If you’ve considered the benefits a personal Google Plus profile, you
may well be wondering why you would now need a business page as well.
Although the profiles look the same, there are specific reasons and
benefits for having a Google Plus business page.
Personal Profiles Are For People
Google Plus are very insistent that personal profiles be used only by
real people. Google have already removed hundreds of profiles set up by
businesses or fictional characters. Once you’ve set up your personal
profile you can set up a profile for a business, brand or product.
Targeted Messaging
Google Plus is the ultimate platform for sending targeted messages to
people who have put your page in one of their circles. Unlike Facebook,
you can tailor individual messages for select users. For example, if you
segmented your most loyal customers into a V.I.P list and wanted to
communicate an exclusive offer, you could send a bespoke update just to
them.
This messaging goes beyond special offers. For example, if your website
sold a variety of products or brands, you could segment your users based
on which products they were specifically interested in. Send that group
or circle, specific updates of interest that is more likely to see an
increase in social media conversions. In turn, less people will change
their mind about following you. You’ll nurture a loyal community,
engaging them directly with what matters to them.
Direct Interaction
Google boasts another impressive feature - direction interaction. This
feature is not available on Facebook. For Google Plus, once someone has
added your brand, company or product to their profile you can interact
in a wide choice of ways. You can +1 or reshare their content, tag them
in posts and even send them direct messages which is very important if
you are using your social media to support customer services.
Multiple Administrators
The ability to assign multiple administrators to your Google Plus page
is a new feature that was recently added. If the thought of having to
manage the content by yourself has been putting you off then fret no
further. You can get other people to update content on your behalf.
More Real Estate in Search Results
Connecting your website to your Google Plus page is the best way to gain
maximum exposure in search results. When someone searches for your
brand, the latest Google Plus activity and links to your profile show
potential customers exactly how active your website is. Recently,
Google have launched the latest update to how they serve up search
results with “Search plus Your World” which tailors search results based
on who people and their friends are connected to on Google Plus.
Video Chat Capability
Google Plus offers a much higher level of interaction than any other
social network offering users the ability to “hang out “ with each
other. The feature has already proven itself to be a massively important
feature with even Barrack Obama using the video chat to interact with
potential voters in the run up to the Presidential elections later this
year. Since Google Plus was launched, Hangout has been considerably
improved adding extras such as screen sharing, Google docs integration
and shared notepads.
From the number of points above, it’s obvious that there are many
benefits to businesses and individuals alike in embracing Google Plus
and making sure you are in touch with your target audience. So we can
see that Google Plus isn’t going to go away and if anything, will become
as recognised as Facebook in the future.