Just announced last week: Google My Business users can now use Google Posts to share updates with their audience and build engagement with their brand!
The service originally launched in January 2016 as something else entirely. The feature Google added for the 2016 elections was called “Candidate Cards.”
These candidate cards allowed political candidates to post updates that would show up for relevant political search queries as a way to get out the message about their campaigns.
A couple months later, someone at Google must have seen the potential for opening up the feature to wider use and rebranding it, and Google made it available to an exclusive group of small businesses for testing.
Since then it has slowly expanded until just this month when Google fully launched the posting feature as Google Posts and made it available to any small business that uses the Google My Business directory listings to promote their business on the web.
The announcement came a couple weeks after Google moved Google Posts into the Google My Business platform, where you can currently access it from the desktop version or in the Android and iOS mobile apps.
How to Use Google Posts
When potential customers look for a product or service on Google and find your business, they will now be able to see special offers, recent news, and upcoming events from Google Posts that you make from your Google My Business account.
Your Google Post updates will actually show up in search engine results pages on Google Search for desktop and mobile, and on Google Maps search results.
You can now use these posted updates let your audience know about:
- Upcoming promotional events for your business or in your industry
- Special offers and deals such as sales and time sensitive discounts
- New product or services updates such as new merchandise or features
- Announcements such as “Open late this Saturday” or “Special guests this week!”
Keys to Writing a Great Google Post
The key to writing a great Google Post is pretty much common sense and a matter of putting your best foot forward and representing your business in the best light. Literally. Your photos should be well-lit…
Google says, “A post to your customers on Google should be brief, useful, and inspire action, and photos should be well-lit and in focus.”
Google recommends categorizing your post type correctly, whether your offer is about an event, a special deal, or some news to share. Put some thought into what the ultimate action is that you want to inspire with your post.
Take high-resolution photos that reinforce your message, look great, and stand out in search engine results. Make your photos simple, direct, and in-focus. Bright, vibrant colors tend to work well. Make sure your resolution is at least 720px by 720px and in JPEG or PNG format.
Then right a concise and direct post with a clear call to action that includes instructions like: “Buy,” “Book online,” “Learn more,” “Call,” or “Visit.”
