Google Business Listing Gets Meaningful Update: My Business POSTS!

SERPS To Be Google Business Listings “Facebook News Feed”

Facebook has dominated “posts” on social media for ages now. Google created Plus as a competitive move to get some of that game but just couldn’t make it work. Google finally has incorporated “posts” and “events” into it’s Google Business Listing (Google My Business). (examples at the link) This was the smartest move for them to make as it:

essentially incorporates the functionality of being able to update a business listing with relevant time driven data and..
Paves the way for more owner/manager interaction with their Google Business Listing (which is where owners focus anyway because that’s how customers find their online businesses using the search function).

It will be interesting to see if this really takes off. If it does, where will that leave Google Plus?

Events

Below is an example of how owners can now post events directly into their business listing.

Post (Types)

Here you have the choice of simply posting an image and typing up to 300 words of text (including a url) or, you can create a post of one of 5 different types:

Learn More
Reserve (restaurant table?)
Sign Up (subscription)
Buy
Get offer

Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), I think this is an exciting development for both Google and business owners.

What this Means For:

The Consumer: the consumer will find it easier to know more about a company, it’s products and services and possible local interaction with the community via events and posts.
The Business Owner: for the time being, this can be seen as an opportunity for businesses to place more relevant data at the front of search engine results pages (SERPS) yielding potential higher visibility to consumers looking locally for products and services. It may also help save the owner money in terms of alternative spending in Adwords Express or Facebook ads.
For Google: this gives Google an advantage over Facebook or other such social media which rely on businesses to advertise within their platforms because by the nature of the Google Business Listings (Google My Business), they appear within the search engine results page which is at the front end of the engagement funnel.

Please make a comment if you are in local search or follow that space. Your insight would be appreciated as this ‘giveaway’ by Google could be seen as competing with it’s own Google Adwords Express

6/23/2017 Update: More here on Google My Business ‘posts’ & ‘events’

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Dave Hucker

President at Consumers Resource, Inc.

Marketer for over 20 years. Business owner and tech entrepreneur.Married with children & a dog. Speaks 2 languages more or less fluently.Involved and interested in preserving America's heritage and the American way of life..

2 thoughts on “Google Business Listing Gets Meaningful Update: My Business POSTS!”

Dale Obrochta June 26, 2017

This is a great way for a business to take advantage of Google Marketing and stay one head of the competition. Thank for the Artice Dave!
- Dave Hucker June 26, 2017
  
  My pleasure Dale. The day I posted this was the general rollout to all Google My Business users. Not sure how long it had been in beta but for sure this could be a game changer for social for Google. I don’t think it allows any actual on page interaction with other users, but it does give business owners incentive to ‘tend to’ their business listings much more often than they are used to. Again…this sort of competes with Google Adsense Express, but that may be under review by Google.. It must have been performing far below their expectations. -DH