Why You Need Google+ For Your Business

Google+ (or Google Plus or G+, as it is also often referred to) is an online social network created by Google to be a rival to similar platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Like the other social networks, Google+ is an online medium on which registered users can connect and interact with each other, both publicly and privately, as well as engage with unconnected users through Google+ web forums (known as Google Communities).

Google+ is a curate’s egg of a social network. On one hand, it borrows all the best elements of the other social networks and combines them (often elegantly) on one platform and through one interface. On the other, the sheer breadth of Google+’s functionality can be dauntingly complicated to the uninitiated. It remains comparatively unloved and unadopted by the public at large when compared to the runaway successes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Also, unlike those other prominent social networks, it lacks a clear definition for who it is for and how it should be used; by being so powerful and all encompassing, Google+ can be accused of being all things to all men, a jack of all trades and a master of none. Facebook is for your personal life, LinkedIn is for your professional one while Twitter is for microblogging whereas Google+ is… for all of those things, potentially.

However, if you are a business and are looking for a good online platform to advance your online marketing, you would be very foolish to discount Google+ just because of its complexity, breadth and its comparative unpopularity.

Because Google+ is so integrated with Google’s other online products, because it is free at the point of use, and because it is backed by one of the world’s most powerful and innovative companies (the clue is in the name!), Google+ is here to stay and you are better off being on this particular wagon than off it. Google+ is a sleeping, powerful giant that is just waiting to be utilised by resourceful, imaginative companies who want to have the competitive edge when it comes to their online marketing.

Here are just 10 of the many reasons why you should consider using Google+ for your business:

1. Google Authorship
   
   Google+ users can indicate on their profiles which websites they contribute article or work to, and by doing so a link to their Google+ profile and avatar image is displayed next to article’s they have written within Google Search Results. This is known as Google Authorship. Here’s an example:
   
   
   The benefits of having this are not all to do with authors’ vanity. Having a photo of an author next to a link in Search Engine Results immediately helps differentiate it from the others surrounding it, being inherently more visually and psychologically engaging.
   
   Also, having an article which the author is willingly happy to be publicly identified with suggests that it may be a better source of information than other pieces of landfill content marketing dredged up by the search engine results.
   
   Although Google deny this, it is widely believed by online marketers that articles with clear Google Authorship perform better in Google’s Search Engine results than those that don’t and even if that’s not the case now, it soon will be. If you are a company looking to boost its online content marketing. Google Authorship is an option that should be looked into (although it’s not without its complications).
   
   
   
2. Not only does it have all the benefits and functions of other social networks, it improves upon them 
   
   As far as I am concerned, Google+ has all the features that you would expect from a decent social network and augments them. It’s sort of a ‘Greatest Hits’ of social networking, remixed for mass consumption and use on one platform.
   
   As already mentioned, the breadth of Google+ has deterred people, but it has the forum/ networking functions I associate with LinkedIn, the ‘public display’ (see below) of Twitter and the personable qualities of being on Facebook. However, you get little of the advertising spam you now get on Facebook, Google+ Communities are place of genuine debate (unlike LinkedIn Groups – see below), and you have the space to post at length (unlike the truncated inanities that Twitter’s 140 character limit seems to encourage).
   
   Although far from flawless, Google+ remains potentially the most powerful and user friendly social network currently available to the masses… for free. Given all these strengths, I think it is only a matter of time before the penny drops with the wider public as to the benefits of being on and using Google+, and it would be very astute of an ambitious company to already have a clear presence on the platform in advance of any mass migration towards it.
   
   
   
3. Free video conferencing
   
   Google+ has inbuilt video conferencing and instant messaging capabilities for all users, known as Google Hangouts. Very akin to the widely used Skype platform, Google+ offers greater functionality for free including the option of having multiple people as part of a conference call (which is a feature only available to Premium – i.e. paying – users of Skype at the time of writing).
   
   Admittedly, for those who already use Skype and use it within Facebook, this in itself may not seem such a draw but Skype has its critics, and it is what you can do with those video calls in the public domain that arguably gives Google+ the edge…
   
   
   
4. Broadcast to the world for free… while simultaneously recording the results for future use
   
   Can you imagine the benefits of being able to video broadcast publicly, for free, to the whole wide world? Well, you no longer just have to imagine it… you can do it right now, via Google Hangouts On Air.
   
   Utilising YouTube, and not just the social network itself, Google Hangouts On Air goes to show the innate edge Google+ has over other networks (such as Facebook) by being part of the wider Google family of products.
   
   Google Hangouts On Air can be advertised in advance of any broadcast through Google+ and other online outlets, and (as with the private Google Hangouts) these can feature multiple onscreen participants. 
   
   Beyond that, there are numerous plugins that allow call participants to take questions from any of the viewers of the broadcast, allowing for a full-blown conference or seminar environment.
   
   If this functionality was not attractive enough itself in its own right, all Google Hangouts On Air are simultaneously recorded and kept on a YouTube channel that is associated with your Google+ account. This means that the broadcasted call can be reshared and reutilised at a later date for marketing purposes. 
   
   Such recordings can also be edited within YouTube, although many choose to download the recordings and reedit them with more advanced, professional software before reuploading them to YouTube for a wider, ongoing audience. 
   
   The business potential for such a tool is immediately obvious, not only for external communication but internal communication and training too. And, to reiterate this once more, it is free at the point of use.
   
   
   
5. Google+ Communities
   
   Google+ also offers a wide range of online G+ communities in which you can network for both professional and personal purposes.
   
   For any interest, professional sector or geographical region that you can think of, there is a Google+ Community that caters to it. The same could also be said for LinkedIn with its Linked Groups forums but, in my own experience, I find Google+ Communities to be better moderated and open, comparatively free of the spamming and the overzealous automoderation one now sadly associates with LinkedIn.
   
   I’m sure, as Google+ grows in popularity and its user base, Google+ Communities will encounter many of the issues that now bedevil LinkedIn Groups. I suspect, however, that Google will learn from LinkedIn’s mistakes and take steps with Communities’ evolution so that they remain a place for genuine engagement and networking… which can only benefit businesses and business people in the longer run.
   
   
   
6. You can have your own Google+ Company Page
   
   As with LinkedIn and Facebook, your company can have its own identity on Google+ in addition to your own and your employees’ Google+ profiles.
   
   However, unlike a LinkedIn Company Page, a Google Plus Company Page behaves and interacts much more like an individual’s Google+ profile, allowing for greater corporate engagement.
   
   As with a Facebook Company Page, a Google Plus Company Page can have multiple administrators and managers that eases and spreads the burden of having to maintain an online corporate presence on the network.
   
   
   
7. It integrates with Google Local, and in turn with Google Maps
   
   Recently Google have taken steps to further integrate Google+ with Google Local, which is the listing service that provides a company description for registered companies to the right of Google Search Engine results (see below):
   
   
   
   Your Google Local listing is already integrated with Google Maps, which in turn tie back in with Google Search Results. Now that Google+ is being folded into these features as well, isn’t it better that you curate your business’ Google presence through Google+ rather than just leave it chance?
   
   There are admittedly lots of issues associated with the integration of Google+ with Google Local, which in turn has led to confusion and frustration for many a business, but it is evident that Google is getting its act together in this regard, and you want your business to be in the right place (literally, when it comes to Google Maps!) as and when Google+ becomes more widely adopted.
   
   
   
8. Search Engine Optimisation
   
   In general conversation, when people talk about looking up information on the internet, have you ever heard anyone say that they’re going to ‘Bing it’ or ‘Yahoo it’? No, but I bet that you have heard someone, more than once, they are going to ‘Google it’.
   
   As vacuum cleaner company Hoover know, the moment your product becomes a verb in the English language, you have market dominance and so it is with Google and internet searches.
   
   It is therefore, inconceivable, that Google would develop a social network that would be independent and none beneficial to its search engine and vice versa.
   
   Although Google continue to publicly be coy over the linkage between activity on Google+ and with Google Search Engine results, many believe that there clearly is and that this will only intensify. If you think that this smacks of conspiracy theory, why do you think Facebook last year partnered up with Microsoft’s Bing, a rival to Google Search?
   
   The online battle lines have been drawn, and I believe that there will increasingly be linkage between social network activity and results on associated search engines. If, like me, you believe that Google will remain the only game in town when it comes to internet Search, your business will be running a risk if it does not have some form of ongoing presence or activity on Google+.
   
   
   
9. People don’t have to be on Google+ to view your Google+ activity online
   
   As with Twitter, your Google+ profile and activity can be publicly viewed online by those who are not registered users of Google+ if you choose them to be.
   
   As you would predict, Google+ posts also turn up within Google Search Engine Results, even more so if users are logged into their Google accounts while using a Google Chrome browser. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, however, you can format the text within a Google+ post with bolding, underlining and strikethroughs, and Google+ handle imagery and embedded video (through YouTube) well.
   
   Even though I and others would argue you would be ill-advised to do, you could in theory blog directly and at length exclusively through Google+ alone, sharing the links for the individual posts through other online outlets.
   
   
   
10. Think about the future
    
    One could argue that Google is the world’s largest and most prominent innovator in the world. Having snatched that particular crown from an ailing Apple. Google are setting the pace with wearable technology. Many believe that the much heralded, long-time-coming Google Glass will be a game changer, not just in how we interact with online technology but also how we interact with each other in wider society.
    
    Given this and the popularity of social networking as a whole, it is inconceivable that Google will be dropping Google+ in the near future. If anything, people’s exposure to it can only increase through a likely widespread adoption of Google-related products.
    
    Indeed, it is foreseeable that the next major iteration of Google+ will leave Facebook lagging behind, its innovation hindered (by its own admission) its large, unwieldy, technologically diverse installation base.

If you would like to know more about how Google+ could benefit your business or if you would like to receive training on how to use it, please do not hesitate to contact me via info@nicklewiscommunications.com

Editors note

Since the publication of this article, Google have changed their rules on Google+ and in particular about Authorship. Nick has updated his thoughts on these on his own blog, which you can find at http://www.nicklewiscommunications.com/google-authorship-r-p-mean-google-google/