For organizations chomping at the bit to join Google+, Google’s intriguing new social network, the wait is over. Companies may now safely launch Google+ brand pages without the previously imminent threat of deletion. In fact, we at CyberMark just joined Google+ ourselves.
Although Google+ is still a young, unproven social media outlet, its potential benefits for social networking, SEO and more are becoming clearer by the day. For instance, because there are fewer organizations on Google+ than on Facebook or Twitter, your posts have more impact on the network. Here are a few ways you can build and customize your Google+ page.
Create Your Google+ Page
Go to https://www.google.com/+/business to create your Google+ page. You will need a Google account first in order to do this. Moreover, the Google account you use should be an account you wish to connect with your organization.
Categorize Your Page
Once you sign in with your Google account, you will be asked to pick a category that best describes page. Google+ offers a variety of page categories with additional built-in features. The categories are as follows:
- Local business or place – Restaurants, hotels, landmarks, anything with a physical location
- Product or brand – Clothing, cars, soft drinks, electronics, etc.
- Company, institution or organization – National or international companies, organizations, non-profits
- Arts, entertainment or sports – Movies, TV shows, sports teams, etc.
- Other – Anything that doesn’t fit into the above categories
Once you select a category, depending on the category you choose, you will be asked to name your page and enter your website (if you have one). For local business or place pages, you will be asked to enter your phone number in order to select your business from already existing Google Places profiles. For products or brands, companies, institutions or organizations, or arts, entertainment or sports, you will be asked to further categorize your page.
Add a Tagline
Google+ allows brands to add a 10-word tagline, a concise statement that sums up your business, that will appear at the top of the Acting as a meta description for the page, the tagline is an excellent opportunity for SEO, as you can add your primary keywords right at the top of your page.
Fill out your profile
With Google+, you have an opportunity to add a complete description of your organization. Unlike Facebook, you can use HTML to add links within your description, making Google+ a great source for links back to your websites and social media channels.
Add pictures
One of the best ways to infuse your brand into your Google+ page is to add pictures. With Google+, you have your profile picture as well as a row of five “scrapbook” pictures to express visually what your organization is about. The following is an example from the CyberMark Google+ page to better illustrate what you can do with images to add a little of your company’s personality to the page:
Google+ also allows photo albums, complete with photo captions. Google+’s photo uploader is lightning fast and super easy to use.
Add videos
You can also add videos to your Google+ page, another way to make it more engaging. Upload videos, give a name to your albums (by default, it’s today’s date) and add a comment, which acts like a caption.
Connect your Google+ page and website
Google+ offers a badge generator that allows you to create a custom Google+ icon for your website. Choose from a variety of sizes, display options and coding options to produce a shareable badge for your Google+ page in a matter of a few minutes. Google+ is also beta testing Google+ Direct Connect, a program that allows users to easily find qualified companies’ Google+ pages using Google search.
Share Posts
Last but certainly not least, you can use Google+ to keep your social network up-to-date on your company’s latest. Google+ allows company’s to share statuses with links, photos, videos and more quite easily, which users can “+1” (Google+’s answer to Facebook’s like) or comment on, or share. Here’s an example of a Google+ status:
One of the main advantages of Google+ over other social media outlets is the control it gives users in post privacy. You can choose to make posts public, meaning everyone will see them, or choose to share them only with certain “circles,” or custom groups of followers you have created.
If you would like to create a Google+ brand page, your business, CyberMark would love to help. We can create great-looking, complete pages that proudly represent your business online. To find out more, please contact us today.
