Google My Business: Official Google HOA + GMB TV Commercials Start Sunday in AU

[Linda Buquet]

I just started watching a video featuring Jo Williams, a Product Marketing Manager for Google My Business that was done for Google Partners in Australia. Only part way in, but it's pretty good, so I recommend watching.

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Paused video to share this part with you though...

Google will start airing TV Commercials for Google My Business in Australia on Sunday.

So that's exciting for of our members that are Local Search consultants in Australia. Should really bump up the GMB brand recognition. Let us know if your phone starts ringing more.

Jo SHOWS the GMB commercial and explains the markets the commercial will launch in starting at minute 4.

Google My Business - Overview for Australia & New Zealand

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Streamed live on Jul 16, 2014

Join us to meet Jo Williams, Product Marketing Manager for Google My Business. He will run us through an overview of the product and outline the benefits it brings to your SMB's.

If you don't have time to watch, stay tuned and when I have time to watch the rest, I'll share anything else that may come up.

What do you think???

If you watch, please share any other insights or interesting tidbits you pick up.
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[Priya Chandra]

Hmm, interesting.

Three things that stuck out to me:
1. At about the 7 minute mark they talk about the Knowledge Graph and I'm pretty sure I heard "any verified business will show up there" without any qualifiers about searching by name in a location etc etc. A few agencies are going to get burnt if they tell their clients all they need to do is get verified and they'll automatically show up in the Knowledge Graph for 'any' searches.

2. Verify by phone. I just tried adding a new business and the only way to verify was by postcard. Is anyone else able to verify a new business by phone? I thought that option had been removed for new businesses and significant business address changes.

3. Call Support if trying to claim a page verified by someone unknown. I always advise people to try to claim admin rights first, but if Google is saying call support then I'm going to recommend that as a faster method!

Great to see the ad with Australian voiceover and Australian faces though. Will be keeping an eye out for increased Google+ activity by Australian businesses on the GAYB forum!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much Priya. I kept trying to reply but am having connectivity problems.

I still have not had time to watch past the commercial upfront so thanks for those insights.

I agree with you on #1.

#2, in the fairly recent past occasionally if there was lots of trust in the listing you could verify by phone, but not very often. And I think maybe it's no longer available at all. Have not heard of anyone being able to phone verify for awhile.

#3 yes I'd call support.

Yes will be interesting to see if we get an influx of Aussies needing help after the commercials start hitting. If so, now we'll know why.