Google+ Brand Pages are Here

Not a week seems to go by without Google launching a new feature that is, shall we say, a bit 'Facebooky'. Ever since the launch and meteoric rise of Google+ one thing that was noticeably missing were business 'Fan Pages'. Oh, beg your pardon, I mean 'Brand pages'.

B2B or not B2B, that was the question…

The ability for businesses to create their own pages was, for many, a glaring omission that should've been in Google+ from the outset. Sure, individuals could create profiles and pages, but Google told businesses to wait.

The business experience we are creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to businesses

Given Google's historic approach to product launches, you might translate that as "We launched a product long on promises but short on functionality which we're now busily adding".

Of course, some businesses didn't wait and went ahead in creating profiles and pages. Some got removed, others didn't and that lead to some ruffled feathers for those that 'played by the rules' and waited.

An announcement and traffic stampede later, businesses can now 'officially' create Google+ brand profiles and pages.

Google+ brand pages are go!

So how did it turn out? Well, the 'business experience' they created seems a little underwhelming. It's very much the same as a consumer, just with some minor tweaks (like not asking what gender your business is).

There are also concerns about fake accounts. There are 3 things that make this a genuine concern:

1. It's really easy to set up a page and the system is very open
2. Google+ is still small by Facebook/ Twitter standards and so far less brand names are already in use (hence preventing their reuse)
3. Only global/ household brands look likely to get 'verification badges' to prove authenticity.

Readingall this, you might not be impressed with how Google+ brand pages have begun.

But should you create a Google+ Brand Page as well as your organisation's Facebook Page?

Absolutely! And here's why:

1. It's relatively quick and simple so no real investment of time or money.
2. If you don't claim your brand name, who else might? You don't want a rival or some cyber-squatter snaffling-up your brand name.
3. Google+ has grown quickly (faster than any other social network in history) to tens of millions of users. Sure, there are serious doubts on future growth, but Google seem determined to take on Facebook. And that's not something you don't want to miss out on.
4. With Google's approach to 'friends'/ 'followers' (Circles) there would seem to be better opportunities for targeting and segmenting your audience.
5. Google+ could be described as 'Facebook without the distractions' or 'Facebook for grownups'. There are plenty of folks who don't want to be bombarded with games, ads and lolcats every time they log into their social media platform.
6. Google has so many other cloud services (Google search, Maps, Google Apps, Picassa, Documents, Calendar…) that should (or already do) integrate nicely with Google+ brand pages.

Sure, it looks like you're going to have to be even more creative in using Google+ pages to drive traffic to contests or promotions. This is because you can't run them directly on your Google+ page, merely link out to an external site (abiding by the T&Cs of course). But that's not so different than a 'like gate' on Facebook.

And sure, compared to Facebook, the functionality and reach just aren't there yet. But this is early days. It took Facebook years to grow into the behemoth it is now.

Even if Google+ 'fails miserably' and stalls at just 50 million or so users… why wouldn't you spend a little time to try and connect with them?