If you already have a Facebook page for your practice it should be pretty easy to set up your Google+ business page, although there are a few things you need to know before getting started.

First Things First

The first thing you will need to set up a Google+ page is a Google Account. This takes just a moment to set up. You will be required to fill in some basic information including your birthday and to create a password. If you already have a Google account you can go directly to setting up a Google+ local profile (see below). Note that similar to Facebook you must first have a Google+ personal profile to set up a Google+ page.

Obligatory Note: If you don’t already use Gmail for your email account, we recommend setting this up while you are at it since it makes accessing the entire platform easier (among many other reasons we love Gmail), however technically you can use any email account.

Do NOT set up your page until you read this Warning!

Keep in mind that right now there is only ONE administrator allowed for each page so whoever sets up the account is the only one that can access it, update it etc.  It is worthwhile to determine who will be in charge of the account and have them set it up. However keep in mind that once the page is created under one account, it can’t be transferred to another administrator. This means that for the time being, the administrator should be someone you don’t foresee leaving your practice anytime soon. Support for multiple administrators is promised in the future, but there is no indication of exactly when this will be available.

Setting Up Your Page

Since you are a local business you want to create a Local Google+ Page. Once you have selected Create a Google+ Page choose Local Business or Place as your business category. Here are the instructions from Google’s website on how to proceed:

• Type in your business’s phone number and click Locate. Make sure that the phone number you use is a business line and not a personal or cell phone number.
• If you see your business listed, click on your business’s name. You’ll be able to edit the address later if anything is incorrect. If the name of your business doesn’t appear, click Add your business to Google or Look up a different number to try again.
• Enter or edit basic information about your business, including business name, phone number and address. If Google already has information about your business, you’ll be asked to confirm it. You can also edit any information that’s incorrect.
• Add categories to your local page to help users better understand what your business does. In the Category box, select the main category that best describes your business.
• Select an age restriction that’s appropriate for your business.
• Click Create and you’re finished! Now you can visit your page and add even more details about your business, like hours, your website and more contact information.

The Details

Just as with your practice Facebook page, you should make sure to fill in as many details as possible about your practice. Make sure you put an image in the banner area- a logo or relevant photo that will show visitors what type of business you are.  Take advantage of the information section to tell about your practice and be sure to use keywords since we are talking about Google here (and there are rumors that the info on your page could eventually impact your site SEO)!

Fill in your location, phone number, hours, website, email etc. so a visitor knows exactly how to contact you.  Add photos of your staff, office, or eyewear stock to enhance the page. Once you are set up, you are ready to start posting!

A few things to note:

• When logged onto your personal account you have the ability to choose whether you want to use Google Plus as yourself or as the business page. Make sure you enter under your business page when you want to work on it.

• Just like a personal account you can share photos, videos, links and articles although as of yet, there is no way to do this automatically in the way you can do for Facebook or Twitter through a third-party application like Hootsuite. We hope this will change soon!

• A page can’t add people to its circles until that person has added the page first or mentioned it.

• The default privacy setting for your page is public.

• Pages have the +1 button which is a separate function than adding a page to circles. Anyone can +1 a page and you want to encourage people to do so!

Lastly don’t forget to add EyeCarePro’s new G+ page to your circles! When you have your page set up let us know and we will follow you back!