One of the strongest reasons emerging for businesses to take a closer look at using Google+ is the integration with their other apps. HealthWorks has figured out a few ideas for healthcare organizations, and these uses could as well apply to most other businesses too.
Google+ product manager Christian Oestlien says, “The business experience Google is creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to businesses.”
G+ is still in the crawl before you walk stage, but there is a apparently a hive of activity in the background as Google throws resources at G+ to incorporate apps like Blogger and Picasa, which are being renamed Google Blogs and Google Photos.
Ways to Use Google Apps
Google Map Maker – HealthWorks recommends that healthcare orgs use this feature to help people find the nearest place to get assistance. That started me thinking of other ways to use it – how about destinations? Most hotel and CVB sites have a map on their site now. Why not use mapmaker and encourage local people to add local insights on places of interest? It’s a natural for any type of travel site. You could incorporate Google Places to get the list of best restaurants, for instance. and then add Google Offers for the deals in the area.
Google+ and Mapping Your Social Graph
Circles is a great feature for an individual to organize thier friends and connectionsinto logical groups. Just imagine how useful this would be for a business.
A destination could use Circles to create a group of loyal or premium visitors to their venue.
A PR pro might use it for circles of influencers, bloggers and reporters in the area.
When Google releases its G+ business model, Circles will address the need for clustering stakeholders and community members: employees, customers, bloggers, media people, analysts, vendors etc. Voila! You’ll have your social graph at your fingertips.
