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As you probably know by now, Google launched its mammoth Social Networking site, Google+, 3 weeks ago.  In 3 weeks, they have accumulated approximately 20 million members, and they still haven’t opened it up to everyone yet.

In case you haven’t noticed, Google isn’t allowing business pages yet.  They made that clear after the 1st day, letting businesses know they aren’t ready for business pages yet because they are still building out the infrastructure that promises to wow the business user.  They also warned businesses they would shut down their business sites if they discovered them.  Those weren’t just idle threats. Mashable’s business profile was shut down this week, as were others.  Don’t worry.  They’ll be back.

So we don’t get to market using business pages yet, huh?  Hmm…well, here’s what I think about that:

“GOOD!“

Before you think I’ve gone completely batty, I’ll explain.

The interesting phenomenon about not having Google+ business pages yet is that it is challenging people to become known for their brand, and personality, allowing others to get to know them first before they are presented with more intense sales-oriented business pages.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like business pages and applications, and intend to build one for Myrland Marketing when Google gives me the green light.

But let’s not forget the trifecta…Know, Like and Trust.  This is what all service providers should be striving for when nurturing and establishing relationships with potential clients.

• Help people get to know you.
• Hopefully, they will discover they like you.
• Eventually, after you’ve been interacting with them for a while, they might find you are also trustworthy.

When these 3 are present, don’t we all have a better chance of building a more solid foundation upon which to develop a relationship?

Let’s challenge ourselves.  Use this non-business page time on Google+ to do what we should be doing in Social Media already, and that is to first earn the right to promote what we do by investing in others first.

To earn the right to sell, we must:

• On a continuous basis, find those people we can learn from, relate to or share information with.
• Share what these people have to say that might be interesting, relevant or valuable to our connections.
• Comment on what others say, the links they have provided and the information they’ve shared.

Never stop this process of interacting as it is the life-blood of relationship-building and Social Networking.  We must first do these things before we have truly earned the right to sell.

By the time business pages roll around, which is estimated to be in the 3rd quarter, we just might have given our connections a reason to join us there other than to help us get past some numeric threshold of Likes in order to secure a vanity URL.

So it’s okay that we don’t have business pages on Google+ yet, right?  We have a window of opportunity, now go take advantage of it!

What do you think?  Are you finding it any easier to engage in conversation on Google Plus?  Why or why not?

Related post about Google Plus: Google Plus: It’s Early But It’s Interesting.