Should brands create Google+ pages in Ireland? With the almost inevitable launch of the new Search Plus Your World results pages, the answer is yes. Mindshare explain why.

1. Google+ Brand Ciarán Norris 31/01/2012
Profiles
Background
In 2011, Google launched Google+, its answer to Twitter and Facebook, and a serious push into the
social networking world. Not long after, it launched official brand pages on its nascent social
platform.
At the beginning of this year, Google launched Search Plus Your World (SPYW), which radically
redesigns Google’s core search results page, and seems designed to boost usage of Google+, by
giving much greater prominence to profiles on the platform. Mindshare wrote detailed POV
documents on all of these developments.
Details
As set-out in our previous POV, SPYW will give much greater prominence to profiles from Google+ in
search results. Currently it is only being shown to people who are logged into a Google product,
such as Gmail, searching on Google.com, in English. It seems inevitable that Google will roll this out
to all of its territories; whether it will roll it out to people not logged into one of its products is less
certain, but shouldn’t be ruled out.
Implications
‘Real estate’ on Google’s search results is some of the most valuable on the web. Up until now,
brands have been able to buy that real estate (AdWords/PPC) or work for it (SEO). Now, they need to
register for it too.
Whilst the user details for Google+ are still unclear in Ireland, what is clear is that Google is
determined to push its growth: anyone signing up for Gmail is now given a public Google+ profile
by default. Whilst this aggressive push may be take up by government regulators, clients need to
deal with the reality as it stands.
Whilst it may not be possible for clients to find the resources, either internal or external, to manage
a Google+ page for their brand, they should, as a matter of urgency, prepare for the international
roll out of SPYW by creating local profile pages. This is relatively simple and will not only ward off
potential problems when SPYW world arrives locally, but will also prevent profile-highjacking of the
sort that has previously been seen on sites such as Facebook & Twitter.
Summary
Managing multiple social profiles can be a troublesome and time-consuming job for clients, but as
far as Google+ is concerned, it is no longer merely an option: there is no reason not to set-one up,
even if it’s not actively managed but is treated like a holding page, and plenty of reasons why you
should, including, most importantly, the potential cost of not doing so and losing valuable real
estate on Google search results
To discuss the potential implications of Search Plus Your World on your PPC or SEO strategy, or for
more details of how to set-up & maintain a Google+ profile, please contact your Mindshare account
manager or email us.