Early November Google
released a new tool in their arsenal: – Plus pages just for
business.
Why do we care? Because
it's a place, a means, and a mechanism to develop and share our
business personality – an electronic business persona that's a
media substitute for a face-to-face pre-sales conversation
establishing your credibility and why the prospect should listen to
you.
What you put on your page
is up to you, but what you can do with it is pretty sophisticated.
- It is searchable (full text and the evolving Google + preference) from anywhere on the web
- Flexible formatting, including embedded links, graphics, pictures, client testimonials and recommendations
- Pictures and Video collections – like product highlights, and page access directly to YouTube
- Link to additional pages, website, blog, catalog...the world
- Blogs and articles from you, other thought leaders, and your community highlighted (list automatically updated)
- Small group video conference ability
- Simple, easy set-up and updating – can do it yourself
- Cost – free to the individual.
Anything more? Yes - Your Business Personality page
can track who's viewing your pages and give you statistics using
Google Analytics, so you can tinker and make the pages better. You
can even see a graphic of where your posts are being resent –
videos and topics go viral on the internet all the time – now you
can see how your material is being distributed by others in Ripples.
With a company website, personal blog, my profile, and
other on-line material, will I benefit from Google + Business pages -
take a look and decide... Click here to see the Muppets
Google + Business page
What's it take to set up a Business Personality page?
If you have a personal
Google Plus site, it is minutes to stand up a Business
Personality page – I had one up in under 10 minutes and a robust
page after about 90 minutes.
Face-to-face meetings are the most effective in growing
a relationship, but can be impossible in an virtual world – Google
+ Business pages offer you a virtual alternative. Ready to go?
Start at: https://plus.google.com/pages/create.
How can this help you get more business?
SalesLab’s
next Rainmaker,
(Number 9!) is Your
Business Personality – How to Convey It Easily, Simply, and Free! -
the first 300
seconds of the
Capital
Technology Management Hub,
at
6 pm, Tuesday, December 13th.
Face-to-face meetings create decisions, but there is a whole series of steps, awareness, identification, credibility, liking, respect, that can be done far more economically and over a much larger population with a Plus page than using just traditional face-to-face.
ReplyDeleteThe Plus page, unlike Facebook and LinkedIn is available to the entire internet.
Those who don't learn to use the new technology will not die out immediately, but will be less able to compete and will be marginalized over time.
It's a question of making all the necessary mistakes before you run out of money...and remembering your time is limited.
A call to arms...keeping up with the many ways your customers (and prospects) communicate may not always fit your "comfort level" but it is vital to growing your enterprise. You might even learn something or (oh..no!) have some fun! Thanks Dick!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the helpful description of what the new Google tool can do for a business. However, I really don't see much difference between this and Facebook. Are there any advantages or is this just Google's answer to Facebook?
ReplyDeleteDick:
ReplyDeleteUsing the Google + Business page to convey useful information in advance of a face-to-face meeting is a creative application, and can be focused to a specific individual or group in the Page's circles.
Also the discoverablility of public content of these pages is a jump ahead of LinlkedIn and Facebook.
Thanks!
Joe:
ReplyDeleteUpgrading technology (particularly when the cost is $0) to keep communications with customers easy and effective is a strong motivation to play around with this new Google feature.
Thanks,
Jack
Louise:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
Google has included a number of similarities with Facebook.
The two biggest reasons to consider using Google + Business Pages are:
Content is searchable by the public, not limited to only members of the specific community (LinkedIn or Facebook);
+ Pages are tied into the search engine and for active + Pages. For example, if you search +Muppets +Page, is among the first 5 on the list is the + Page (after the Websites and Wiki entry).
Thanks Jack! I think you (and the Muppets) have nailed it!
ReplyDelete