In the last few months, we’ve been anxiously watching the rollout of Google +, the search giant’s latest foray into the social networking world. Over the summer, it was unveiled to personal users but in the last week, it’s been made available to businesses and brands.
This is just the latest in a round of intros from the search giant, the first being its +1 button unveiled over the summer. Many websites have now added this latest ‘share’ button to their pages.
The new Google + brand pages look very similar to personal profiles with the exception of a little square icon that sets it apart from an individual’s page. Individuals with Google + profiles can connect to their favorite brands on the new network.
Fox News, CNN, Angry Birds, Muppets and Pepsi are just a few of the names who’ve been ahead of the curve. In fact, many brands were so eager to get into Google + that they setup pages as personal profiles much to company’s dismay. This in turn prompted Google to rollout brand pages much sooner than they otherwise would have.
Our friends at Sprout Content have been proactive in building their Google + page (…we’re still working on ours though).
Google VP Vic Gondrata commented in a blog post “So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people. But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.”
If you’re setting up a Google + page for your business or brand, you have to choose one of five categories, which include:
1. Local Business or Place – for hotels, restaurants, brick & mortar stores – any type of business that serves a local area
2. Products or Brands – for those who specialize in certain items (i.e. clothing, electronics, vehicles, financial services)
3. Company, Institution or Organization – for companies, institutions, organizations and non-profits
4. Arts, Entertainment and Sports – for bands, books, movies, sports teams, etc.
5. Other – for any who don’t fit into the first 3 categories
Of course with all of this news coming out about Google’s new social network, Facebook has made some major changes to its platform (…some of which mimic Google Plus’ circles feature and so forth). For brand pages though, there’s not a whole lot of difference between Facebook and Google + for now.
Facebook has more experience in this realm though so you can expect Google to be continuously rolling out new features.
Are you considering a Google + profile for your brand? Or are you going to wait and see how it all works out before jumping in?