Google+ For Business: Don’t Get Suckered Into Something You Don’t Need

Google+ has been a hot topic over the last couple of weeks. If you’re unfamiliar with the project you can read some extensive posts about the service here, here, and here As a user that has been using it since the day it launched I can tell you that it is a strong contender against Facebook and Twitter and it has kept the attention of the internet marketing community far longer than I thought it would.  With that sort of attention I am certain that many internet marketers are already focusing on ways to use Google+ for marketing, SEO and the like.  Today I am here to inform you about Google’s long term plan for Google+ for business, as I feel it is only a short matter of time before the snake oil salesmen roll up in their wagons hocking the opportunity to setup a Google+ account for your business.

Google+ For Business Is Coming

Last night Christian Oestlien, the Ads Leads for the Google+ Project, posted a message along with a brief YouTube video about future plans for Google+ as it pertains to businesses.

In the video he states that:

“We have a great team of engineers building similarly optimized business experience for Google+. We’re very exited about it and hope to roll it out later on this year. It will include things like rich analytics and the ability to connect that identity to other parts of Google that businesses might use on a daily basis, like AdWords…”

Existing Google+ Business Profiles

Early adopters such as our friends at Raven SEO Tools, and large media sites like Mashable and The Next Web took a stab at creating Google+ profiles to act as a Google equivalent to a Facebook Page early on.  While their intent was well founded, their efforts were quickly halted when Google announced it’s future plans for the Google+ Business profile.  Of the three mentioned only Raven Tools’ Google+ profile is still active at the time of this writing.

Oestlien made it clear in his message that “non-user entities” should hold off on creating profiles and announced that these sorts of users that are interested in getting involved with Google+ can submit themselves to be part of a test group that will be launching soon.  “It can be a team, an organization, a business, a brand, an NGO, a university, etc,” he went on to say.

Businesses that have already setup profiles will likely see their accounts taken down in the coming days. “The business experience we are creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to businesses. We just ask for your patience while we build it. In the meantime, we are discouraging businesses from using regular profiles to connect with Google+ users. Our policy team will actively work with profile owners to shut down non-user profiles.” said Oestlien.

Google’s Jim Prosser has also pointed out that even businesses that submit themselves as part of the test group may fall victim to a takedown.  Advising that unless they are part of the experiment group their profiles will be shut down regardless of if they filled out the interest form.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

Know that great things are bound to come from Google in regards to Google+ for business, that being said be aware of marketers offering to get you setup and established on this new network. I am already seeing posts flood twitter about the SEO benefits of Google+, marketing on Google+ and the like, when honestly it’s too soon to know any of these things. What Google has done has created a potential new marketing and communication channel for small business, the same way Facebook and Twitter have. We are still learning the best ways to market through these channels and they have been around for a number of years.  If you’re excited about Google+ join it as a user, learn the system, pay attention to the conversations, learn more about the audience.  Then, when they finally launch Google+ for business you’ll have a better understanding of your audience.