[ad_1]
Google launches a new version of its Google My Business app for business owners. The updated application offers improved customer visibility and a range of new features that suggest further enhancements.
According to Curtis Galloway, Engineering Manager at Google My Business, the update was driven by feedback from local businesses and Google's observations of how users were engaging with the previous version of the app.
What's up. Here's what's new according to Google:
- An improved corporate profile editor.
- A new, lower navigation bar providing quick access to the company profile and customer information.
- The New Message button allows you to upload photos and create Google messages.
- The Clients tab displays information about the customer and offers the ability to interact. This includes reviews, messages and subscribers (follow local businesses recently introduced in Google Maps).
- The Follow tab shows the following company, if users have chosen to expose their profiles.
- A Messages tab displays the Maps and Search client messages. Local businesses can respond to the messages of the application. Messaging is also being rolled out in "most countries around the world".
More notifications in real time. Users of the GMB app will also receive real-time notifications about notifications, messages and followers. Google also offers GMB analysis in a more visible simplified view that can be expanded for more details.
Google added that it had decided to call local business information on Google Maps and "business profiles". This term is already used by many industry professionals, but Google now adopts it formally – as opposed to "listing".
Where is it going? Google sees its local content and tools as a kind of "engagement platform" for consumers and local businesses. And the GMB update further reinforces this idea, with more interactive features.
During my conversation with Curtis Galloway, I made a number of feature suggestions that Google would not comment on. But it's pretty clear that GMB is becoming a kind of "lightweight CRM" tool for small businesses.
One can imagine a feature where Google would allow business owners to communicate with some of their audience with special offers or rewards, thus creating a kind of loyalty platform. At this time, all publications are public, but Google may enable communication with customers or subscribers of the selected group. As a result, I could imagine that a business owner uses the posts to entice to generate subscribers and then specifically communicates with them.
Again, this is my speculation and Google declined to comment on future features or capabilities. I also imagine that Q & A notifications and response capabilities will soon arrive at GMB.
What matters to traders. GMB has become a place to download basic business information to an "engagement platform" for monitoring reputation and various forms of customer engagement. Just as Google Maps and search have seen dozens of new features and experiences in recent years, Google My Business is evolving in parallel.
A large percentage of business profiles (SME and multi-site brands) have not yet been verified. Marketers must claim and actively engage with GMB because Google has become the leading platform for online reputation and reviews. Google's questions and answers are now a must-have feature and Google Posts is an extremely underused free tool for businesses.
The Google introduction video for the update is presented below.
About the author
Greg Sterling is a collaborative editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about the connection between digital media and consumer behavior in the real world. He is also vice president of strategy and ideas for the local research association. Follow on Twitter or find it on Google+.
[ad_2]
Source link
