In Social Media
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For any local business owners who are using Google Places, you should pay attention to the recent launch of Google+ Local on May 30th.  It is a new feature added in Google+ to bring the community of Google+ to local businesses.  I would say it is a plan to bring the local businesses into Google+ community.  According to Google Blog, they “aim to improve the way people discover new businesses, rediscover places they love, and share them with their friends across the web.”

Google has also integrated of Zagat user reviews on Google+ Local.  Now you can easily access to detailed information about the local businesses you are interested in and decide whether you want to visit it.

If you take a look at the Google+ Local layout, you will notice that it puts more focus on photos and reviews.  So it is vital for local business owners to spend some time and money to have eye-catching photos that make your business stands out from the crowd.

google+local

With Google+ Local, you can do many cool things in one place:

  • Get place recommendations based on your circles, your past reviews, and your location
  • Publish reviews and photos of your favorite places
  • Read Zagat summaries of user reviews for a place
  • View the local Google+ page for a business to see reviews, photos, and other useful information
  • Find reviews from people you know and trust highlighted in your search results

By replacing Google Places, Google+ Local aims to pull local businesses into Google’s social network Google+.   I think it is a smart move for Google.  It will help Google battle against other major social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

According to Google, local business owners can still manage their information in Google Places. You’ll still be able to verify your basic listing data, make updates, and respond to reviews.  However, Google definitely wants to have more and more local businesses to be on Google+.  As a local business owner, if you haven’t had a Google+ business pages set up, it is time to do so and get yourself familiar with it, as well as Google+ Local.

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Contact Mary Wang via email at GoldenVisionTraining.com

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