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The strangest part of talking with people about writing a book was that they often said, “How can you write a book about Google+ for business if they haven’t even released the business pages yet?” That was the case when I started the book. Business pages hadn’t been launched. But I felt then the same way I feel now: Business pages are useful, but they are not central to how one conducts business on Google+. In their early days, many people weren’t all that happy with the lack of features.

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The Look and Feel of the Business Pages

A Google+ business page looks similar to a user profile page with a few exceptions for how the pages act and what’s involved with them. They have a space for a brand avatar (this seems to be the default for branded pages at this point; although, I tend to recommend brands that promote with human faces), an area at the top for five pictures, and an area for posts.

There is a button to +1 the business page and a button to share the business page to your own circles. There is also a way to connect your Google+ business page with your primary website via the +1 functionality. Further down, you also see a button to create your own page should that appeal to you. There is likely to be more functionality added to that area of the page, over time.

At the time of launch, business pages enable only one administrator. This will no doubt change in future versions because leaving a single point-of-failure like that won’t be advisable. This administrator is listed on the brand page so that people understand who has claimed ownership of the page. Business pages don’t (yet) show authorship, so any post made by the business page will be marked as having been posted by the business page’s title and not an individual person’s name.

Several rules in place are helpful to the Google+ community at large insofar as feeling comfortable with the actions and activities of a brand on this social network. Many of these rules have been made with the individual user in mind and do not favor the business. That is a selling point, I’m sure, for more business activity to take place on Google+ because users will understand that their best interests are kept in mind by Google in this implementation.

Rules for Business Pages

Let’s look at some of the rules of the business pages. A business page can’t add people to circles until the individuals have circled that business page. Thus, if I’m representing Coca Cola, I can’t go and circle Glenda Watson Hyatt and send her updates until Glenda circles me first. If you like Coke, circle Coke. If you don’t want updates from that brand, don’t circle it. You’ll barely know they are around if you don’t circle them.

Brand pages can’t circle other brand pages. At the time of launch, if I’m Kodak, I can’t circle Dell. This might change as time goes on because perhaps if I’m someone like Dell, I’d want Latitude to have a page, Inspiron to have a page, and for Dell to circle those two pages to keep track of all the larger brands. At launch, however, this isn’t an option.

You as a user can circle whoever you want, so you can circle all the brands and businesses and organizations that you find useful. We’ll talk about that more later. I just want to make the distinction between you the user and you the administrator of the business page.

Brand page users can’t join other people’s hangouts, but they can host hangouts. Thus, if you and your friends are hosting a “camera talk hangout,” Kodak can’t join that hangout via their brand page. However, if Kodak wants to host a hangout, users can join its hangout (if invited). Business pages can’t yet join mobile hangouts, either.

Beyond this, some other features and details of brand pages are worth talking about.

A verification system is in the works at present. At the time I was writing this, it was still a bit “Wild West” how brands verified their accounts, and a few challenges had already arisen from enthusiasts rushing in to build brand pages for businesses and products