Do I set up a profile or a page for my business?
The quick answer is both. And, there are caveats. And, questions you need to answer about your business:
- Is your business solely online or do you have a physical location as well?
- Are you a solopreneur or a small, medium or large business?
- If you’re a solopreneur, are you the “face” of your business, the person who is the brand?
- What is the purpose for you/your business to be active on Google+?
- How engaged do you plan to be?
No matter what, you will need to create a personal Profile on Google+, even if it’s only so you can set up and manage Pages. If you’re a solo business owner, you may want to set up a Page in order to protect your brand and business name as well.
In my case, I am my brand and 99% of my activity is on my Profile. Like Facebook and Twitter, people prefer to engage with people, not logos. I have pages set up for my business, The Blog Squad, and for The Future of Ink, but I’m not active on either. All my activity is focused on my profile and communities I manage.
It comes down to this for me (and you’ll need to decide for yourself)…I only have so much time and energy and content to share. Having to manage and curate content on personal profiles AND pages is not where I choose to spend my time. People know me as Denise so I focus on my personal profile.
If I had a physical location and/or employees and an established brand, I would focus on a company page. It’s up to you.
In the embedded G+ post below by Shannon Hernandez, you’ll find detailed info about how to deal with pages and profiles to help you come to a decision about which may be best for you. (Be sure to click the Read More link to see the whole post.)
One more option for a Page
My pal Stephan Hovnanian uses a page a little differently. Stephan has created a Curation Page which he defines:
A curation page is different from a brand page. Its purpose is topical, and doesn’t even have to have your brand name in it. For example, you could have a curation page called “Twitter Marketing Tips.” The idea is to build a targeted following for that topic.
Stephan has a curation page called A Better, Smarter Web Presence which I recommend you check out and follow so you can study how he manages it. And, you can learn in detail the why, what and how in his in-depth article, Complete Guide to Google+ Curation Pages.
Now it’s up to you… Profile or Profile and Page? How do you manage your Google+ presence?
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Great post! I echo the same thought that people want to relate your brand/content with a face than logos. Hence a profile is preferable for me. Even the recent vanity URL implementation was for my profile not brand.
Hi Denise,
I would go for both. I like the fact that personal one could easily be used for leisure while pages are good when you have a business type.
You know, having a balance of both worlds. But that’s just me though.
Thanks for sharing!
Denise – Great post. I agree this is one of the big questions on G+ and you provided some great detail resources too. If you are mostly on your profile (me too) what strategy do you have for people that find and circle your pages or do you somehow communicate that you’re not posting much there?
Stephanie, I haven’t quite figured that out yet. Thinking about turning that page into a curation page about business blogging, but then, I’ll still have to stay on top of posting there.