As we hit 2014, we’re finding out that it’s more important than ever for businesses to have a presence on social media sites. Google+ is a powerful tool for organizations to leverage internally and externally – an active Google+ page for your business will improve your search engine ranking, and can increase your online presence. Here at SADA, we use Google+ within our organization to share relevant news and updates with each other, as well as externally, to stay in touch with our clients and partners, to keep them informed of new business developments and events.
Here are a few important updates made to Google+ over the past year:
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New admin controls
Editions: Google Apps for Business, Education
Note: Google+ Hangouts is not automatically on for domains using these editions – after opting in, Admins can choose to out for the domain or for organizational units within the domain at any time
Admins can now control which Hangout features are available to employees, so that regardless of the size of your organization, you have control over how your users communicate – whether that’s through voice, video or text. Admins can opt to limit Hangout chat messages to be internal-users only, or have it set off completely as the default. Admins can also decide whether internal users can contact one another without sending or accepting formal invitations first, or whether to turn on or off video and audio chat. Learn how to enable the new Google+ Hangouts here. -
Restricted Google+ communities
Editions: Google Apps for Business, Education and Government
We already wrote a blog post mentioning how Google+ communities, but thought it was noteworthy to mention here: having the choice between internal-use only Google+ communities and externally facing communities is another way organizations can manage exactly who should be seeing what content, and when. Learn how to set up a Google+ community and check out what your privacy options are. -
Domain-restricted videos in YouTube
Editions: Google Apps for Business, Education and Government
Corporate Google+ users that also use their G+ identity in YouTube can now post domain-restricted videos (note: at this time, these videos can only be viewed through the web UI) – perfect for any internal-use only videos, such as training! Learn more here.
How do you plan to integrate Google+ into your 2014 social strategies? Let us know! To learn more about Google Apps, visit our website.
