Take THAT Google+! Facebook Releases Facebook for Business…
With Google+ gaining in members and some Facebooker’s defecting, Facebook knew it had to bring out some big guns, ones that Google+ isn’t yet prepared to deal with…businesses.
Since Google+ first came onto the scene, now just over a month old, their project manager has requested that people hold off on creating business profiles but he also hints at what’s to come. I’m yet to discover how this is going to relate to Google Places but stay tuned.
Knowing this, Facebook has released their Facebook for Business…whether they were sitting on this project just waiting for the right time to pounce, is unknown but all that said, it’s now available to small and mid-sized local business owners.
It essentially consolidates and teaches you how to “Build a Presence” by creating a Facebook Page, claiming it, and how to make your website social.
It also talks about engaging your community, building relationships, getting insights on what people are doing, getting the word out with ads, and so on.
One of the nice things about both Facebook and Google+ essentially grappling for your advertising dollars is that if you’re a business owner it really doesn’t matter; they’ll keep duking it out with each other, which can be kind of entertaining to watch, but in the end local business owners win either way.
Google+ or Facebook? Love this video explanation!
If you’ve ever wondered what Google+ is all about and why you would explore using it yourself, check out this video. It’s a great explanation and very funny!
How to Create and Add People to Google+ Circles
If you’re just getting started with Google+, one of the very first things that you’ll want to do is to create what are called Circles.
If you’re familiar with lists on Facebook this will seem familiar to you but the difference is that within Google+ it’s a lot more intuitive.
Circles let you organize people into groups in order to make them more accessible. For instance, you can have a Family Circle, a Friends Circle, a Following Circle and just about any kind you want to personally create. If you want to create one that’s specific to a niche like SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Facebook, Twitter, etc., you can do this too. It’s amazing how you can personally choose to segment out the folks that you follow.
What’s nice about these circles is that if you want to share something that you only want read by your friends for example, then you just post to that circle and only your friends will see your message.
In addition to sharing information, you can also choose to show certain things like your email address to only your friends and your family; something that Facebook Lists doesn’t allow you to do.
So let’s take a little walk-through of how to create these circles for yourself:
Once you have your own Google+ account, there’s two ways to start using Circles, the first way is that Google will ask you to start adding people to some pre-created circles first as soon as you sign into your account. And for the most part, you’ll find you’ll be putting people into these default circles. But, as I’ll talk about below, you can create your own unique circles too. Let’s first though, talk about how to get people into these default circles. One way to do this is to click the icon at the top of the page (this is highlighted in red in the image below):
Now, once you’ve clicked the circle icon at the top of the page you’ll see this:
Here, I’ve clicked on the “Find and Invite” link at the top (highlighted in red). These are people I do not yet have in any circles and that Google has suggested for me based upon who I’m currently following (sorry, I think that’s a Facebook term yes? Maybe the appropriate term is “circling”? :-)). For instance, Google may see that I’ve followed circled Carrie Wilkerson and based on this information suggested Ed Dale for me.
Now there’s a couple of things that I can do with this group of people. First, if I don’t want someone to appear again as a potential person to add to one of my circles, I can hover over their name and a tiny “x” will appear in the top right hand corner like so:
Once I click the “x” they’ll become “hidden”. Now that said, they are not gone forever. I can still search for them in the “find people” box (located on the top right-hand portion of the Google+ page) and they’ll still be there but they’ll appear grayed out. If I later decide that I DO in fact want to add them, I can just click on their image and drag them to the circle I want them to be in and they’ll no longer be hidden.
Which brings me to the next point of adding people to your circles. Whenever you see someone that you want to add to your circles, all you need to do is select them and then drag them into the circle you want them to be in. Click and drag. It’s super-simple.
Now, let’s talk about how to create your own unique circles because you may want to segment out those people you’re following in a little more detail.
Once again, you’ll want to click on the “circles” icon at the top of the page. What you’ll see first is a list of people Google is suggesting for you but below those folks are all of your circles and to the far left of your current circles is the one that you want here.
What you can do here are a couple of things. First, if you have a person in your list that you just aren’t sure what to do with, you can simply drag and drop them into this empty circle and THEN name the circle. But, if instead you just want to create a new circle with a unique name, simply hover over the “drop here to create a new circle” and you’ll see this:
By clicking on the “Create Circle” link you can rename this new circle to whatever you wish and then drag and drop people to add.
And just so you know you CAN add the same person to multiple circles if you wish AND you can create as many circles as you like. I haven’t tested how many so I can’t say this for sure.
Additionally, no one will be able to see your circles; or whose in them. Another “plus” – (pun not intended 
).
So we’ve talked about getting people into circles and creating new ones but what if you’re not finding the person you want to add to a circle? For instance, let’s say that your best friend isn’t listed in the suggestions.
In that case, all you need to do is search in the box at the top of the page right above the “circle” icon (see above image) OR you can add them using their email address.
Right next to those images of people that Google is suggesting for you is an empty box that looks like this:
When you click within this box, you’ll be given the ability to search for a name (like you can at the top of the page) OR you can enter in someone’s email address.
If you enter in an email address and Google doesn’t find them, you’ll be able to send them a notification that you’ve added them to one of your circles.
After you’ve entered in an email address, you’ll see something like this:
You can then select the circle you want to add them to via the drop-down. Next, be sure that you enter in a name to be tied to the email address in the box; Google won’t let you move forward without tieing a name to an email address. When you’re done, click “Save” .
What will happen next is that you’ll see a notification at the bottom of the screen that looks like this:
Click on the green button and you’ll get a pop-up that looks like this:
You can then choose to send the invite via email, or continue to add more people to invite. When you’re done, just click the “Invite” button and you’re finished! They’ll soon get an email stating that you have added them to Google+.
