The summer, other than bringing us the usual high temperatures and humidity, also brought a few major changes from some of the big social networking players: Google, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Google, as great as it is for search purposes, frazzled me continuously when it came to its local business and social media networking offerings. Google+ wasn’t really all that they made it out to be and a little while ago, the search giant withdrew most of the few remaining benefits of running a company Google+ page. Were it not for a great contact in Google (Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management trained, too!) I would have despaired a long time ago.
What they do best is Search and Maps, so I was happy to see that during its recent tidying up of the Google My Business offerings, Google actually created an extremely useful function: You can now post business updates directly from your Google My Business listing and they are displayed where people actually see them — in search results and on your business’ Google Maps listing. If you’re not using this tool yet, you definitely should give it a try, because it’s not only useful for your audiences, but also for you, because it allows you to put your content where people actually see it. It’s also very easy to use — just go to your Google My Business dashboard and click the ‘Create Post’ button. You can then create a post with 100-300 words and an image.
Sure, it’s not a storytelling behemoth, but by limiting the number of characters and images, Google makes sure that your post will display nicely in search results and on maps. You can also designate your post as an ‘Event’, which lets you add a start and end date, a time and an event description including a link. Regardless of post type, Google also gives you the ability to add a ‘Call to Action’ button to your updates. I personally like the events feature best, and initial tests suggest that while previously (when created as part of a Google+ company page) only a handful of people would see an event, it is now seen by hundreds of people.
