“Google+ Pages” is Here! Oh Yeah!!!

Google has opened Google+ Pages, which means businesses can join the Google+ community! The Google+ Pages, which are similar to Facebook pages are designed for businesses, brands, organizations and any other group that wants to join and participate in the new Google+ social network.

Personally, this makes me very happy. I was wondering what had happened to Google’s “brand pages”, (to me it seemed that to compete with Facebook, Google+ would have to launch + Pages for business) and was excited to hear they had landed on the Internet.

This article contains a few tips and suggestions for you as you guys out there get started creating Google+ pages for and to promote your brands. Google+ Pages are still pretty new, and pretty much uncharted territory, however, with that in mind there are a few ways you can help maximize the impact of your efforts.

• Note: You may wish to re-read our article about How to use the Google +1 Button for information on how the Google+ social network influences Google’s Search Engine Results Pages.

1) Why Not Get Started NOW?

Google+ Pages are now open to all users and in creating a Google+ Page for your brand now you can show the world that you are up to date on the latest marketing trends (that you are part of the future … not the past). Even if you’re not sure weather or not your target audience is active in Google+, I highly recommend creating a Google+ Page. It doesn’t have to be perfect, as you can always tweak and modify the page tomorrow or the next day… over the weekend even.

To get started, go to http://www.google.com/+/business/and Click on the “Create your Google+ Page” button.

2) ALWAYS include a “Call-To-Action”

As you would with any other web-page you are driving traffic to, you should call your users to action (that is, request your users complete a desired action when they arrive at your Google+ page). “What should this call to action be?” I hear you ask? Most likely you are going to request your visitors add you to one of their “Circles” (Google+’s way of categorizing your Google+ contacts). It could also be to join a “Hang Out“, +1 your Google+ page, share the page with your online contacts; it could be any number of things.

The important thing is that you call your users to action! The truth is that if your updates and text do not promote an action, users may visit your Google+ Page … and then click away again, never to return or interact with your brand ever again. :(

3) How many Google+ Pages is too many Google+ Pages?

Businesses and Brands can actually create multiple Google+ Pages and this might be handy for a BIG company who might want to create different pages for products but it could become problematic for over zealous marketers. I would suggest that unless you have a very, very (extremely!) good reason to create more than one Google+ page, you should focus on building and maintaining one page for your brand (and with the extra time you have not making millions of pages – make it excellent!).

4) You! Yes, You!! Get Involved!!!

Once your page is live, don’t just sit back, fat and happy, thinking: “My work here is done“. When folk add you to one of their circles you should consider adding them back. Post interesting content, host a hangout. The important thing is to participate in the Google+ community!!! (That’s what it’s there for!!!) Sure, there are some things you cannot do, for example, pages cannot play games. You should treat your brand page just like you would a personal profile and get involved with your visitors. Connect with users and promote your brand through that connection.

5) Place Pages Vs. + Pages

You have the option to setup a “Local Business Page” or a “Brand Page” when you set up your Google+ Page; both have their advantages. With a Local Business Page you can include a map of your business’s location and list your address, phone number, opening hours, etc. This page on Google+ wont replace your Google place page (y’know … the ones that show up in Google Maps results). You’ll need to manage both profiles for the time being to ensure that your business can be found in both Google+ as well as Google Maps. Check out “Get started with a local Google+ page“ in the Google help center to familiarize yourself with Local Businesses in Google+.

6) Link to your website with Google+, and vice versa

Hopefully by now you already have +1 buttons on your website. If not, then  that task should be at the top of your web developers “to do” list.

Once you create a page for your brand though, you will also want to link up your website with Google+ and vice versa. According to Google: “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.”

Additionally, when your site and page is cross linked, you will be eligible for Google Direct Connect, which is a brand new search feature that lets users automatically go to a brand’s G+ page by starting their search query with a + symbol.

7) Link your Google+ page with your AdWords campaign

The main point is that an active presence in the community can increase the Return On Investment (R.O.I.) of the search campaigns that you pay for. Since brands and businesses can set up Pages now, Google has announced a new type of ad extension in AdWords: Social extensions. Although there isn’t very much information about social extensions, Google themselves have written the following about them:

“If you’re an AdWords customer, you can link your AdWords campaign to your business’ page. Connecting your page to your campaigns allows your advertising and page to share +1′s. Any +1′s on your ads will increment the count on your page and vice versa. To enable this connection, simply enable Social Extensions in the Ad Extensions section and enter the URL for your Google+ page in the ‘Google+ Page’ field.”

8) Use a Google+ related URL shortener

Unfortunately Google+ does not offer short vanity URLs like Facebook and Twitter at the moment. So instead of having easy to remember G+ addresses like plus.google.com/TheMuppets, your URL is long, full of numbers like plus.google.com/118177189004466545044/. Luckily there are quite a few 3rd party Google+ URL shorteners. One of the most used at the moment is: http://gplus.to/ but there are several others which you can use to generate shorter URLs that you can use in your other marketing materials.

• Click the following link to read our article about URL Shorteners and what they do.

9) Promote your Google+ account from other networks

Get attention for your Google+ Page! You should promote it from all of your other social networks including (but certainly not limited to): Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, your company’s blog, your monthly newsletter, as well as everywhere else you can think of! EVERYWHERE!

10) Do not treat Google+ like the audience is the same as Facebook

Your strategies for Internet Marketing (as they should be for your Google+ pages) should always be tailored to the audience. The users on Google+ are very technology and marketing savvy at the moment and there appear to be more men using the Google+ network than women. By comparison Facebook has a much more gender-neutral and equally balanced audience and is much more popular among the mainstream Internet users (not marketers, but the everyday users who still harbor a fear that typing “Google” into Google might break the Internet). My point is: Create content specifically for Google+. It would be a mistake to just re-post identical status update to all of your accounts.

As someone who is becoming a serious fan of the Google+ network, I highly recommend considering the audience your content is intended for at the moment. You can be less strict after a little while.

Ready to Stand Out from the Google+ Crowd?

Be innovative; do something different and new! Google+ is just waiting for brands to emerge as leaders. Google’s social network is still pretty new, and marketers are unsure on how to convey the importance of activity on Google+ to the “executives”. By doing something radical, you have the opportunity be recognized as a leader amongst the Google+ Pages (and you might even discover articles about your strategy on many Search Engine Marketing blogs :) )