How You Can Effectively Use Google My Business
Recently we discovered the latest and greatest new offering from the folks at Mountain View, otherwise known as Google. They have put together what they hope is a strong answer to Facebook with Google My Business. Google My Business is imagined as a one-stop page for online merchants and brands to manage their various Google account and properties, including search, maps, Google Analytics, Adwords, Hangouts and Google+. You’re able to do many things under this one umbrella, including posting to Google pages, share events and images, connect with those in your circles and a lot more. The key here is that you only have to post one time, and all relevant Google connected services are updated.
Google says it’s working on transitioning all business accounts that are on Google+ or Places for Business, and you should see this very soon. There’s also an Android app now, and the iPhone app will follow shortly.
How does this all work together?
One clear advantage this platform will have is that all of your information will be centrally located, and can be populated to your Google properties with no effort on your part. The first thing you see when you log into Google My Business is your company’s information that’s been taken from Google+, Places and Maps. You’ll be able to edit to update or change any information you find there.
Then you come to the dashboard as it were. This page consists of all your important Google services, such as:
- Google+ Share
- Google Insights
- Customer Reviews
- Google Analytics
- Hangouts
You can get to those functions from this screen and add content, manage review and even start a Hangout. The mobile version of Google My Business is sleek and very easy to navigate.
What does this mean for Google+?
It may be too soon to tell what this all means for Google+. For right now, just think of this as a change of address. At this time there doesn’t appear to be any loss of functions for Google+ and it may actually benefit from the automated atmosphere and better organization this affords.