Thursday Tutorials: Creating a Google+ Page

I figure this is the next tutorial in the fun world of Social Media and I have a couple sites I need to create Google+ Pages for, so now is the time to do it.  If you haven't read the tutorial from last week which covers how to chose the proper category for your Google+ page, I suggest stopping here and checking that article out.  Otherwise, if you're confident in being able to chose your category, continue reading.

Just like in the article where we talk about Adding Managers to your page, view your profile in Google+.  You should see a screen like this:

Click on the profile button with the down arrow on the left hand side.  You should get a menu that looks like this:

Click on Pages, which will bring you a page like this (note: mine has pages on it already because I created/manage a handful of pages).

Click on the create a page button and it will automatically take you to the first part of the process where you have to select the category from the five options below (note: fewer main category selections to chose from, but pretty  much similar to Facebook's options).

Click on the category that fits you best.  For the page I am currently creating, I chose Arts, Entertainment or Sports as the page I'm working on right now is for a fansite for a Video Game.

Once you click on that category, just like on Facebook, you have a drop down menu of choices to select from as seen below.  I chose Video Game for this project, though website would have worked just as well.

Once you've finished the selection, click on next.  This will allow you to type in the name of your page as well as the website for it, if you have one.  Options for other categories may be different.

Once the information is typed in and accurate, be sure to click on the I agree to the terms box and click continue.

And the basic part of the page has been created.  Click on "Get Started" which will take you to your page's Dashboard and give you hints and tips to get started, as seen below.

This is pretty straightforward from here, but we'll follow up next week with a tutorial on how to finish setting up your page, including image sizes, and things to do to tweak it.

Until next time.

Thursday Tutorials are a series of tutorials designed to help people who may not be as Facebook savvy as other people.  Some tutorials will be targeted towards newbies to the social media world, others will include tutorials for more advanced users.  Thursday Tutorials are written for the layman and are designed with everyone in mind.  You can find all the Thursday Tutorials by clicking on the Thursday Tutorials tag below.

Thursday Tutorials: Picking the Category for Your Google+ Page

The first step in creating page, the step that comes immediately after tapping the "Create a Page" button, is often the most challenging step for people new to Social Media, or if their page could, potentially, fall into several categories.

The good thing?  Google+ has narrowed it down to five options to chose from.

This tutorial will go into a bit more detail than is on Google+ and help you decide what option to chose.  This tutorial will not go through the "Creating a Page" tutorial.  That tutorial for Google+ is next week.

First, let's list the five options, then we'll define them:

1. Local Business or Place
2. Product or Brand
3. Company, Institution or Organization
4. Art, Entertainment or Sports
5. Other

1.  Local Business or Place

This is probably the easiest one to figure out.  If the answer to the following question is yes, then select this page:  Do I own a physical location to sell goods and services from?

When you select this option, instead of providing you with a drop down menu, Google opens up a map and you have to put in the physical address of your location to pin it on the map.  Type in the name of your business, then select it from the options that pop up on the map.

If this is the right choice, fill in the rest of the information - it's important not to leave any of that information blank as it will help customers - and potential customers - to find you.

Unfortunately, at this time, I do not have a client with a physical location to be able to go through the rest of the steps, but it does look like an interesting and accurate way to create a page with your business's address and map on it.

2. Product or Brand

This one is probably the more complicated of the choices as a lot of things people don't think would fall into this category, do.  It is also the most broad of the categories available.

This category can cover something as easy as a product produced by a larger corporation (say Heinz Ketchup as a fanpage or WiiU's Google+ page).  Keep in mind, there are "official" pages and "unofficial fan-based pages."  But it can also be for Apps (like iPhone/Android games etc.), software, websites, companies, corporations or someone who is just launching their own brand or products.

A good question to ask yourself is: Is this page about a website I've created, a product or brand I've created or am creating/launching, or is this a fan-based page for an already existent product.

If the answer is yes, then select the category that fits closest to what your page is for and go from there.

3. Company, Institution or Organization

This category can also qualify as a more complicated category because some people may feel their local business may fall into to company, organization or institution category instead of local business category.  Ultimately, it's your decision to pick the best spot for it - and this article will help with that.

This option is a bit of a broader than just local businesses.  For example, McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo, most of which will have local community run establishments, would have a larger company driven Google+ page.  Some restaurants and local franchises of larger companies will have their independent Google+ pages under local businesses as well, which is part of their local marketing initiative.

So if you are an international or even global company or a parent company with multiple branches - you would select this category.

If you are a church, a 501c3, a cause, an institution like a University, a political part, a community organization or any of the other choices in the drop down menu to chose from, this one is likely for you.

If this is the right choice, select the category that fits closest to what your page is for and go from there.

4.  Art, Entertainment or Sports

This category actually covers a lot more than just artists, bands or sports.  This one is too hard to just define, so the options for this category are below:

• Album
• Amateur Sports Team
• Award Show
• Blog
• Book
• Concert and Performance
• Concert Tour
• Festival
• Fictional Character
• Magazine
• Movie
• Music Award
• Music Band
• Music Chart
• Music Genre
• Music Video
• Musical Instrument
• Newspaper
• Playlist
• Professional Sports Team
• Radio Station
• Record Label
• School Sports Team
• Song
• Sporting Event
• Sports League
• Studio
• TV Channel
• TV Network
• TV Show
• TV Movie/Award
• Video Game
• Visual and Performing Arts
• Website

To figure out if this page suits your needs, ask yourself these questions:

• Does this page fall into any of the above sub categories (Note: website appears as an option on most of the other choices a well because websites can be businesses too).
• Is this an official/unofficial page for someone (fictional character, government official, band member, etc.)?  Do you have the right to create said page?
• Is this a page dedicated to myself and my endeavors?  (ie. You're running your own fan page as an author, a journalist, a public figure, etc.)
• Is this a page for someone you work for as a social media manager and they fall into the above categories?

If the answer to one, or more, of these questions is yes, then you found the category you are looking for.

If this is the right choice, select the category that fits closest to what your page is for, fill in the blank spots and go from there.

5. Other

This one is really simple.

If it doesn't fit in any of the above categories, choose this category.  All you have to do here is type in the name you want for the page, website if applicable and you're good to go.

Really, really easy, but don't use this one unless it really doesn't fit in any of the other categories (perhaps it's a cause or a community or something like that - that would fit here).

I hope this guide has helped some and, as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Thursday Tutorials are a series of tutorials designed to help people who may not be as Facebook savvy as other people.  Some tutorials will be targeted towards newbies to the social media world, others will include tutorials for more advanced users.  Thursday Tutorials are written for the layman and are designed with everyone in mind.  You can find all the Thursday Tutorials by clicking on the Thursday Tutorials tag below.

Thursday Tutorials: Creating Your Page

The previous tutorials - prior to missing an article for last week - covered how to find the "Create a Page" buttons as well as how to chose the category your page falls into.  Today, using this blog as an example, I will walk through how to create a page for a website/brand/product.  The process is pretty much the same for the other categories - but if specific tutorials for each category are wanted, I will need to be able to create a page for a specific category.

That being said, we'll start with the very first step, finding and clicking on the click page button - as seen below.

Once you click that +Create a Page button, this page below will pop up where you can chose the category you want your page to be in.  If you are confused on this, please check the article found here for additional information as to what types of pages go where.

Since I'm creating a page for my blog (aka Website), I selected the Brand or Product category from above.  Then in the drop down menu for selections there, I chose Website, as seen below.

After that is selected, I typed in (what was then) the name of the blog (as seen below).

Once I hit the "Get Started" button, that's when I discovered I had to change the name of my page.  Long story short, there is some programing within page creation which will prevent you from creating pages with certain names.  Using the term "Facebook" in a page name is forbidden - which should have been an "oh duh" moment for me, but I hadn't really considered it before I started the blog.

If you hit the "Get Started" button and a red error message pops up similar to the one below, click on the "Learn More" to figure out what you might have done wrong, then change the name of your page - as I did.

Thankfully, Social Media Marketing: Tips and Hints was permissible and available, which is why the blog's address and name changed to that.  Finding the name was allowed, hitting "Get Started" Takes you to this next page.

This was my first draft of what I put in the description area.  You are limited to a certain number of characters, so be sure to be concise about what your page is for.  I redid this and ended up with a shorter blurb and a way to add in my blog address.  Note: If you put in a web address, it will automatically link in the page's description - a great way to hopefully get people to click to your site if they stumble across your page.

Now, I failed to get screenshots of the next two steps, but they are relatively easy to walk through.

Your profile picture, or avatar, is the image that will be seen in the feed of folks who liked you.  Facebook requires the size to be at least 180x180 in size, but you can use almost any size, just as long as it resizes right and looks good in the square.  Facebook has options for you to select what you want people to see if the image doesn't resize right.  If all else fails, I strongly encourage you to spend time on selecting your image and making sure it looks right.  

Most importantly, don't worry if it doesn't look right or you decide that's not the image you want to use.  You can always change it after the page is initially created.

Once you have the image uploaded and selected, you move on to the final phase, adding your new page to your Favorites section.  That will make your page show up as seen below.

Once that is done, you hit the final button and it will take you to a pretty sparse page, but it's been created and your name has been saved.

Our next article will continue in the same theme of this page, but with customizing your page that you just created.

Thursday Tutorials are a series of tutorials designed to help people who may not be as Facebook savvy as other people.  Some tutorials will be targeted towards newbies to the social media world, others will include tutorials for more advanced users.  Thursday Tutorials are written for the layman and are designed with everyone in mind.  You can find all the Thursday Tutorials by clicking on the Thursday Tutorials tag below.