Just a few months ago, Google kicked brands, businesses, bands, and other non-personal profiles off of Google+ with a message that they’d be welcome back soon with something specifically created for them. That day has come.
Today, Google announced the worldwide launch of Google+ Pages giving brands, businesses, and the like a place on the fast growing social site. In a blog post on the Official Google Blog, Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering, stated that any business or organization, “will soon be able to join the community,” by creating their own Google+ Pages.
A number of bands, entertainers, nonprofit organizations, brands, and businesses have already created Google+ Pages, including Toyota, Pepsi, H&M, Save the Children UK, and more.
Not only can businesses and brands use Google+ to connect with existing and potential consumers around the world, but they can also use Google+ features like circles to segment groups of customers for targeted communications, hangouts to speak directly with their followers, and sparks to monitor conversations.
Google+ Pages will be integrated with other Google products such as AdWords for campaign tracking, and a verification process will be put in place for well-known brands to ensure people find the verified brand or business page rather than an imposter.
To coincide with the launch of Google+ Pages, Google also announced the launch of Direct Connect, which will enable people to search Google for a brand name preceded by a + sign (for example, +Toyota) and get an instant connection to that brand’s Google+ Page where they can instantly add the brand to their own account and go directly to the brand’s Google+ Page. Check out the video below to see how it will work.
Google continually teases both consumers and investors about more features coming for Google+, so we’ll have to wait and see what’s next. Google’s goal is clearly not to have the best stand-alone social networking site with Google+ but to integrate its varied products so closely that people become completely dependent on them — like a one-stop-shopping solution to more things than we can probably imagine.
What do you think of Google+ Pages and Direct Connect?
Susan Gunelius
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