Zenzi

Though Google has made Google+ Brand pages fairly intuitive, there are a couple features that I want to highlight so your page can be as “you” as can be! If you’re not personally on G+ already, check out our Google+ Walkthrough to familiarize yourself with its features before diving into making a brand page.

If you haven’t created your G+ brand page yet, go to your personal Google+ page and on the bottom right side bar, select “Create a Google+ page.” Google will then walk you through creating your page. Whether you’ve created your brand page already or not, make sure you take note of these features – highlighted in this image.

1. Have a Punchy Tagline. Right under the name of your page, you get 10 words to describe your page. Make sure these 10 words (or less) alone gets your message across.
2. Posting. Like your personal G+ page, posting to your brand page works the same. It is set to default share with the public, so make sure everything you’re posting is relevant and what you want the world to associate with your brand. For more info on posting to certain circles versus public, see our Google+ Walkthrough.
3. Circles. One of the major differences with G+ Pages versus your personal G+ is that pages cannot add individuals to its circles without the individual first adding the page to one of their circles. However, pages can add each other freely.
4. Photos. If you’re building a brand page on G+, you probably already have a Facebook brand page. To easily repopulate all your photos from your Facebook page to your G+ brand page, check out Pick&Zip. It will let you select anything from your pages’ albums to your own albums to your tagged photos. Then you can easily go into your G+ brand page and re-upload your albums or use Picasa Desktop (free) which can sync directly with your G+ account. Unfortunately, you will have to redo all your captions and tags. Sorry ‘bout it. For more on Google+ photos, check out Charlie Sorrel’s article in Wired.
5. Videos. G+ pages has a tab to easily upload and share videos. It also gives a nifty option to disable the video link if you have no videos to share to keep your page clear of clutter.
6. Scrapbook Photos. The 5 photo spread across the top of your Google+ Page is your “scrapbook photos.” These are photos you define and will not change without your instruction, unlike Facebook where the top photos on your page are defined by the most recently added photos. This gives you a chance for some very creative branding such as these Google+ Pages.

Aside from the design and content on your page, make sure to add your official G+ badge to your website! They provide the code snippet and by adding it to your website, you easily “verify” this is your brand’s official page and drive traffic to your new G+ brand page. To find your G+ brand badge, in the left hand column click “Get started.”

Then follow to “Get the Badge>>.” Also on that page is your direct link to your brand’s Google+ page.

Another important note is that Google+ Pages currently only allows one admin. Mashable has reported that Google+ will enable multiple admins for brand pages before 2012. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

If you have any further questions, I’d love to help answer them! Leave a comment and we’ll get back to you. Add us to your circles for more more trends and insights!