Google Plus Notifications: Google Local Listing Random Followers

Why Am I Getting Google Plus Notifications From Strangers?

Are you one of the many small businesses who have yet to embrace the social world of Google Plus?  Logging into your Google My Business Page to a raft of Google Plus notifications from people and Pages you don’t know can seem quite threatening, especially as a home based business owner.

Perhaps you’re considering deleting your Google Local Page totally.

The change from Google Places to the social Google My Business and Google Plus Local Business Pages can be a bit of a shock if you aren’t used to  social media, particularly when other people and Pages start to follow you and share their updates.

In the days of Google Places, it was so much simpler.  Create your Google Local listing and perhaps once in a blue moon log in to change your photos, videos or description.  The blue moon visits could be so rare that many businesses didn’t notice the switch to the Google social dashboard  or again to Google My Business.

Perhaps you have started receiving notification emails from Google saying someone has followed your page or posted an update.  You don’t know why you’re receiving these Google Plus notifications, who these people are or what they want from you.

Google Plus Random Followers

Like any other social network, there are people on Google Plus who will follow your Local Business Page (and personal profile if you have it set up) for no apparent reason.  Every time someone adds your Page to their circles you will receive a notification.  You may also receive notifications when people post updates addressed to you or a circle you are in.

As a home based business, I understand the concerns of suddenly receiving Google Plus notifications for your Local Business Page – especially when you don’t know them and/or they’re from the other side of the country or even the world.  Who is this person?  Why are they following me?  What do they want?  Are they stalking me?

I want to reassure you that people can only see information you have made publicly available on your Google Local Business Page.  If you are a home based business, hide your address (that’s a Google Local rule anyway)

Random followers (especially from the other side of the world) can seem a bit creepy if you are new to social media.  By following other people and Pages they hope that you will also add them to your circles so they can expand their reach.

The features available to your Google Local Listing with Google My Business can really help your business get noticed online – that’s why you created it in the first place.  Your Google My Business Local Page:

• Has the possibility of showing in local search results with the map marker
• Is searchable on Google Maps
• Can be found using Google Plus

Not to mention the social media possibilities when you use your page and profile.  The overall benefits of your Google Local Page are numerous, far too many to mention in this post.  Needless to say, followers are generally a good thing and you may want to consider buiding up more targeted Google Plus connections.

It’s very rare that random followers and notifications are anything more than other people trying to build up their connections.

In the meantime, fine tune your Google Plus notification settings to reduce the number of notifications you receive.

How To Change Your Google Plus Notification Settings

The notifications are part of Google Plus settings.  They’re not something you would naturally go to or see  when setting up your Google Local Listing.  Updating your notification settings can be useful for all business pages and your personal profile.

A full transcript is below the video for those who prefer to read.

[showhide type=”transcript” more_text=”Click to Show Full Video Transcript” less_text=”Hide Video Transcript” hidden=”yes”]Hi it’s Jan Kearney from My Local Business Online. In this short video I’m going to show you how to adjust your Google My Business Page settings to control the notifications that you receive.

When many people set up their Google Places page we didn’t have the social function that we have now through Google Plus and Google My Business. It’s a bit of a shock when people add you to their circles and you start receiving notifications because your settings are set to anybody and public. How do you control that?

If you’re receiving Google Plus notifications and you don’t want to receive notifications you can adjust and fine tune your notification settings – how do you do that?

Click on your avatar at the top right side of your Google plus screen. Make sure you are logged in as your business page. Then click settings. Now you’ll see that I am logged in as My Local Business Online, that’s my page. Click on settings.

Right at the top there’s who can interact with you as your page and page posts. The first one to look at is who can send you notifications. I have this set as anyone. You can fine tune that just by clicking on the box. So you can have only people in your circles or extended circles can send you notifications. What this means is when people put a Google Plus update out and they have you in their circles, they can target specific circles and it will send out a notification to those circles, which you’ll get in the little bell thing at the top here and sometimes by email as well.

Now if you are receiving unwanted notifications, the first thing you can do is control who can send you notifications. I leave it as anyone, but you can also customise it. You may choose that only people that you have circled can send notifications out to you or customise it further. It’s set as default as public and you can add your circles in here as well if you want to add additional who can send you notifications when they post an update. To remove the public setting click the X. I’m going to cancel that and leave it as public.

You can also control who can comment on your public posts. Again, I have this set as anyone, so anybody even if they’re not following me or I don’t have them in circles, they don’t have me in circles can comment. Again this is something you can customise.

When you set up your Google Local Business Page via Google My Business, this is a setting that is separate from that. It’s a Google Plus setting. It’s one for you to check out if you are having issues with people you don’t know sending you notifications. I hope that helps. Speak soon![/showhide]

1. Log in as your Google Plus Page (via Google Plus or google.co.uk/business)

2. Click on your avatar then on the settings link in the drop down menu

3. Adjust “Who can interact with you and your posts” notifications and post comment settings to your preferences. They are set as “anyone” by default.

Google Local Business Listings Are Social

Your Google Local Listing is now part of the Google Plus social platform, whether you want to be social or not.  You can choose not to use the social functions.  For the moment, listings still rank well in local search without updating statuses and making connections.  With the rate of change in local search, you can pretty much guarentee that an active Google Local Page will have some bearing on rankings in the future.

Google provides almost 90% of search results in the UK.  83% of UK people use the web every day and 40% of people who shop on the high street research online first.

Is deleting your Google Local listing because a few people not related to your business follow your page or send notifications really worth it?

Can I help you?

I can help you get to grips with Google Local.  From coaching and training so you can do it yourself through to done for you listing set up and management, I work with microbusinesses and have several home based business clients.  I’m at the end of the phone or email to talk through your concerns, and I promise no bull or hype.  Get in touch to see if we’re a good fit to work together to improve your online visibility.