Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Official Google Blog
In a move that will not surprise most, Google has officially launched "Google+ Pages", allowing businesses to create a presence within the new social platform. We knew that Google was doing trials with the likes of Ford and Coca Cola so it's no surprise. What is a surprise, if you haven't seen these trials, is how poor in functionality these pages are compared to Facebook where applications can be built into the page. There's really little a brand can do to engage it's audience other than the wall posts, About page and video. That said, the wall posts do work to engage Facebook users and the early example walls are engaging.
Google+ is a constantly evolving platform and is clearly high on the Google agenda when you consider the sheer number of enhancements in recent months from tighter YouTube & Google Chrome integration, through to opening the platform up to Google Apps users. With over 40 million users (source, active users unknown and much lower we reckon), it is still growing fast, it is quickly becoming of of the top 10 platform for marketers and brands to include as part of any communications / engagement outpost management, but it's way behind others like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in terms of mainstream audience engagement. Do you know anyone who doesn't work in marketing or tech who is using Google+? We don't.
The pages are much like the Facebook Pages we have all come to love and will allow brands to connect, share & engage with fans. But more limited as we've said.
As part of the new rollout, Google has implemented an easy way for users to locate brands on Google+. If within the Google search area you now put a "+" before any brand or business name (this could be music band as much as your favourite sports brand) it will take you directly to their page on Google+ (pretty neat). A few examples of pages that already exist are, AngryBirds, Pepsi & Toyota. You can find more on the original Google blog. However there doesn't seem to be a "brand URL" you could use in offline material.
Firstly, most will not want rush to create a comprehensive Google+ page, unless you're mega brand it is unlikely to dramatically affect your business anytime soon, definitely not enough to distract from your current agenda. However, you may want to protect your brand name by creating a presence, although it's not clear to us what's to stop others creating non-official brand pages. Surely Google have thought of that? Has anyone seen any unofficial pages yet?
Google+ is still developing its own space in the market and in reality still has a fraction of the users that Facebook does. It will also depend on who your customers are and we don't yet have enough data on who uses Google+, whether they use it instead of Facebook, as well as etc etc. If you have an intimate understanding of your customers you will know where Google+ should feature in your agenda!
There is little doubt though a presence on Google+ will make commercial sense to most businesses at some-point, after-all it is another outpost to connect, share and add value with a potentially new audience. Before creating your Google+ page please ask yourself the following questions:
Google+ (and its sharing button) has come a long way and yet it still has a long journey ahead of it, with other services Google like YouTube, Android, Blogger.com, Picasa & Google apps its potential is there. I am sure activity within all these services will play their part in your businesses in the future so, it's not a question of whether you should be on Google+ its when, why & how that is important. When are you planning to use Google+?
If are all this, you do want to create a page here is the Google+ Business Starter guide (PDF).
By Chris Soames
Chris Soames is a Smart Insights blogger and consultant, he has worked in digital marketing for over 6 years with the last few years managing international web strategies for a leading travel brand. Now the Commercial Director at First 10, an Integrated marketing agency, he helps clients get clarity on their marketing strategy and create campaigns engineered to engage with their consumers to help drive sell-through. Most of all, Chris enjoys working with talented people who want to create great (& commercial) things not just tick boxes.
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