Google Rolls out Google+ Pages for Businesses

Google’s (News - Alert) new social network has finally reached out to the business world.

After launching this summer for individuals, Google+ has just unveiled a new Pages feature that lets businesses set up a presence on the social network.

Designed for companies of all shapes and sizes, from small to large and local to global, Pages is similar in some ways to the business-oriented Pages feature offered by Facebook (News - Alert). Users can create a page devoted to a specific company or other organization, a particular product or brand name, or even an entertainment or sports figure.

Once the page is set up, companies can post information and updates about themselves, their products, and other noteworthy items. People who follow your page or add it to their circles can comment on or share your posts. And of course you can comment back to create a running conversation thread. You can also post and share relevant photos and videos. You can even set up hangouts to chat directly with potential customers and colleagues via video.

You first create your page by choosing a specific category, such as local business, product or brand, or company or organization. Google will prompt you to enter the necessary information, including the name you want for your page, the URL of your Website, and an appropriate sub-category. Local businesses are asked just for the page name and your phone number.

From there, your site is up and running, and then it’s a matter of driving people to follow you and add you to their circles. Once you start sharing items of value and interest to people, that should start to kick up a number of followers. Beyond that, you’ll also to promote your page using the +1 button and a variety of other tools. Google offers a helpful online how-to guide to explain how to set up your site, promote it, and track it. Companies may also find it helpful to check out the pages of other businesses to see how they’ve established themselves.

As a still fairly new and evolving service, Google+ has received its fair share of criticism for certain rules and regulations that sometimes limit what you can do. For example, Google restricts you from running any type of contest or promotion on your page, instead suggesting that you link back to your own Website if you’re running a special promotion.

And since Google+ is still in the nascent stage, it’s difficult to know yet what effect its use may have on the bottom line in terms of actual sales. But that’s true of most social networks. For now, I think it’s worth the time and effort for businesses to establish a presence on the site to just see where it takes you.