Advances in business communications from Business VoIP to Search Engine Marketing have been moving forward at breakneck speeds. An extremely significant innovation for business marketing that has currently taken hold is social networking. Originally conceived as a way for the private sector to keep in touch, social networking has become a powerful communication tool for business, especially small businesses that rely on word of mouth to get off the ground and grow. One of the newer developments is Google Plus. Let’s take a closer look at Google+ and it’s significance.

What Is Google Plus (Google+)?

Just as the announcement of Google Voice excited the business community, the introduction of Google Plus (Google+) had business entrepreneurs eagerly awaiting details. Google+ is Google’s version of Facebook, a social network that they hope will do for social networking what Google has done for search engines and what Google Chrome still hopes to do for web browsers. Although Google Plus is currently available for personal accounts, with
Google Plus for business coming in the next several months, you can use your personal profile to become familiar with some of the features that may be available to businesses.

Google+ Features

One of the main ideas behind Google+ is simplification and streamlining. You’ll still be able to hook up with all your friends and find out what everyone is doing; Google+ just hopes to make it easier, with ideas like “circles,” essentially groups within your larger group of Google+ friends. Just as in real life you run in different circles, you can focus on particular groups of friends in Google+.

A similar feature, Huddle, serves as a sort of online conference call, allowing you to get all your friends on the same page when trying to come to a meeting of the minds for things such as which movie to see or where to meet up. Since sharing information has become a big part of social networking, the Sparks feature of Google+ actually pulls news items and videos that it thinks will suit your taste and delivers them to you to analyze and share.

Google+ and Business Possibilities

It shouldn’t be too difficult to see the applications for business and business communications. Your company could set up business Google+ pages that allow you to create Circles of anything from potential business partners to new clients, that allow you to share new innovations and news about your company with others who are linked to your Google+ page and much more. At some point there may be a way to integrate your current business VoIP system with Google+ technology. You may even be able to have business VoIP conference calls while visually communicating in a Google+ Huddle.

As is usually the case with new internet technology, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Whether your business is a successful or growing business, you’ll want to stay tuned to the launch and progress of Google+. Start thinking about all the applications it has for your business communications and use your personal Google account to get a sampling of what is on the horizon for your business.

What features and capabilities would you like to see in Google+ for your business?