There are a number of reasons why your church, ministry or non-profit should be on Google+, but the latest reason is probably the most important.
Google has been slowly tying all of its services together into Google+, as part of creating a more personal search experience.
This can be seen in the “introduction of Knowledge Graph last year, when Google started showing information on the right-hand side of search results to help you figure out if you’re searching for the right thing, be it a person, place or thing.”
As seen here:
I’ve searched for “Compassion International” and you can see all the awesome info added on the right-side box.
Now, Google has added some more.
Here’s what they had to say:
We’ve just started to add information about nonprofits to the Knowledge Graph. When you search for a nonprofit organization on Google.com, you will start to see information to the right side of the search results that highlights the nonprofit’s financials, cause, and recent Google+ posts. Start following the organization on Google+ directly from the panel by clicking the Follow button. To learn more about related nonprofits, click on one of the organizations under “People also search for” and a carousel of similar organizations will appear at the top of the search results. Over time, we’ll continue to work on bringing more nonprofit information into your search experience.
Check it out:
When you’re signed in to Google, it even adds a cool “Follow” button!
TechCrunch pointed out that, “in addition to key information about nonprofits, including their categories and tax deductibility codes, Google is promoting their Google+ pages, as well. This means that Google+ could immediately become a hot spot for nonprofits to find new volunteers, avenues for fundraising and, more importantly, awareness for their campaigns and causes.”
True story. This kind of integration will make Facebook Causes look like a joke.
The larger nonprofits have already been added, but not all known nonprofits are available in the Knowledge Graph yet. So, if you’re all setup with Google+, you may want to double check everything, so every thing is in place for you to be added. If your church or nonprofit organization isn’t on Google+, you better get started, today!
Is your church, ministry or nonprofit on Google+?
Douglas Porter says
I guess I’d better get this going. It seem that no one is on Google+ every time I check it but I’d rather be ahead and not behind. So, do you start a new, separate account or how to you set up a church? It it like Facebook where you manage it but have a personal account? Or is it like Twitter where you have a separate account?
Eric Dye says
It’s like Facebook, use your personal account to setup an official page, then you can add managers.
Jim says
Question: I claimed the “Google Place” for my church via http://www.google.com/intl/en_US/+/business/ but this did not automatically give me a Google+ account for the church. So I went and created a Google+ account for the church but don’t see a way to link the Place and the Google+ account. Could you offer some instructions on how to make this happen? Thanks!
Eric Dye says
Hmmm … we’ll have to look at that …
Jim says
I found the answer. After claiming the Google Place you have to verify it (they call your phone and give you a PIN). Only after I verified it did the option of creating a linked Google+ Page show up (perhaps I simply overlooked it the first time, but I’m pretty sure I had to verify first).
Eric Dye says
Wow! Great! Thanks!
LAw says
I thought google didn’t like christian organizations and wouldn’t all them to participate in their apps and services…has that changed?
I’d hate to go through all the trouble and have them shut me down.
Eric Dye says
Being on Google+ as an organization has no stipulations as to the type of organization. Go for it.