
Von Darnell
January 02, 2012 8:19 pmThanks for this article. We’ve just started using Google Plus Pages for our commercial video business, and the possibilities are exciting.
As content creators ourselves, we know the potential of offering up high value insights into how businesses can create shareable content. The challenge is having our target customers ever see this content since our business page cannot add our target clients to our circles! So there’s the dilemma! Not to mention, we spend 99% of our time creating content for our customers, so we too infrequently post our own content. I did just read an interesting strategy about circle sharing, so I’ll have to let you know how that goes.
I think Google Plus Pages are best leveraged with a combination of social media strategies, strong SEO, and of course, producing content people want to see in their streams.
Thanks for the article- I tried to add you as a Google Plus Page, but could not find your company page. We are here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/115147387000935600918/#me/posts
..Von
Insulation Contractors
May 01, 2012 3:37 pmI think one of the major drawbacks of Google+ right now is that the hangouts are limited to 10 people at once. That seems like a serious detriment when you’re considering the potential for live demonstrations or Q&A. It’s definitely an interesting way to be on hand to receive customer questions or other inquiries.
Alexandra Reid
May 02, 2012 1:34 pmHi there.
Thanks for your input. I agree with your opinion. While hangouts seemed promising at first, they are now proving to be quite limiting for businesses. It would be magnificent if Google removed limitations on hangouts to allow businesses to host live demonstrations. That would solve a major pain that businesses are experiencing in social media and would certainly win over new users, something that I understand Google Plus is struggling with these days. We’re past the hype stage and it seems to me that the channel is slowly sliding into irrelevance. In a previous post, I argued that Google had to listen to and apply the suggestions of early adopters of the channel for it to compete against the social media giants Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Yet it seems as thought it is stubborn and set in its ways, and that’s why it’s struggling to maintain the interest of its users. What do you think? Have you heard of any interesting and recent innovations over at G+?
The Pros and Cons of Google+ Company Pages | OpenView Labs
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