Ok. I'm a Google guy. People ask me loads of Google questions. Google Search questions, Google Apps questions, Google Docs questions, Google Maps questions, Google Places questions, Google Youtube questions, Gmail questions... You get the picture.
Last week I was asked to answer some questions on "Google Plus". Specifically "Google Plus" for business.
It has taken quite a bit of reading to be able to articulate what Google is up to on this front.
And even for a "Google guy", it is thoroughly confusing.
On a shallow level, Google Plus (or Google+... however you like to type it), is the Mountain View behemoth's answer to Facebook. Facebook has personal pages and business/fan pages.... Google Plus has personal profile pages and business pages.
But because though they have integrated it deep into their Google Products, it can be hard to understand where the g+ platform starts and stops.
Other than seeing the red g+ symbol around on the pages, the other place I first ran into the product in a business-necessary-way is when they changed Google Places to really be Google Plus for Business. Or is that Google+ Local?
What I can deduce from reading, searching, and taking in a 2 hour online course on the subject (BTW that was ok but still lacked a clear explanation!) is that I need to throw my pre-Google Plus assumptions out the window.
Google has used information from Google Places to populate Google Plus pages for business which in turn populate Google Maps. But it is slowly leaving behind these older products. Transition is often confusing I guess.
Why does all this matter? Why is knowing about Google Plus critical for businesses?
Because Google is the number one place people start searching for solutions to their problems. People search locally (in fact one in 4) and are fed local Google search listings.
Most importantly over the past two years, Google has been integrating the Google Map results (again fed from Google Plus business pages) deeper and deeper into the search results. If you are searching locally (say "bookkeepers toronto ontario", it is very hard to see where these map/plus listings and search results begin and end.
If you did create a Google Places or Google Local profile for your business in the past - you will want to make sure it is up-to-date and complete on the new Google Plus platform - it does help your Google rankings!
Need help to sift through all this information for your business? Ask me a "Google guy" question.