Google announced this week that it will be rolling out vanity URLs for brands (first in a beta stage, then at an undetermined date on a widespread basis. This represents another step in Google’s commitment to making G+ a true marketing destination for brands, which is another reason you shouldn’t be ignoring G+.
As we’ve suggested before, there are compelling reasons to participate in distributing social content via G+, even if the audience engagement levels aren’t yet what you’d like. This enhancement gives G+ even more branding implications, and I can easily envision a time when the presence of your branded terms in vanity URLs can also be an effective defense mechanism on branded terms (helping you eat up results page real estate and pushing away negative results that so many marketers have a difficult time with).
Also on the G+ front, this article shared some compelling examples of how good content shared through Google+ can have a much greater viral impact than you might have guessed. All in all, the reasons t participate on G+ regularly keep growing, and the platform should definitely be a part of your marketing mix at this point.