Mike's thoughts
How to Set Up Google Plus Business Pages
Google+ Business Pages has launched! In this post, I will take you through a step-by-step guide on how to set up a page for your business and how to integrate Google+ into your website, making your Google+ profile discoverable on Google.
Google+ Business Pages – What Is It?
With a similar feel to Facebook Pages, Google+ Business gives companies and brands a platform to share and connect with their customer base through content such as photos, videos, blog posts and status updates.
Like with the Google+ profiles for individuals, Google+ Business Pages also provides users with ‘Circles’ to help group together people to share content and converse with them based on their interests.
Want to take your customer engagement further? Host a ‘Hangout’ session where you can connect with a group via a webcam for feedback sessions or planned conversations with your most passionate customers.
As Google states:
“The goal is to help you communicate in more intimate ways with different groups of people.”
How to Setup a ‘Google+ Business’ Page
- If you haven’t already, set up a Google+ account.
- Once on your Google+ profile page, click on ‘Create a Google+ Page’
- You’ll then be taken through a simple setup up process including the type of business you are, your company tagline and a few photos that show what your business is all about before viewing your Business profile.
- Hit ‘Finish’ and you’ll be shown your business page.
At this point it will look pretty empty. Focus on the basic set up which will include the following:
- Add a company logo
- Prepare up to 20 posts so you have content on your page straight away
- Upload any videos and photos and share those on your main page.
- Setup your tag line if you haven’t already
- Link to any sites that are related/relevant to your business including your own company website. You have space for up to 20.
That is your Google+ Business Page set up.
Be sure to plan what you will be posting and how frequently to give your viewers a reason to come back. This could be status updates, videos, photos, latest blog posts or special discounts to name a few.
Google +1 Count Versus Followers
Google+ Pages have both a +1 count and a follower count (see to the left of the above image). What’s the difference? The followers are those who have added the company to one of their circles; these followers will see that company’s updates within their own content stream.
The +1 count is a sum of all those users that have shared the company Google+ page with their own network. Whether the +1 number will contribute to rankings within Google is yet to be known.
How to Add the Google+ Badge to Your Website
Along with the release of Google+ Business Pages, Google have also launched the Google+ badge that can be added to your website to inform visitors that your company is active on Google+. To add the G+ badge:
- Copy your profile ID (this will be the number in the URL when on your profile page).
- Head over to the Google+ badge configuration tool and add your profile ID where prompted
- Choose one of the badges underneath and a code snippet will show.
- Copy and paste the code to a suitable position within your website’s source code.
Google+ Direct Connect
Google+ Direct Connect allows your audience to find your Google+ page easily. By adding a ‘+’ in front of a company name, you will be shown a preview of that company’s Google+ page.
Remember – your website must be verified. To do this:
- Link to your website from your Google+ Business Page
- Add a Google+ badge to your website
- Add the following code to your website (changing ‘[yourpageID]’ to your profile’s ID number):<link rel=”publisher” href=”https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]” />
Want to Know More?
Google has a couple of videos to show off the new Google+ Page features:
Google+ Pages Video
Google+ Direct Connect Video
You can also view a number of Google+ pages that have already been created including:
Burberry – (Definitely check out their profile photo set!)
The full list can be found on Google’s own blog post.
Ask Away!
If you have any questions about the new Google+ Business pages, certainly leave us a comment below. And if you’ve set up and are managing a page, we’d love to hear what your thoughts are so far.
I created a page as per your instructions under my gmail name. Now how do I get back in as the page admin to post stuff?
Please advise. Much obliged, Don
Hi Don,
Thanks for your comment.
To get back to your business page, log on as you would as a normal user.
Once you are on your own Google+ profile page there will be a drop down menu next to your profile photo in the left hand column. For me this says “1 Page” as I’ve only set up on business page. Click on that and you’ll be able to get back to your business page to post as the admin.
When on the business page, use the same drop down menu to get back to your personal account too.
Hope that helps, if not let me know.
Mike
I set up a page for our college, but I would like to authorize other administrators to add content to our page. How can I do that?
Thanks for your help!
Ramona
Hi Ramona,
At this moment in time there is no option to add more than one administrator to a Google+ Business Page. Impractical I know!
The multi-admin functionality is readily available on Facebook and if Google want to compete, they’ll have to add it some point in the future in my opinion.
Mike
Thank you Mike.
I found it. It is not in the profile page. It is in the Stream page beneath the profile photo.
Perhaps someone changed it.
Many thanks,
Donald
I setup our page while logged in to google as my personal person. Of course the +page now has me linked as administrator. What if I want to quit this company and move on? I see the comment above indicates that there is no ability to have multiple administrators but how can I simply change the administrator to a google account setup for this purpose?
Thanks Mike,
Paul N.
Hi Paul,
Another good (and reasonable) question. And I say reasonable as you’d expect a feature like this to exist.
Simple answer, it doesn’t… yet.
At this moment in time you can only ‘manage’ or delete your page totally. So the ‘manage’ button is a little cheeky as it just takes you to your business page so you can add content etc. The delete button – I think you know what that’ll do
To find these options, click on the drop down menu which shows your page(s) and at the bottom of the list, you’ll see ‘Manage Pages’ or type https://plus.google.com/pages/manage into your browser.
Rumour has it that transfer of ownership will be available in the future as will multiple admins according to this website: http://google-plus.com/2830/google-pages-multiple-admin-page-analytics-and-ownership-transfer-coming-soon/. Although, I’m too sure how credible a source that website is.
It’s another feature desperately required to compete with Facebook and for those that build larger communities to be able to comfortably manage it. Or as you say, should an employee quit, how do you remove access from either employee or employer side?
You can keep up to date with Google’s official G+ blog: http://googleplusplatform.blogspot.com/
…and their G+ product page: http://www.google.com/+/business/index.html
Mike
Just curious how to follow people or add people when you have a page. It’s saying that the people have to add a page first. Just wondering how to build the following on Google+.