The Social PR Consultancy

Today, in a much long awaited move since Google launched its (and the fastest growing website…ever) social networking platform, Google+, in July, Google has finally opened up Google+ to all businesses and organisations worldwide.

Called Google+ Pages, they operate in a similar way to Facebook Pages but…they’ll be searchable directly from Google (a big bonus over Facebook Pages) and if you type a “+” before any search term in Google you will be should be taken directly to the Google+ page**.

This feature is called Google Direct and is an interesting move for Google, particularly given Facebook’s recent changes that make it harder for brands to connect with users on the platform which we talk about on a recent episode of Communication Junction.

So Google+ Pages allow businesses and brands to have a presence on Google+, and according to the Official Google Blog on the announcement to “make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about”.

Here’s the link to create your own Google+ Page and another for a detailed ‘how to guide’ to setting up your page. Let us know how you get on and we’ll be here if you need a hand working out how you can make the most of this new platform.

A few things to keep in mind:

• like most social networking platforms, anyone can create a profile / page for any brand – it’s worth considering what brands you might need to secure a presence for on Google+ before any cyber-squatting can take place
• as yet, Google have not provided the ability for multiple admins so whoever creates a Google+ page ‘owns’ that page and can’t transfer it to anyone else so think about who is the best person to give that responsilibity to

**This feature is not available to all users yet – in fact when we tried the brands it should be working for (Google, Pepsi and Toyota) it didn’t appear to be working at all – see below.

With relative ease we created The Social PR Consultancy Google+ page this morning, so please have a look, “add us to your circles” and keep up to date with all our latest news and udpates on the world of PR and social media.

UPDATE: You can’t (yet) create a vanity URL for Google+ Pages (eg www.facebook.com/thesocialprco) but Ben Teoh just reminded me of www.gplus.to which does allow you to create a customised URL for your page in the meantime. Thanks Ben.