Social Media

Warning: Do NOT Start a Google+ Account for Your Band, Label, Studio or Store. Here’s Why

image from www.google.com This guest post is by Bob Baker of TheBuzzFactor.com

Unless you've been on tour in Antarctica lately, you've no doubt at least heard of Google's new social platform called Google+. More than 20 million early adopters have already jumped on it during its early invitation-only phase.


Perhaps you got an invitation and are already getting acquainted with Circles, Hangouts, and some of the other cool Google+ features. A number of forward-thinking artists, such as singer-songwriter Daria Musk and jazz guitarist Rob Michael, have been making waves by being among the first musicians to make good use of the service.

However, you should be aware of one simple thing that could cause your Google+ profile to disappear overnight …

In this early stage of development, Google+ is set up for individuals only. So you must use your real name as a person. Google plans to roll out profiles for businesses and brands later this year, but in the meantime it is removing profiles that are set up under a company name or pseudonym.

That means if your name is Fred Jones and your fans call you "The Shredder," you'll need to create a Google+ profile as mild-mannered Fred Jones. However, in the About section of your profile you can indicate that you go by something else or play in the ABC Band or run XYZ Studio, etc.

So if you started a Google+ using something other than your name, you might want to change it quick, before you are discovered by the Google+ police.

Just use the site for now as the self-assured individual that you are. Before long, Google will create a way for you to bring "The Shredder" back to life in all its glory!

Bob Baker is the author of “Guerrilla Music Marketing Online,” Berkleemusic’s “Music Marketing 101” course, and many other books and promotion resources for DIY artists, managers and music biz pros. You’ll find Bob’s free ezine, blog, podcast, video clips and articles at www.TheBuzzFactor.com and www.MusicPromotionBlog.com.

Bruce Houghton on 07/26/2011 in Social Media | Permalink | Comments (9)
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9 Comments

  1. Good that this word is spread. Curious to see what Google is coming up with for business and brands.
    I think the same warning should still go out for Facebook profiles. I still sometimes see b(r)ands on personal profiles, where they’d better use Fanpages. I heard stories about bandaccounts with many friends being deleted because those accounts are not allowed for business. Besides that the business accounts are more suitable anyway, because they can be “liked” so you can reach your fans, offer better stats, have tab-functionality etc.

  3. I agree but for another reason. G+ know how the web marketing is important and for this reason I think G+ will have special functionality for companies. When those features will be available you will do another account for yours… and you will stop to use the account you have created now, and does all your circles will follow your new and final company account?

  5. Google+ has a huge advantage. It knows what people like and dislike after watching MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. Let’s hope that Google+ will give people what they really like and ignore features that they do not like.

  7. I’m a little uncomfortable that it has to take reading Bob’s warning to find this out. Why doesn’t Google make this clear when you first sign up? They have all kinds of helpful information, but I would think something like this should be mentioned, prominently, right up front, for of course, my first question was how to create an artist or band profile..

  9. Well Google suspended my Google+ account today, because ‘it did not like the name’. So I depeted it, and will stick to facebook.
    Goodbye Google+!

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