Google+ Brand Pages Coming in Two Weeks
Ford, MTV and Mashable Likely Among First Allowed to Create Company Pages — Soon after the launch of Google+ came the inevitable next question: When can brands set up pages there, as they have successfully on Facebook? Now, an answer: in about two weeks.
Context & Ripple Effects
A week after Google+'s consumer launch, Google confirmed what earlier reporting flagged: business profile pages are coming in about two weeks, closing the gap that left companies improvising personal profiles while Facebook's Pages product remained the default brand home. AdAge reports the rollout will start with a small set of hand-picked partners — Ford, MTV and Mashable are named as likely first entrants, though that list is unconfirmed.
The timing matters because it lands days after [[a:entity|Facebook]] countered on the feature front, launching Skype-powered video chat the same week — a reminder that both platforms are now bidding for the same brand budgets, with Google+ still needing to prove advertiser demand beyond its early adopter spike.
First-order effects
- Ford, MTV and Mashable — if the rumored first-wave list holds — get early access to Google+ brand presence ahead of competitors, a visibility advantage during the network's peak novelty window.
- Google gains its first structured test of brand content and moderation on Google+, replacing the ad-hoc workaround of brands running pages as individuals.
Second-order effects
- Facebook's Page ecosystem — the incumbent where brands already have audiences — faces its first credible rival for brand-side attention since Google+ launched, pressuring it to keep shipping features like this week's Skype-powered video chat.
- Agencies and community managers gain a second major social platform to staff and measure, splitting social-management spend that until now flowed almost entirely toward Facebook.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, social platforms will treat exclusive early access for marquee brands as a standard launch tactic — using scarcity among advertisers to seed credibility before opening pages broadly.
The trend: Social networks are racing to convert consumer attention into brand-marketing inventory, with Google+ and Facebook now competing directly for the same advertiser budgets.