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Posted on: Nov 11, 2011

Author: Robert Tobys

In the never ending battle for social media supremacy, Google has launched Google Plus for Businesses. Now you can create a complimentary Google Plus page for your website or brand.

A few benefits are:

• It makes it easier for your target audience to subscribe to your posts and endorse your brand.
• Get more recommendations across the web by adding your +1 badge to your website.
• Let's people find you on Google search by typing +your_site_name (such as +pepsi)*.
• It's another channel to market your business and by being an early adopter you may get more visibility.
• Claiming your brand may keep someone else from claiming it for you!

We have outlined a few steps that you can take to create your own Google Plus Business Page below:

Step #1

Sign-in to your Google Plus account. Find the Create a Google+ page link found at the bottom of the left column.

Step #2

Select the category that your brand falls under and complete the required fields. Either "Local Business or Place", "Product or Brand", "Company, Institution or Organization", "Arts, Entertainment or Sports", or "Other". Complete the required fields and agree to terms.

Step #3

The following page will allow you to add your profile photo and tag line.

Step #4

Once your page is setup make sure that you make a couple of post entries so that when users come to your page for the first time it isn't blank!

It's also about having the right conversations with the right people

Google+, much like Facebook allows you to engage with your visitors one-on-one, send tailored messages to segmented groups or drive more traffic to your website. These are just a few examples of what you can do. Two additional features of Google+ pages are that you can create Circles and Hangouts.

Circles - These allow you to segment your followers into groups. This allows you to post specific messages targeting a segment group. Conversely, you can follow posts within each Circle separately which makes it easy to keep up with what others are saying.

Hangouts - This allows you to chat with your visitors one-on-one or via live video stream. If you are working remotely, this is a great way to engage fellow collaborators. Or perhaps you want engage your audience with a follow along cooking show. The possibilities are endless.

* As of November 2011 Google is currently beta testing this with select brands only such as the example given.