Who Wants a Google+ Business Profile?!

Not so fast!

Like the Google+ personal profiles, Google planned to slowly roll out and test Google+ company profiles through a test program first. They asked interested businesses to apply to be considered for the test program at the beginning of July. The feedback they received was overwhelming. According to Googler Christian Oestlien, “Believe it or not we actually had tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organizations apply to take part from all over the world.”

Because of this interest Google+ has accelerated the business profiles program and they will hopefully launch for everyone in Q3 2011.

According to VentureBeat, Google+ business profiles will have analytics as well as more sophisticated sharing options. A Google spokesperson told VentureBeat,

“There will be a product very soon that has businesses’ interests in mind… We want to give them the features businesses expect and the features that can improve the sharing experience both for consumers and businesses… You can expect to see a level of analytics and measurement that you’d typically find in Google products as well as a nuanced approach to how things are shared. It encourages and enhances conversation, it doesn’t just put things in the stream.”

Google is asking businesses not to create Google+ profiles using the regular profiles. They will even be disabling business profiles that use regular profiles. They recommend using a real person to represent your business until business profiles are ready.

So as tempting as it may be to set up a personal Google+ profile for your business – don’t! The wait will be worth it!

For more updates from Google+ on business profiles follow Googler Christian Oestlien at https://plus.google.com/105923173045049725307/posts

What do you think of this Google+ business profile saga? Will you create a Google+ business profile when they are available?

Tags: google, google plus, social media