Small Businesses Should Grab a Google+ Page, But…
After months of promises, Google has finally launched Google+ Pages for local businesses. In fact, they’re for any company, product, brand, organization, etc. So the obvious question is this: Should my small business have a page on Google+? My answer: Yes, but….
Let me explain a little more. I’ll keep this short and simple.
Create Your Google+ Small Business Page
The direct URL for creating your Google+ business page is plus.google.com/pages/create, but the service isn’t actually fully open to everyone just yet. If you see this:
… you’re gonna have to wait a couple more days. Google says the sign-up page should be available to all in the next two days.
Make your page (when you can), fill out the profile completely, add a custom logo/avatar and all that stuff. You can’t get a custom URL to reflect your business name (yet), so don’t worry about the fact that your page will have a really ugly URL like the one that Google Maps has: https://plus.google.com/111401917971052287374/posts.
But…
It’s fun to play with a shiny new toy, especially when it comes from Google. But…, I wouldn’t get too excited about this just yet. Ask yourself this one simple question:
Are my customers and prospects using Google+?
In my experience, Google+ is still very much an early adopter service. I don’t know a single, non-tech industry person who has ditched Facebook or Twitter in favor of Google+. Plenty of my SEO and online marketing friends have switched over to Google+, but none of my U2 friends have. None of my wife’s local/real estate friends have left Facebook.
So, grab your page there. But don’t get too excited about it just yet. Remember the Golden Rule of Social Media: Be where your customers are. If your customers aren’t on Google+ (yet), there’s no sense in you spending much time there.
Sound advice out of the gate, Matt. I haven’t seen much activity in Google+ on the local business side either. Who am I kidding? I haven’t seen any.
I think Google needs to advertise Google+ much like they are with Chrome now in order for the masses to see that this is a real option for them. The longer they wait the deeper Facebook’s claws get into everyone.
That said I would really like to see Google+ succeed beyond the tech early adopter crowd but I wouldn’t bet on it at this point.
I’ve been seeing more ads online for Google+ lately, Frank, but I haven’t looked closely enough to see if it’s just them retargeting me, or if they’re really widespread ads that everyone sees.
Honestly,I haven’t even see those.
It’s the 90 second TV ads that are really compelling (Daniel Lee, Dad ads). They tell a more cohesive story about the Google ecosystem but the messaging is confusing because it uses Chrome as the foundation. Makes sense to use Google+ that way but, hey, I’m just an editor of a blog so what do I know?!
Take care.
Just grabbed a page for a local business that I work for. Not really anticipating much action, but I want to make sure at least the business contact information is filled out so that everything is ready. Plus there is always the kudos one gets when your boss asks, “do we have a …profile?” Yes sir we do.
Thanks for the heads up, Matt. The only thing I’ve found so far is the page categories, at least for local business/place, are fairly vague and some businesses may have trouble determining which category they fall in. Otherwise, always fun to play with something new. 😉
I agree — not too many small business owners on board yet. And, personally, that’s what I like about Google+. It’s where I go when I want to ESCAPE the clutter of Facebook. My stream is filled with the people who I REALLY want to follow — digital marketers, tech people and great photographers.
I don’t see Facebook users jumping ship and most of the small business owners I work with say they just don’t have time to manage and monitor another social media account. Especially since Google+ pages are currently tied to a personal profile and doesn’t allow other administrators.
Time will tell if the Mom + Pop businesses will ever jump on board Google+ but in the meantime, I’m loving it!
Many of my clients are in high CPC verticals on Google Adwords. The aggregation of +1 counts has me pretty excited and so we are moving forward fast for that reason.
Google+ Pages so far seem VERY limited indeed. Having compared my own personal profile to the Ford Motor Co “Business Page” prior to yesterdays launch, I didnt see many/any differences between the 2 and I was hoping the delay in lunching +Pages was going to be due to the masses of user friendly features and interactive widgits I could expect to see. As it turns out, we basically have a persona profile with a business name (give or take a few differences)
Lets hope Google has something BIG planned soon!
Good point. But it never hurts to check Google+ out, at least. Skate to where the puck will be, not where the puck is, right? 🙂 I’ve seen good things happen by a simple audit of customers, either by in-person interaction or simply asking people who like your Facebook page what other services, if any, they use.
I just setup my work’s Google+ page the other day and haven’t seen any action.
I’m in my early 20s and noticed must of the people in my age group are locked into Facebook with minimal interest in Google+. Do you think the Google+ business pages will change that, especially if they start showing up in search results?
Zach – I think that’s the million dollar question at this point. 🙂
Interesting article about Google+. I totally agree with frank, there is not much activity about Google+ for local businesses. I hope in time, it will really take off.
Good advice i agree that people shouldn’t get too excited yet, however I am predicting that Google+ will eventually overtake or become a very close competitor to the likes of face book and twitter, as it is already showing signs that it won’t only affect companies social media activity but also their SEM activity. Exciting times ahead!
I agree with most of the comments, except that it can’t hurt get in before the masses embrace it.
You should sign up one to secure your brand name in Google Plus.
But i been following mashable for sometime and lot of bad feed back that Google Plus Business Page do not influence much as facebook fan page and yet not much business success in using Google Plus.