SOCi Launches Google My Business Posts Integration

SOCi, a platform for social media and reputation management for multi-location brands, announced a new Google Posts integration on its platform for Google My Business (GMB) pages. SOCi’s Google Posts integration enables its existing customers already using GMB to publish localized posts within the SOCi platform, rounding out SOCi’s integration with all major social networks and review sites. The integration allows businesses to reach and engage their local audiences through announcements, promotions of upcoming events, and special offers. These Google Posts appear on businesses GMB page, on the Google Knowledge Panel and in Google Maps, depending on which platform the consumer is using to find the local business.

Since launching five years ago, GMB pages have become the primary destination for consumers searching for local business information, as well as ratings and reviews. Outside of local business and review information, these pages are stacked with additional social-rich features that allow businesses to fully leverage their online presence by allowing regular interaction with consumers through features like Posts, Q&A, and the recently introduced Follow button. While more than 3.5 billion queries entered into Google's search bar every day, these pages are becoming increasingly important as search results are moving more toward zero or no additional clicks. Today Google is becoming less a search engine and more a destination portal, providing information right on the search page from sources like GMB. In fact, 49% of all Google searches are no-click meaning it is important to own and effectively manage your Google pages for customers to get quick and accurate results. 

Each month, there are more than 5B searches for restaurants, 3B for hotels, 1B for clothing stores, 600M for hair & beauty salons, and 5M for coffee shops on Google, said SOCi. The company feels that most purchase decisions begin with an online search and that the majority of engagement happens on local brand pages. This would make Google Posts publishing a critical component to any comprehensive local marketing strategy.

A Google My Business Profile gives brands an important presence on Google Search and Maps, allowing them to respond to reviews and post photos of products or special offers. As Google's business listings are getting smarter and more valuable, SOCi’s new Google Posts integration will help customers better manage these pages through timely updates and announcements with text, images, links, GIFs, and videos. This is particularly important since according to SOCi’s recent Local Search Marketing Benchmark Report, GMB is a key element in creating a comprehensive LSM strategy and businesses doing this well are growing revenue 3x faster than their peers. 

These new Google Posts features will be available immediately for existing customers within SOCi’s Content Manager. SOCi is also offering SOCi Assist services, a service where SOCi content experts write and deploy GMB posts on the businesses behalf, for Google Posts to further assist leading brands and agencies.