Google+ Pages for business are here, but why should you care? Are they the equivalent of Facebook fan pages or are they something more? We posed those questions to our strategy, online marketing, and account management teams, and you might be surprised by what everyone had to say . . .
“Google+ has a long way to go before it becomes the Facebook killer, but marketers and businesses shouldn’t wait to create and experiment with Google+ business Pages. Google is the go-to search engine for the public at large, and there’s a good chance that Google+ business Pages will be favored over other social networks when it comes to searching for content, services or products on Google.”
- Scott McAndew, Vice President of Strategy
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“Google and Google+ may not have the visibility and strength that other social networks currently have, but so far Google+ has consistently released new features that will allow serious competition with the larger networks. Google will leverage its dominance in search, analytics and checkout to add features into Pages that are not available on other social networks. Emerging products such as Google Wallet could provide a lot of marketing advantages for brands and business owners alike.
“Another win for social marketers is the secondary benefit that Pages will play in search engine rankings and relevancy to a subject. Here’s what Google had to say: Linking your Google+ page and your site like this not only helps you build relationships with friends and followers, but also gives Google information we can use to determine the relevancy of your site to a user query in Google Web Search. An added bonus? Your linked site is now eligible for Google Direct Connect.”
- Matt Kayne, Online Marketing Specialist
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“Google+ Pages for businesses could not only drive organic traffic but help brands with reputation management since Pages will appear in Google search results. Google+ Pages will likely appear near Facebook and Twitter within SERPs (search engine results page) for branded search. Google may increase the visibility of +Pages within SERPs similar to how Google Places results are shown for registered business locations.”
- Jeff Kuchta, Online Marketing Specialist
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“There is no reward for being first to this party. Google+ may never achieve the ubiquity required to be a commercially worthwhile marketing tool. The majority of businesses should focus social effort where they will be more impactful. Definitely reserve your brand page for future use, though.”
David Foster, Solution Strategist
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“While Google+ will have to make significant strides to compete as a ‘social network’ by our standard definition, the impact that this will have for the visibility of businesses should not be underestimated. When Google is going as far as changing an operator in their search functionality to accommodate Direct Connect, it shows that they are behind the change and it should affect search in a major way.”
- Scott Patten, Project Manager
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“You can’t ignore Google. Yes, they’ve made mistakes but they’re too smart and too big to count out. As social becomes more about the larger ecosystem where it’s integrated into every aspect of a consumer’s web experience, Google+ will become more relevant.”
- Chris Bird, Director of Business Development
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“From a feature perspective, Google+ doesn’t offer anything completely groundbreaking. It’s just another social network, but where they excel is their subtle and intuitive user interface.”
- Tony Peterson, User Experience Architect
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“Google+ Pages launch is weak. I don’t expect Google to copy Facebook, but it would have been nice if they brought something more to the table. Adding Google+ pages to their algorithm and making it easy to categorize brands within your network by using the “+” search doesn’t seem to offer web users any value. Having said that, I’m happy that the Facebook pages platform is getting challenged. I have to hand it to Google when they said, ‘Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.’”
- Eric Doolan, User Experience Architect
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“Google+ Pages for business are not going to overtake Facebook fan pages in the near future, but there may be significant benefits when it comes to search. The direct connect feature allows users to access branded content straight from the brand’s Google+ page, but it’s going to be up to Google to condition searchers to put a “+” symbol in front of a search term. In the end, the user interaction and engagement will only be as rich as the content that a brand offers, and how they actively manage that content.”
- Kate Thompson, Account Manager
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“The announcement of Google+ business pages serves as an exciting opportunity for brands to reach consumers. But adding another social platform can prove overwhelming, which is why brands need to understand their social media strategies and goals. One thing is certain—as Google+ hones business pages, advertisers and consumers will be able to benefit from Google’s search engine expertise and the detailed analytics.”
- Jenna Rutschman, Account Director
Helpful Links
- Official Announcement of Google+ Pages on the Official Google Blog
- Create your Google+ Business Page
- Introducing Pages for Google
- Google+ Help Page
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I agree with the overall sentiment that Google + pages will become increasingly relevant, however Google is late to the social media-for-business game. In order to gain access to treasure trove of social information that Facebook enjoys, Google either had to:
A. Create their own ‘facebook’ and provide incentives for businesses to use it (ie organic ranking bumps, link love, etc).
or
B. Make nice with the big social kid on the block and source Facebook’s content.
Either way, the future of online advertising is highly targeted just-in-time ad serving, google needs social data to accomplish this!
Food for thought, what about SIRI? While SIRI is not a search engine, as an ‘overly’ it has control over WHERE the searches are conducted. Is google late to the dance again?