above the fold (social media)

Several well-known businesses, brands and publications have jumped at the chance to set themselves up with a personal Google+ profile, including Search Engine Land, Mashable, The Next Web, and Al Jazeera English.

We get it. It's tempting. In fact, so tempting that one of our search marketers immediately reserved an invite for Internet Exposure on Google+. But we're going to stick it out and wait with bated breath until Google releases Google+ business profiles. 

Though Google hasn't officially announced exactly when that will be (apparently sometime this year), the search engine says it is waiting to perfect the social network with the norms out there (that is, you and I).

The word on business profiles from Google+ HQ:

“Right now we’re very much focused on optimizing for the consumer experience, but we have a great team of engineers building a similarly optimized business experience for Google+,” says Christian Oestlien, Google+ Ads Lead.

In the meantime, we've got nearly everyone in the iE office testing this thing out, that is now that most of us have access to the platform. By the time Google+ for businesses is ready to launch, we'll already be familiar with the features and applications included in Google+ thus far. We'll be as poised as we can be to help our clients take advantage of Google+ for marketing, just like we do for other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

In the meantime, we're waiting. 

Here's why we think you should, too:

Your profile can be deleted.

Google has politely asked businesses not to try and put personal pages to business use for the time being. The company has warned that those who do run the risk of having their profile deleted. Imagine putting in all of those hours and strategy to set up the perfect profile, grow a network there and then have it deleted (like you were told it would be.)

Sophisticated features are coming.

Google+ business profiles sound promising. Google says it will include things like rich analytics and integration with other Google applications, such as AdWords. In fact, according to Search Engine Land, Google exec Jeff Huber, says the new features coming for business profiles will not only be good, they'll be “great.”

2 very awesome rumored business features: 

• Video hangouts that give businesses the ability to run meetings with clients or collabortate with multiple people outside of the office.
• Built-in screencase and "whiteboard" functionality that competes with project management tools such as Basecamp. 

(via Simply Business) 

You will have to migrate your networks and your content.

Once those "great" features specifically optimized for business use become available, chances are you're going to want to take full advantage of them. Are you really going to migrate all of your content and networks to a new page? And if so, there is no guarantee your network will follow.

Facebook began with the same policy and has put measures in place to discourage businesses and other non-people from creating personal pages. (Group pages cap at 3,000 members and personal pages at 5,000 friends.) There are bands, personalities and businesses all over Facebook who are now having this problem – believe me, I see it all of the time.

You have a chance to be part of the business page beta testers, aka the "Google+ ELITE TEAM"

Google will be testing a business-optimized version of the platform among a select group of companies. They are offering any old business a chance to be part of that test group. You can submit a request here – Google+ Entity Profile Application. However, there is still a caveat. Businesses that fall into this category won't be able to migrate their pages or content once the new business profiles are available. Though they will be way ahead of the curve in the long run when they help develop/get firsthand experience with Google+ features marketers can take advantage of.

So, if you've set up a business page under a personal profile, tell us how it's working out. If you haven't tell us why not. Tweet us @iexposure or leave a comment below. We're interested in knowing what you think! 

Photo by CubaGallery and licensed through Creative Commons. 

Sources: Technorati, Search Engine Land, The Next Web, Simply Business

 

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