Google Plus is a social networking website that Google sponsors, which allows users to communicate in ways that other social networking websites have not implemented. For example, Circles is a Google Plus feature that allows users to separate contacts into multiple groups and only allows members of specific groups to see the users’ status updates. While Google Plus also allows users to create profiles and message friends in the same way that other social networking websites do, its unique features separate Google Plus from similar services.

 

Current Google + Business Perspective

Although Google Plus can be used in small business, it has widely discouraged large businesses from creating Google Plus accounts yet. This is because Google Plus is relatively new and is not yet optimized for business related purposes. For example, Google Plus does not yet have a business account option and requires individuals to enter their personal information, including gender. Additionally, Google Plus does not have a large amount of users yet, making it unsuitable for marketing purposes. Because of these reasons and others, Google Plus has gone as far as to say that they would be actively deleting business related profiles until an ideal business account is available.

 

Circles/Huddle

Despite the fact that Google Plus is not yet optimized for business related purposes, small businesses can still use Google Plus for business related communication by having individual employees create a Google Plus account. For example, small businesses can use Circles to post notices to specific groups of employees. Likewise, small businesses can use Huddle, another Google Plus feature, to create group conversations that multiple employees can participate in.

 

Talk/Hang-out

In addition to Circles and Huddle, small businesses can also use Google Talk in order for employees to instant message each other in a similar way that Huddle allows. Likewise, small businesses can use Hang-out, another Google Plus feature, in order for employees to communicate with each other via webcam and even from mobile smartphones.