Opportunities abound, but will green industry businesses adopt another social network?

Austin, Texas -- Dec. 2, 2011 -- In late September, Google publicly unveiled Google+, its new social product, and it recently announced Pages for businesses. According to a recent story in TechCrunch, 61 percent of the world's top brands have already created Pages.

If the thought of one more social network to update regularly is more than a little nerve wracking, you aren't alone. But each has a place in a business's marketing arsenal, according to Chris Heiler, a green industry social media consultant and strategist.

"This won't be an 'either/or' battle like Coke vs. Pepsi.," Heiler said. "Many of our customers are already on Facebook, and they're not going to abandon it completely for Google+. I think smart brands and businesses will leverage both platforms; each network will require a different approach that is in alignment with their unique competitive advantage."

Here are a few things that make Google+ different from Facebook:

• Accessibility: As with Facebook, there are Google+ profiles for people and pages for brands. But unlike Facebook, Google+ business pages interact with the rest of the community just as people's profiles do. Who you can contact is limited only by each individual user's privacy settings.
• +1 button: a powerful search/SEO amplifier

  The +1 button is becoming more and more prevalent on websites, ads and search results, and is Google's answer to the "Like" button. "What Google can offer that Facebook cannot is a competitive edge in search rankings, and that's very enticing for many businesses looking for a boost in search," Heiler said.

• Circles: Contact grouping that allows for selective content sharing This is helpful for businesses with a diverse customer base. (Say, a green-industry business that does wholesale growing and retail, or retail and landscape design/build.) Want to tell customers about new plants ready for ordering and shipping? Use your Wholesale Circle. Made a backyard-design tutorial video in YouTube (also owned by Google)? Share it with your Retail Circle.

Google's also working on a way to update Google+ through services like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, so users can seamlessly manage all their social media -- including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn -- from one location.

The Social Media Examiner has a fantastic step-by-step tutorial on getting your business page established on Google+.