Google+, the new social-network kid on the block, has finally added their much anticipated “Pages” feature, which allows businesses and organizations the ability to create landing Google+ pages. Very similar to Facebook’s pages, Google+ makes it very easy to establish a presence for your church on the social network. More after the break.
“Pages” look pretty much just like personal profiles/walls. You can add photos to the “scrapbook” so that they appear like a banner of images on your Page’s profile. You can also add video, and photo albums too.
The whole thing is really easy to use – especially if you’re already familiar with Google+ personal profiles. You can even switch between your pages and your personal profiles (from your stream-view) very easily via a little drop down below your name (beside your profile picture).
When I first made my page, I chose the “local business or place” category, and I got the map you see below. I then recreated it using the “Religious Organizations” category, which lost the little map. I’m not very happy about that. But, at least I could add a link to directions on the right of the Page’s profile pane.
One thing to note – you cannot circle someone while in the Page profile unless they’ve circled you first. Right now, I think I like that. Seems like it would cut down on spam.We’ll see if I continue to like it later.
Of course, you get all the same sharing controls as with personal profiles. Nice.
Hi Herb, thank you for this post. Quick question, why did you switch your page from “local business” to “religious organization”?
I’m about to create a page for our church, and since we already have a local listing I’m faced with that dilemma. Specially since a church doesn’t fit into any of the available local categories.
Thanks for you suggestion!
Jon,
The reason I deleted the first page and recreated it was precisely because the “business” categories did not fit – plus, we are a religious organization after all, not a business. :-D
Thanks for your reply! I really wanted that little map on the page too :-P But I’ll set it up “properly” as an organization.
no prob – thanks for asking – one thing to remember too – Google is the king of SE’s so I’d think that properly categorizing your page would do better for you than trying to second-guess them.
I have not got into the google + yet. I guess I need to go ahead and jump on board and set me up one of these nifty pages!
In many ways, I think Google+ is superior than both twitter and Facebook. The problem is that activity is remarkably lower than in those other services.