Google+ May Be Gone, But Don't Forget About Google My Business!
You may have seen Google’s recent announcement that they will slowly shut down their Google+ social media platform. Frankly, this should come as no surprise. Critics say that the reason Google+ failed is because it was driven by a corporate decision, while Facebook grew organically because it was based on how real people communicate.
Over time, Google made so many changes to Google+ that overlapped with Google Local, Google Places, and eventually Google My Business that it has become very confusing. To set the record straight (for the time being) I went directly to the Google site to provide an explanation of the differences between Google+ and Google My Business.
Google My Business is a free, easy-to-use tool that allows local businesses to manage their online presence on Google Search and Google Maps. This listing is where reviews appear which we manage for our customers on a daily basis and is not going away.
- Designed for businesses that serve customers at a particular location, or that serve customers within a designated service area.
- By verifying and editing your business information, you can help customers find you.
- Connect with customers by posting updates, adding photos, replying to reviews, and more.
Google+ is a tool that allows individuals and organizations to share, discover, and engage with relevant and interesting content.
- Share posts with your followers on Google+.
- Use Collections to make it easy to find the posts you and others want to see.
- Use Communities to connect with others that share the same interests as you do.
In other words, Google+ was Google’s answer to Facebook and Google My Business is their answer to TripAdvisor, Yellow Pages and Pinterest all together.
If you need help in managing your Google My Business guest comments and other Social Media channels such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, join us for one of our free 30-minute webinars this month. Sign up at https://iresponze.com/our-webinars.
