Google_ for Business_ How Google's Social Network Changes Everything - Chris Brogan [65]
5. As a collaboration space: Imagine being Wacom and hosting artist meetups and hangouts. People could join the Wacom hangout to share techniques on how to do various interesting art forms. Imagine being Gibson guitars and hosting hangouts where you can see Gibson artists playing and then going into lessons and jams with other enthusiasts. There are some exciting ways to look at this. And don’t let my examples fool you. Several business-to-business applications exist for building an enthusiastic collaboration space, too.
These are just five larger serving suggestions for how you might use the Google+ business page in some form that benefits the buying audience. In the early days of the launch, I saw most people using business pages as a kind of press release center. Though it’s important that the community at large be briefed on new and upcoming situations, releases, and the like, I suspect that people on social networks won’t seek out interactions with a business that speaks mostly through press releases.
Try imagining yourself at a cocktail party, where you represent your company. Walk up to that friendly-seeming guy, shake hands, and then talk about your incredible fourth-quarter stock earnings. Jarring, isn’t it? Though a cocktail party isn’t exactly the analogy of all social networks, it’s reasonably useful in explaining the not-exactly-buttoned-up nature of users interacting via these platforms. Not everyone using a social network seeks a strictly business interaction, and as such, you might consider that with how you represent the voice of your company on your business page.
Interesting Business Pages of Note
In looking over how businesses and brands use their pages, I found a few for you to consider.
The Corcoran Group: https://plus.google.com/106654503918907830147/posts
This is a real estate company from New York City. I love that it has implemented a lot of ideas that I’ve written about before, including pointing out the interesting sights to see around New York. On the day I visited the company’s page, it pointed out Rob Pruitt’s statue of Andy Warhol, which I saw in person just the day before. It also shared a restaurant review and many more photos of scenic locations.
That alone would have been interesting enough for me, but I was excited to see that the Corcoran Group also hosted a few hangouts, chatting with people on video about real estate in New York, I’d imagine. What was interesting was that one of the hangouts was with another real estate company. I don’t know whether they’re competitors, but I’m excited to consider the possibility that businesses can share their best ideas via Google+ with noncompetitors.
The Dallas Cowboys: https://plus.google.com/106281600940449244340/posts
This is the official page of an NFL football team, and as such, several pictures of players are posted. Some of the photos are similar to the kind you’d expect in Sports Illustrated, and those are fine, but what interests me are the behind-the-scenes photos and the captured moments. For instance, there is a snap of Cowboys kicker David Buehler pretending to punch the mascot, Rowdy, after a game. In another photo, the Cowboys introduced one of the cheerleaders, Holly Arielle, who was a featured rookie of the week.
Most exciting to me were questions to fans of the team about various upcoming experiences. For instance, whoever runs the page asked people who from the Cowboys roster should be on the All-Pro team. This kind of engagement, when followed up by comments back to the various votes of the fans, is a great way to keep people feeling seen and heard.
Intel: https://plus.google.com/111660275132722215045/posts
When writing about the technology of social media, it’s often easiest to find examples of tech companies doing interesting things. What