By Tiffany A. Sands, Social Media Manager
The day has finally arrived. Google+ has officially launched its Business Pages!
For months we’ve been waiting to see what Google had in mind for their Google+ Pages and today they’ve finally been rolled out for the world to see. Ever since Google+ was launched in beta, marketers everywhere have been wondering when Google was going to fully merge search and social. With the launch of Business Pages, we have now an idea how customers are going to find your business.
Watch Google’s video to learn more:
Pretty cool, right? Here’s a quick breakdown of Google+ business pages and what you can do to get your business found by people looking for your products and services.
Direct Connect
Direct Connect allows people to search your company anywhere on Google using the +. This works a lot like Twitter’s hashtage. Now, when people search “+National Positions” on Google, they can opt to automatically follow the National Positions Google+ page.
Direct Connect is potentially huge. It is another step toward personalized search that can leverage your client base to grow your business. If used correctly, Google+ will turn your customers into brand evangelists who will win over new customers for you. We predict that viral marketing tactics (such a promotions and other social media hooks) will become fully integrated with your search marketing campaign.
It may take a while for Direct Connect to work for your brand but you can help Google along by doing these 3 things:
1. Connect your Google+ page and your website using the Google+ badge.
2. Add a snippet of code to your site.
3. Add your website link to your page.
Watch the video below to learn more about Direct Connect:
Google+ Pages in the Search Results
Google+ will now show people and pages at the top its search results pages in Google+. The search results will also include an easy option to add the Page to one of your circles.
Other New Google+ Page Features
Google hasn’t revealed too much about the possibilities for its new Google+ Pages, but we have learned the following:
1. People can recommend your business page with a +1.
2. People can add your company page to their circles, which allows them to subscribe to your page’s updates.
3. People can spend time with your staff face-to-face using Google+ Hangouts for videos.
Looking Ahead
We foresee +Brand Name popping up on ads worldwide right along with #BrandName and Like us on Facebook. There are still a lot of improvements that need to be made to the pages, (there can only be 1 admin per page at the moment and some brands are still unable to create a page, to name two problems) but you can be sure that we have only seen the beginning of Google+.
More and more improvements will be added to the pages in the coming weeks. You can check to see if your account has been enabled yet to create a page here.
Stay tuned to National Positions for more information on Google+.