Last week, Google announced that they had converted all Google Places pages into a Google+ Local page; this change affects about 80 million Place pages. One of the changes that has come along is the use of Zagat ratings in place of the star ratings we are used to seeing. This allows users to rate each business on different factors rather than giving one score for the whole experience.

These pages will also be integrated through all of Google’s products including search, maps, and mobile. This will result in a more user friendly experience that yields the same page no matter how you find it. Google has also added a more social experience with this change, allowing businesses to share updates and encourage interaction with the page. While the updates are available right now, Google plans on slowly rolling out more features in the coming months.

When logging into Google+ now, users will be able to see a local tab. When clicked on, the page offers suggestions on local businesses in the area that is tailored to each user. Essentially, no two people in the same city will see the same listings. The local tab will allow you to click on each business to find out more and interact with the map to find directions if you want to try it out.

One big plus to all of these changes is that the Google+ Local pages will be indexed by the search engines unlike the Google Pages that were previously in place. This will allow each business owner to take full advantage of the search engine power Google+ has provided. While all pages have been converted whether they were claimed or not, it will benefit business owners even more to claim pages and add keywords into their description sections.

Another addition to look for in the future will be the ability to display all locations of the business on the same page. While it hasn’t been implemented yet, it is something that Google is working on and will be a handy feature for those with more than one location.

Among other changes, the main points to take notice of are:

• Google Places Pages have been replaced with Google+ Local pages
• Addition of a Local Tab within Google+
• Star ratings have been replaced with Zagat rating
• Integration of Google+ local pages with maps, search, mobile, etc throughout Google
• Circle filter that gives you the ability to view reviews made by your circle members
• Search engine indexing to help boost your search engine results

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A recent Forrester study reported that the market for enterprise social collaboration is projected to increase tenfold over the next four years as more traditional services like video conferencing decline. In this new era, the tools that succeed will combine communication and collaboration services with social features in a way that Google+ does. The following are some of the features that make G+ a great tool for social enterprise collaboration.

Circles – The Circles feature of G+ allows users to segment their followers into groups which are a very powerful concept in enterprise. This feature allows companies to create Circles for specifieddepartments, clients, referral partners and more. The ability to compartmentalize helps G+ users to save time and share content and a targeted fashion. To make things easier on everyone G+ allows users to share Circles so anytime you have a new hire he or she gain instant access to ones client base.

Hangouts – Hangouts can help any company cut costs if used for an impromptu meeting with your office or for a customer demo. All G+ users should consider eliminating pricey web conferencing services and start implementing Hangouts for company-wide web meetings. Now all Google needs to do is integrate Google Voice with Hangouts and the ability to dial into a Hangout via a phone line.

Google Docs – In addition to providing word processing and editing capabilities, Goggle Docs allows you to share your work and collaborate with co-workers in real-time. On top of that, Google Docs has been integrated into Hangout allowing users to update documents with co-workers from around the world with the felling of being in the same room.

Search Functions – The Search Plus Your World feature that was added to Google’s search function has a lot to offer a brand from a marketing perspective. G+ allows workers to brand their pages with the company’s image. Every time an employee page is shared or +1 it creates another impression for your business. What Google should consider now is giving users the ability to easily switch back and forth between a personal account and a work account using the same login. This is a feature that Facebook has adopted well.

Organic Connections – G+ provides a platform to organically build meaningful connections for your business and career. Employees can easily adopt the same connections as other co-workers and follow important influencers in their company and industry. At the moment, creating and maintaining Circles can be tedious. A helpful addition by Google would be an auto-suggest service to assist in populating and creating new circles.

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Because of Google+ and Google Search’s strong connection, businesses should really take advantage of creating and maintain a Google+ business page. The search engine giant has been and will continue to launch integrations between its Search and +, which in fact it would be detrimental not to be an active Google+ page. The following are 5 days in which you can use Google+ to help enhance your SEO:

1. Add the +1 Button to Your Website

The first benefit of Google+ is its regard to +1’s and shares & influence on search rankings. Just like other social networks, the number of +1’s a page receives is a factor in telling how well it will rank in searches for different phrases. This has a direct effect on search rankings. Another feature is that the number of +1’s a page has is displayed on results pages, especially when coming from people who are in your Circles on Google+. This is another way that maintaining an active page on Google+ is directly influential to success elsewhere because your actions on Google+ have an effect on the rest of your profile. Bottom line is, you will directly benefit from utilizing Google+ and integrating it with your website.

Hint: Websites using the +1 button generate 3.5 xs the Google+ visits that sites without the button.

2. Get Google+ Status Updates to Appear in Searches

Google has begun to include specific status updates from Google+ in search results when they were relevant, for both personal and brand pages. The key here is to incorporate the search terms you’re looking to be found for into your status updates.

3. Leverage Google+ Author Tag

Author names, images, and information throughout results pages for editorial content has been one of the more visible changes to Google’s search. This, being an unusually creative move by Google, requires blog authors to include a link in their post back to their Google+ page in order to establish authorship. This not only serves as an inbound link to the author’s Google+ page but also ensures active bloggers sign up for Google+’s services. Ultimately, the appearance of profile information is great for helping your content stand out in search results.

4. Personalized Search

As a previously posted topic, “Search plus Your World” is the most recent feature of Google+. This mixes personal results from your Google+ network with your regular search results. What this means is Google’s search now includes regular results and personal updates from social media. You’ll notice these personal results because they are always placed at the top of the search results. This makes for Google+ to be a great vehicle for discussions and content sharing, more so than any other social network.

5. Get Your Google+ Pages and Profiles Found in Search Results

Another powerful influence for brands that only Google+ offers is placement in the top right-hand corner of search results for people and pages you are closely associated with the brand. If your page is relevant to a particular keyword search, then Google will show your page in results for those searches. Additionally, if you incorporate your Google+ personal profile to your brand’s domain, Google can show your personal profile in response to those looking to learn more about your brand.

A tip to make sure that your profile is eligible to show up in the top right-hand box for branded searches, make sure you’ve added your work email, occupation, and position to your profile. If you’re not regularly posting about your brand or active on Google+, Google is less likely to show you in the results. Additionally, it is a good idea to encourage your employees to include your business’ information and content their Google+ profiles to gain more exposure in search results.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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BrightEdge has been tracking Google+ brand pages since they were launched on November 7^th. However, the integration was not noted until December 20^th when identified in the search results for “AT&T.”

According to BrightEdge’s VP-Marketing, Brad Mattick, the addition of Google+ brand pages allows marketers to incorporate promotional messages directly in search results. This allows for a much larger audience through Google’s natural search results than it would gain from the brand page alone.

While AT&T appears to be one of the first brands to gain brand page recognition in natural search results, a recent search for Toyota also yielded two Google+ entries. Other examples of brands displaying Google+ in their search results are T-Mobile and Macy’s.

A recent tool rolled out by Google, Direct Connect makes it easy for users to find and follow Google+ brand pages through a search by incorporating the “+” in their search.

A representative from Google offered the following declaration about the search results: “Content from the +Page, such as recent posts, will appear as annotations attached to its associated web page under the site links in search results if that site is eligible for Direct Connect. It uses the same bi-directional link and algorithmic criteria as Direct Connect.”

With this integration of Google+ brands pages into search results, there is a huge incentive for brands to join and become active on Google+. Mattick has compared merging Google+ and search results to Microsoft’s inclusion of the Internet Explorer in its Windows OS in the 90’s.

When Microsoft used its near-monopoly in Windows to beat Netscape in the browser segment, it caught the attention of The U.S. Department of Justice.

Even though Google’s search market share is comparably less than Microsoft’s share at the time of the IE bundling, the move is attracting some unwanted attention for Google. Two U.S. Senators have requested the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google’s business practices. Could Google be abusing their dominance in the market to persuade brands to become active on Google+? What do you think?

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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