Byron Gordon, SEO-PR, interviews Timothy Jordan, Developer Advocate, Google, at the Googleplex in Mt. View, California, about his upcoming appearance at SES San Francisco, 2011, and his presentation on Google Plus and the Google +1 button. Timothy starts off by saying that Google Plus is not quite yet ready for businesses to begin using it as a legitimate social media platform for their marketing needs. However, in the meantime, if a brand wants to designate someone within their company that has their own presence on Google Plus and can represent the company in an official capacity, then by all means they should feel free to do so. Timothy cites as an example, that of Michael Dell who has used Google Plus extensively as a means of communicating with this audience.
Timothy then elaborates on the subject of best practices when using the Google +1 button. The +1 button allow users to endorse the content of each user but even more importantly, webmasters are beginning to place the +1 button on category pages, not just recommending a single product but an entire category of product on a website. In addition, Timothy recommends placement of the +1 button on the homepage of a website, that way users when selecting your +1 button are endorsing your entire website, including your brand. Timothy also recommends webmasters take advantage of the call back mechanism associated with the Google +1 button to surface more interesting information to users within a website. Timothy adds that the speed of the +1 button has been increased and is now three times faster than when it was first introduced. Timothy also stresses that webmasters can make the +1 button work even faster if they include canonical URLs to all of their webpages.
As for searching within Google Plus, it’s still very early. Timothy recommends as a “patch-on” solution, using Google.com, where you can restrict a search to a particulate site. So if you want to search across posts within Google Plus, Timothy suggests you go to Google.com, type in your search query, and add a site colon, and then plus.google.com.
Timothy concludes with an update to the Google Real Names policy. Google profiles were designed for users to have a public page on the Web that represents a real person in the real-world that you can connect with. By using a common name, it enables your friends and social network that would like to find you to make a connection with you. Google has also modified the process. Your profile isn’t suspended immediately for review but you are given a chance to change your name. If your profile is suspended for your review by Google, you still have access to your Google account and all of your gmail.
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