Here is a quick update on Google+ and businesses:
A few weeks ago we mentioned we would be doing a test of business profiles and asked people interested to apply. Believe it or not we actually had tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organizations apply to take part from all over the world. Many of you have reached out to me personally through Google+, e-mail, chat, and even other Googlers. Thank you. Your response has been humbling.
With so many qualified candidates expressing intense interest in business profiles, we've been thinking hard about how to handle this process. Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster. As a result, we have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months. There may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers.
In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. We recommend you find a real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself.
All of us on the Google+ effort are delighted by your engagement with this project - thank you all for taking the time to apply and offer such incredibly useful feedback. Keep it coming!
A few weeks ago we mentioned we would be doing a test of business profiles and asked people interested to apply. Believe it or not we actually had tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organizations apply to take part from all over the world. Many of you have reached out to me personally through Google+, e-mail, chat, and even other Googlers. Thank you. Your response has been humbling.
With so many qualified candidates expressing intense interest in business profiles, we've been thinking hard about how to handle this process. Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster. As a result, we have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months. There may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers.
In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. We recommend you find a real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself.
All of us on the Google+ effort are delighted by your engagement with this project - thank you all for taking the time to apply and offer such incredibly useful feedback. Keep it coming!
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- +Christian Oestlien after searching for more clarification on my above comment, I think I have found it. It is a post from Pete Cashmore 7-21-2011: https://plus.google.com/#112844561713780016118/posts explaining the business conversations and how it all is panning out at this time. Great - I finally get it. Thanks again for all that you are doing!Jul 24, 2011
After having used Zoho and Salesforce for my small business CRM I can tell you that "Circles" could be an answer for small business CRM. And I've always been surprised Google did not have a more robust CRM. For small businesses not interested in full-blown, complicated CRM like Salesforce, and are just looking to organize the contacts,customers,prospects they have, into marketable segments, Google could be on the verge of some great stuff for small businesses to flock to in droves....good luck!Jul 24, 2011
Dear Christian,
I am Trinidad Maturana from Chile. I am Journalist of Diario Financiero and I am interested to do some questions to you about Google+ and it penetration on the bussines world. Could you send me your email to contact you? my email is tmaturana@df.cl
Thank you so much
TrinidadJul 25, 2011
How do we apply to test this, or is that still possible?Jul 25, 2011
+Christian Oestlien Thanks for the update on Google+ for businesses, eagerly awaiting what you are planning to bring us.
However, as important as being able to create business/brand pages is, so are being able to use a Google Apps account with Google+ as well. The information about when that is going to happen is rather sparse, or at least difficult to find...
I am sure there are many in the same situation as myself who want to be able to transfer the Gmail based G+ account we are currently using to our Apps account instead. Is that something that will be possible?
Of course, ultimate would be if it was possible to manage both the private and professional G+ activities from the same account, but still be able to separate them easily.
I would be very grateful if you could give some hints about what we can expect from this when you make it available.Jul 25, 2011
+Christian Oestlien +Vic Gundotra You just kicked one of my friends off for using a longstanding, personally preferred alternate surname as opposed to using his legal name. I assume this is under the pretenses of the "Brands" issue. This is not a brand issue, it's an identity issue. If you want people to use your service, you have to let them be who they are. You can't dictate their identity for them.Jul 26, 2011
