You were busy updating your Facebook status and tweeting about it. In the meantime, Google plus is getting ready to launch their new business profiles. Christian Oestlien, Group Product Manager at Google, wrote a blog post noting that Google has accelerated its development work on Google plus for business. “Your interest has got us very focused on accelerating our development plans,” Oestlien wrote on July 14. In response, Facebook launched ‘Facebook for Business.’ It is nothing too different from the old fan pages; you still have to pay for ads, obviously. Facebook’s quick launch of its business page is a serious indication that the 750-million-member monster of social networks is taking the arrival of Google plus quite seriously. Initially, Google planned to prohibit commercial, non-individual use of Google plus. But things changed very quickly. Many businesses ignored the rule and created pages anyway. It’s the internet age, duh! The company’s social business head, Vic Gundotra, told TechCrunch that the exclusion of businesses from Google plus was “probably a mistake.” But don’t throw your business into Google plus just yet! Google said you won’t be able to automatically convert a personal profile into an official business profile. “Doing it right is worth the wait,” said Oestlien. So what’s going to be so special about business profiles in Google plus? Google is keeping it secret, but a representative of the company told VentureBeat that users should expect “a level of analytics and measurement that you’d typically find in Google products, as well as a nuanced approach to how things are shared. It encourages and enhances conversation, it doesn’t just put things in the stream.” What else is up with Google+ business profiles? Advertising & search | Google’s crème de la crème. It’s still secret how advertising will work in Google plus. On the search side, PC World showed how Google low-blowed Facebook and Twitter by not showing their content in its search results; PC World authors suspect it is a strategy to catapult Google plus content into light. Privacy control | Don’t let your clients check out photos of your grandparents’ anniversary party. Privacy flexibility is certainly an advantage Google plus has over Facebook. The Circles feature in Google plus allows you to choose who you share information with. Business tools | Like everything else, what’s in the bag is still a mystery. Many businesses rely on Google for many services including email, document drafting, video hosting, and instant messaging. Hangouts is a group video service offered by Google plus that can revolutionize how businesses interact with their clients. Google plus also offers Sparks, a social bookmarking tool that can prove to be very useful to businesses. What’s possibly in the pipeline? | Other possible business tools Google must be thinking about are business applications for Android cell phones, a Chrome-Google+ breed, and an integration of Google Maps into the social media cyberspace. Source arbitragemagazine CommentsLeave a Reply |
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