Do you have to have a Google+ profile page for a person before you can build a Google+ brand page?
-
There was some debate at MozCon 2012 about this issue. I have my personal Google+ page which I didn't want attached to the brand of one of the sites I manage. I saw no other way to create a new Google+ page for this brand except to create a new profile under a different gmail account. The problem is, I had to put in my personal name to create the profile (you can't put in a business name, Google won't accept it), so now I have two "Dana Tan" author pages in Google+, the second one is where I built the page for this separate business "Celebrate Communion." Unfortunately, this has muddied the waters because people are following me in both places (it's fragmented my circles). I would like to add customers who are already on Google+ to my business pages circles, but the business page won't do it.
Is it possible to build a Google+ business page without all of this brand confusion? If so, can you send me directions? I have found nothing online that says you don't need a profile to do a brand page.
Also, once the page is built, what is the best way for me to reach out to customers with google accounts? I don't see a good way to do that on businesses pages either. On my profile page I can load all the emails into my contacts list, but then those contacts can only be added to my profile page and not the brand page.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Dana
-
How does one "associate" a personal profile with a company profile? As a contributor to that site? What about the Betty Crocker approach, a company persona Google+ account that is run by whoever is currently staffed to do so?
-
Hi Danny,
I just watched an interview posted by Chris Goward (Wider Funnel) with Janet Driscoll Miller (Search Mojo) about how to best set up Google+ businesses pages without having the issues I mention above. I included a transcript where Janet describes in detail how best to achieve the separation between brand and personal pages. I also included my own "summary" of how to do it in three steps (see the very bottom post in this thread). Did I get it right? Thanks so much for your help,
Dana
-
Aha! I believe I have found the answer to this question. Thanks goes to Chris Goward of Wider Funnel Marketing. He interviewed Janet Driscoll Miller at SMX West after her presentation on Google+ and SEO
Here is the excerpt that answered my question about Google+, personal Gmail accounts, Google+ pages for businesses and branding:
"The administration of those pages can be tricky, because it's not exactly like Facebook pages. People expect it to be like Facebook and it's not. You can have multiple administrators but there's still one owner. So, for instance, if you're the business owner, you should go in and do it, so it's under your email address and you always have the ultimate control. So make sure that the person you're giving it to, that either it's an email address that multiple people can get to or that the owner of the company could. The other challenge is that most people use their Gmail account to sign up. Well, the problem is, if I'm the social adminstrator and I leave the company and I used my Gmail address to set up the page, I can never transfer that Gmail, necessarily. So you want to try...you can set up unique profiles, with your own domain name. So I like to recommend that, just because I feel like it's safer for companies."
So here's the best way to set up a Google+ page for business:
1. Have a business owner create the account using a Gmail username related to the business or brand, something like this:
2. Don't use a gmail account as the email address in the sign up process. Use an email account that is a general email address at your company that multiple people could have access to if necessary., something like this
GooglePlusPage@MyBrandName.com
3. Have your social adminstrator or social media manager and team members associate their Google+ profiles with the core Google+ page set up by the owner. That way, if they change positions or leave the company, they can be disassociated with the business page, but maintain their personal profile as they move on to something else.
-
Hi Keri,
I have reached out to Google for an answer to this question. I asked that the post something both in the Google forums and also here. We'll see how far I get
Dana
-
If you can figure out how to get an answer from Google, especially on an SEOmoz forum, we would love to know.
-
I still haven't received a truly complete, detailed answer to this question. I would really like to hear from Google. Anyone have additional info?
-
Thanks very much Danny. Yes, I understand that I didn't necessarily need to create a separate Google account for the brand page, but to keep my personal brand separate from the Celebrate Communion site's brand was my goal.
So it sounds like I really am stuck having two Google+ accounts, both under my name, but attached to different brands.
My concern is that I manage multiple sites.Our main site, CCI Solutions needs a Google+ page. I don't want to open a third "Dana Tan" Google profile just so I can create their Google+ page. How do agencies set up Google+ pages for their clients? Whose Google account do they attach the business page to?
-
You have to have a Google+ personal account to make a brand page, but brand pages don't have to have their own account.
Start here:
http://www.google.com/+/business/After you've made the page, there's no way to transfer over people from other personal pages that I know of. But you can point people there to follow you at the new location.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google +
Hello mozzers , We manage a website for a client This is the website: http://www.mynaughtyscotland.com . [editor's note: site for escorts in Scotland, may not be safe for some workplaces]They recently got penalized but they don't have links so is not a penguin update.The client said that they noticed the drops in rank after they had their Google + account suspended.So the question is, if you have your google + account conected to the website by the rel="publisher" tag,And your google + account gets suspended, will you be getting your site penalized as well ?
Branding | | asmedia0 -
Add Google + button link to google page and not link
Hello SEOOOOOOOOO moz people ! I was wondering if you know how can I add Google + button to my page I tried to set it up in google page http://awesomescreenshot.com/08d1a9hmef https://plus.google.com/b/109790526955470383191/109790526955470383191/posts But i would like to link the button to my google + fan page https://plus.google.com/b/109790526955470383191/109790526955470383191/about and not the url of the page. As our website is indeed 12 websites if you go to http://www.ibremarketing.com you don't have the same +1 than http://www.ibremarketing.com/me or http://www.ibremarketing.com/ma Any idea of how to do it ? It would be amazing 😛
Branding | | AymanH0 -
Can anything be done for a single brand page on a corporate site?
I was asked by a friend if there was anyway I could help promote the watch brand that they are responsible for. The brand has only one page on the corporate site. http://gevrilgroup.com/fortis-watches/ My first reaction is that this is impossible to do without creating a stand alone web site and then doing some super cool marketing to get your brand noticed out of the sea of watch manufacturers. My second gut reaction is to stand clear of this request and not get myself tangled in something that will require a lot of resources for someone on a low budget. Any suggestions?
Branding | | irvingw0 -
Guest Posts/Blogs/Articles Link Building
Is it me or are the usual places you used to go for to find quality blogs to guest post to seem to be full of low quality spammy blogs. And doing a search brings up loads of poor quality sites/blogs too. I was thinking of creating a high quality content site for link bait. Any suggestions on "refreshing" a tired link strategy. Where do you find your guest blog/posts?
Branding | | JohnW-UK0 -
Using mlm and 'scammy' websites to identify brand/reputation management opportunities
I think this almost warrants a youmoz post, but I was wondering if anyone has used MLM or 'shady' industry companies to see where they place their reputation/brand links to dominate the first 2-3 pages of google for things like 'company name + scam' 'company name + reviews'. On a side note what is your opinion of a company that goes to great lengths to create a very strong push to control those keywords? Would you recommend your clients dominate the first 2-3 pages with 'honest review about company x' and 'the truth about company x' fakeditorials? Do you guys think people see right through them. Take any MLM..for instance legal shield scam (not my company, but an MLM that I am very wary of) as professionals what do you think of their reputation management build out......what do you think consumers would see when they read this? is there such a thing as going to far to refute false claims and building sponsored reviews? I'm personally against doing sponsored reviews and spamming with them, but maybe I am naive.
Branding | | ilyaelbert1 -
Capturing Brand Search
Hi, How do you capture as much brand results as possible in search results? I know Mike from Koozai recently did a video about brand reputation, but this is slightly different. The current issue i'm having that the client's brand name is also a specific geographic destination, hence the confusion in SERP's. This means non-related industries are eating up the client's potential market share and traffic. My objective would obviously be to capture as much traffic as possible for brand related keywords for the site, so that we can focus more on long tail product terms. Any help would be appreciated. Obviously re-branding is out of the question. Regards, Vahe
Branding | | Vahe.Arabian0