Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Google employee announcement
Google Plus has announced via the G+ page of employee Saurabh Sharma that brands can now use specific URLs to promote their Google+ brand or company page via offline media. About time too! Although to be fair, it took Facebook and LinkedIn a while after launch to offer this for company or brand pages. It was certainly clunky before.
The vanity URL uses a "+" (what else?). For example, Toyota can now use this URL…
http://plus.google.com/+toyota
(which redirects to http://plus.google.com/+toyota/posts)
rather than…
https://plus.google.com/110937137992985950150
You can find out more details about this update via the post on Saurabh Sharma’s profile:
Most companies will have to wait until Google announces further details to make this an option for everyone - we’ll alert you. Looking at the http headers for the above with an HTTP header viewer, Google is naturally using a 301 redirect which is likely to have to be manually setup for their large clients.
However, if you’re a large brand with a large investment in Adwords it’s worth contacting your Google Account manager to set this up.
If you don’t want to wait you can make use of a service like Gplus (http://gplus.to/) to setup vanity URLs.
By Dave Chaffey
Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.
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