10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Google Plus Pages

It’s been almost two month since Google Plus Pages became available to most of us, as Google’s answer to Facebook’s omnipresent Pages. While adoption has been slower in light of Google’s long-languishing full API for Plus, there are still some aspects of Pages that aren’t common knowledge but could be pretty important to how you use them and interact with them.

1. Google Plus Pages are Public by default:  If you plan to use your Google Plus Page for a restricted audience or information, be certain you’ve checked this setting before proceeding.
2. Pages Don’t Receive Notifications: This includes by email, text or in your Google bar.  While this makes them a bit harder to monitor, it can make the “noise” from particularly busy Pages manageable.
3. Pages Adding People:  Pages can’t add People to Circles until the Page is mentioned or added first.  This is a control mechanism to help prevent Pages from contacting individuals out of the blue.
4. Pages and Mentions: Google Plus Pages can’t mention individuals unless the Page and the person are connected.
5. Pages and Pages: Pages can’t +1 material, whether it is another Plus Page or content on the web. Apparently Google wants +1s to come from individuals, not entities.
6. Pages for People?:  Nope, Pages embrace a wide variety of organizations and groups, but should not be used for individual people (Google may relent on this for celebrities and other public figures).
7. Reciprocating Follows:  If an individual un-Follows a Page, that Page will automatically un-Follow the individual in turn.  Probably to prevent the “follow farming” you see on Twitter and elsewhere.
8. Pages and Sharing: Pages cannot share with Extended Circles. Probably to deter unintentional content leakage or spamming.
9. Localization:  Pages created as “Local”, get additional feature/fields to help visitors find and use them in a local context.
10. Multiple Administrators: Google Plus Pages can have up to 50 different administrators, allowing a team to post new articles, respond to comments and add pictures.