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DQ News: Google’s Social Media For Business Draws Ever Closer But What Will it Look Like?

Facebook has been an important part of many business’ SEO and client outreach for a couple of years now.

Anyone ‘on the inside’ knows that there’s an industry expectation that your business has a Facebook profile, indeed, many TV advertising and marketing campaigns use “visit us on Facebook” rather than using their own website as the platform is ubiquitous, user friendly and the API divulges a great deal of information about the consumer which wouldn’t necessarily be available if they went directly to the web1 address.

So what were Google, the world’s most popular internet index and search engine thinking what they released Google+ with the caveat that businesses weren’t going to be able to have a company profile? Indeed, there were reports of Google+ admins taking down profiles created for particular companies and corporations. They soon realised their error and are designing a pro business platform which will, or so I’m reading, feature optimisations created specifically for companies to take advantage of.

The Changes To Google+ For Companies Are Going To Be Big But We Still Don’t Know What They’ll Be.

It’s clearly going to be a big change from the current Google+, Christian Oestlien said, back in July this year, “Your interest has got us very focused on our development plans.” It’s now October and still nothing. Well, almost nothing, Ford and General Motors have their Google+ accounts approved. They do have a big pink banner stating that it’s a “Test Account” though, and look almost exactly the same as any individuals’ account. If preparing the business side is taking this long one can only assume that the platform is going to be something very special indeed.

Analyzing Effectiveness

One of the things that it is expected to help with is control of the message, SEO and marketing. Google Analytics will tie in with the company profile that data concerning not only where the consumer came from but their level of involvement and interaction across the media. Being able to analyse the impact and effectiveness of Hangouts will become more important as these become an ever more powerful resource in the marketer’s toolbox. As Twitter became an important metric to business once Google began factoring in social along with simple links so Hangouts will take that beyond a simple tweet but let people, in limited numbers, talk face to face.

Everything You Do Synchs Straight Into Google

The advantage that Google+ has over other social media resources is that it is a part of one of the best known and relied upon indices in existence. Everything from your marketing, SEO and SEM to your Docs and Calendar are all bundled together and synch with one another. So while there are always going to be nay-sayers who think Google has too much control and is censoring the internet the rest of us, those who don’t feel the need to wear a Tinfoil hat when using twenty first century technology, realise that having all of your Like for Like tools in one place can only be a huge advantage accessible as it is to everyone from the home blogger to the CEOs of the worlds largest corporations.

What About Google +

But back to what Google+ can offer your business from a client/end user point of view: Oestlien told Ad Age’s Digital West conference that they are now close to unveiling Google+ business profiles. Fine, but in the mean time individuals have been registering profiles using the names of big corporations including Coke and Burger King. While it’s not really a case of land grabbing or cyber-squatting, there can be as many profiles displaying the same name as necessary consumers are going to get annoyed when they add a company to their circles only to find that they’ve been tricked.

In an effort to put an end to this confusion-creating activity Google are proposing to supply verification badges for high profile individuals and celebrities, the perennial victims of impersonation on Twitter. Jim Prosser, a spokesman from Google said that the same thing for business was almost a given: “We’re not announcing anything yet, but you can see a good example by looking on the consumer side with what we’ve done for celebrities.”

Google will protect brands by accepting complaints and notifications if profiles which are not genuine appear, Google will then perform what Prosser called a “soft takedown:” the user will be asked to change or remove the profile themselves and given a few days to do it, if they fail to make the profile significantly distinct from the genuine item Google themselves will take further action. That action hasn’t been specified but it is NOT thought to include shutting down Gmail accounts or other user services.

About the Author:@DanCash is a G+ convert and copywriter living in the south of England. His company is already taking advantage of Hangouts to video conference between the offices in Windsor and the Stockley park office in Heathrow.

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