Google My Business and Google Maps, essential in your digital branding and business strategy

Google Maps, which recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, has become one of the most used location services in the world with more than 800 million registered businesses. 

Its latest features, which were launched this year, will make both Google Maps and Google My Business be not only great tools for locating us geographically, but also platforms with similar services to a social network, which certainly enriches our campaigns on social media.

Building a digital brand with Google My Business

Google Maps and Google My Business, the service that allows to find your store, properties or company on the Google search engine, as well as relevant information for the user such as opening hours and customer service, are two well-integrated geolocation platforms. in the company's digital strategy, they allow a substantial improvement in the company's organic positioning. Likewise, the online brand, online reputation, with the proper management of the content shown on Google Maps and Google My Business, is greatly benefited by providing the user with the correct information on location, opening hours, events, visual content related to the company and its products, among other content. Not to mention, of course, being able to leave and/or view comments that other users have posted on Google My Business regarding their experience with the brand.

The data 

Showing up with your brand in local searches can mean big business for your business.

Did you know that one out of every two people who do a local search visit a store that day, and 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business in a day?

Managing and Implementing Google My Business​

Google My Business is a very easy to manage service from Google so that companies and businesses can register on Google Maps.

The main advantage is that you can manage everything from just one place:

• Register your business on Google Maps.
• Manage information (photos, schedule, links) and user reviews.

You can also make use of the integration with YouTube, Adwords and Analytics to visualize the company's channel, create more effective online campaigns and measure your results.

It also allows you to manage and implement new formats such as In Store Visits that are going to revolutionize traditional commerce and eCommerce by combining web visits with visits to the physical store.

Following the Google philosophy of providing tools to the advertiser client so that they can control and manage their campaigns and content, Google My Business also provides data on visits and user behavior on the page. It is a tool easy to use and to manage the content that appears in Google My Business and Google Maps.

It is a free platform that allows you to manage how companies and their brands appear in Google Search and Maps. Among other things, the free Google My Business listing features your company's name, location, and hours.

Google My Business offers a comprehensive way to monitor and respond to customer feedback, add photos, accept reservations, get information on how and where people are looking for you, and share updates on your business, as well as run contests to activate visits to the shop.

Companies with a considerable number of stores, points of sale or points of physical contact with their customers, should implement a digital strategy that includes Google My Business supported by a team of professionals, experts in digital branding and SEO, so that a coherent strategy is made with the entire company and avoid, among other aspects: penalties in organic positioning, duplication, cannibalizing organic traffic between the different locations or points of sale of a company, etc.

Some of the new features of Google Maps 2020​

• Music Streaming

For those of us who travel all the time and are Google Maps and Spotify users, this year the Google app integrates Spotify, so the user can comfortably navigate between these two apps.

• Google Assistant

It integrates the intelligent Google Assistant, so that you can make a query about services in the geographical area to visit by voice. You can also inform your friends, family and colleagues if you are late or have an emergency.

Google Maps allows this feature by including the Share Trip Progress button. With this feature you can send text messages to your contacts.

Google has also incorporated a new feature to better organize multiple locations and/or different customers. This is something that franchise businesses needed to manage more than 30, 50 or 100 locations for a community at once, as is the case with many restaurant chains.

Registering a company in Google My Business step by step​

When entering the Google My Business site, the first thing to do is to click on the blue 'Appears in Google' button at the top right. A tab will then open where our company name needs to be written. Follow the steps they indicate on their site, it is very easy to fill in.

Google My Business advantages​

• It guarantees a good position in the Google search engine when a user is looking for where to buy, where he is, etc.
• Easy to manage.
• Customer access to relevant company data.
• Management of user comments and reviews.
• Scalable, Google My Business can be implemented in a single point of sale or scaled to cover all our points of sale locally and globally.

Social media strategy for Google My Business

Now that you know about Google My Business, think about managing your Google My Business site as a social network. This means developing a GMB strategy and assigning your team to:

• Review the listings frequently and answer questions, comments, etc.
• Create customized content for Google My Business users
• Post content (images, posts, offers) regularly, because they expire after 7 days.

Dra. Gemma Vallet

Program Director and Lead professor at La Salle URL universities, campus Barcelona:

Social Media Branding & Digital Strategy Master Course https://www.salleurl.edu/en/education/master-social-media-branding-strategy-0

Brand Community management postgraduate course

https://www.salleurl.edu/en/education/postgraduate-brand-community-management

Ambdós programes són pioners en gestió de xarxes socials, digital branding i business a Europa, en el ranking dels millors programes en la seva especialitat.