One more reason to join Google+: Today, the State of the Union address will be broadcast in an enhanced platform on Google+. For a few lucky people, they will be able to join a "Hangout" video conversation with the president and answering questions that Google+ users have voted on. If the White House sees the power of using Google+, what are you waiting for? Here’s how you can start to maximize the use of Google+ for your business needs:

1. Start by creating a Google+ business page from you personal Google+ account. Import contacts to your circles and you’re ready. Make sure to start by choosing a high-quality banner graphic and at least five pictures that tell the story of your company mission.
2. The best way to guide people to your new Google+ page is to direct them to your G+ business page from your other social networks and blog feed. If you have a particularly strong Google+ page, you can even consider an e-mail campaign to your prospects. First figure out what features of Google+ that differentiate the network from others and why your “fans” would want to visit this site. The rest of this article relates to that.
3. Use Hangouts: The main feature that sets Google+ apart from Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for the time being is the Hangout, a video chat platform that allows numerous users to interface at once. The Hangout can be used as a customer service portal if managed properly. The Hangout can be used as a Q&A mechanism if you devote a certain time every week for that purpose. The hangout can be used as a collaborative tool between employees or to hold meetings.
4. Create tailored marketing messages by sorting your followers into demographics, services, or region. By organizing followers into circles, you can select the type of message you would like to display for each circle, based on the region or service offering. This way, pertinent customers receive communications that are truly of value to them, rather than the mass marketing messages propagated within Twitter and Facebook.
5. By pairing with Google search, Google Plus has effectively made Google+ a necessity in your marketing plan, and a strong presence as an early adopter with do nothing but benefit your business. If your customers are in your circles, your company’s Google+ page will automatically outrank other search results in that area. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as search results relating to your company’s offerings will also be prioritized in Google’s new algorithms.
6. Currently, Google+ doesn’t have the ability for a vanity URL (i.e. www.facebook.com/sourcelink) like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, but you can go to gplus.to to create your own vanity URL to make linking your friends and telling people about your page much easier (This site is not an official Google product, but is widely utilized).
7. Pick a high quality, catchy banner image. Since this image is larger and sharper than the others, this is a great way to give a personal flare to your page, and perhaps integrate it with the five-picture spread for your page. This photo will appear in search results and will, in essence, be the face of your brand to many.
8. One perk of Google+’s layout is the size of the images displayed. You can also arrange your five profile pictures in a specific manner to make a message or to promote a product suite. Facebook automatically switches these icons every time someone logs in, and displays them at random, so Google+ gets the edge on this functionality.

With Google+, influence now matters more than ever. People that have a great deal of Google+ followers now actually influence search results for many people because of how Google search is programmed. Pages that have been +1'd appear higher in search results, and eventually brands that are successful on Google+ will end up being associated with brand-related keywords in Google search. Whether this is fair or not to the other social networking platforms is debatable, but every business now owes it to themselves to at least have a presence on Google+. Come join our circle and hopefully we will "hangout" soon.