Google Plus finally added brand pages to its service last week — a much anticipated move Google hopes might put an end to prior controversy over the topic of brands on the nascent social networking service. But a “brandjacking” of Bank of America got the new feature off to a shaky start.
Find out what happened in the video above. And if you’re a brand, check out our how to for the details on how to setup a presence on Google Plus:
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To get started, sign in to your Google account and then head to http://www.google.com/+/business/. You can watch the video, but it's just a glossy marketing blurb with no how-to info.
You now have to select which category your business fits into. The categories are as follows:
Local Business or Place
Suitable for: hotels, restaurants, places, stores, services
Product or Brand
Suitable for: apparel, cars, electronics, financial services
Company, Institution or Organization
Suitable for: companies, institutions, organizations, non-profits
Arts, Entertainments or Sports
Suitable for: films, TV, music, books, sports, shows
Other
Suitable if your business doesn't fit into another category
Next up is entering your business name and website.
After this, you have to select an additional category that suits your business.
These sub-categories are dependent on the main category you choose.
For example, for "product or brand" you can choose from the likes of food and drink, arts and entertainment, fashion and beauty, home and garden, etc.
You then need to select who can view your Google+ profile. The default is any Google user, or you can restrict this to 18 and older or 21 and older.
If you thought Twitter's bio space was tight, Google+'s is even tighter. You have just 10 words to summarize your business.
After you've done this, you can add an image.
In the next step Google offers you the ability to tell your personal Google+ circles about your new business page.
And you're done! From here you're good to go with your brand new Google+ business page.
On your new welcome page, Google generates a link to your Plus page (sadly a string of random characters, rather than a vanity URL). You can also get a Google+ button for your site.
It's now up to you to start adding people to circles (different to personal pages, the defaults include "team members," "customers," and "VIPs") and get posting. Enjoy!
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