Google expands people widget to businesses and brands

Google has expanded the people widget tool to include brands and businesses too now. Using the tool, customers who receive emails from brands on Gmail will simply be able to follow the company’s Google+ page right from the their inbox.

Gmail users will notice that when they receive emails from their colleagues and friends, the right hand side of the mail displays a contact card of sorts. You can find information like name, email address, occupation, chat status and more of the sender. It acts as a shortcut, using which users can +1 their recent Google+ posts that are displayed in the people widget.

Google is now extending this feature to companies, brands and businesses. Mails sent to customers from the company’s domain will now contain the people widget, which will enable them to follow the brand’s page on Google+. The company’s recent Google+ posts can also appear in the widget, besides the email message.

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How the change will take place for brands

Now if you send a mail to your customers through your organisation’s ID, the opened mail will show your contact details, a follow button and your recent posts. This, Google says, will help brands and businesses engage with customers in a better way.

If you have a verified page on Google+ and are looking at increasing engagement with your customers, you will need to keep updating your page, as Google says that the “Follow” button will appear in the widget for pages that have posted recently.

To make your company’s details appear in the widget, all you need is a verified Google+ page and digitally-signed emails with DKIM or SPF. These are industry standards to thwart spam and phishing attacks. You can learn more about verified pages and Gmail people widgets on Google’s support page.

Activating the Gmail widget could prove beneficial for not just the brand, which will see a surge in engagement, but also for  Google. The Internet giant has been pushing to make Google+ an intrinsic part of all Google users’ lives and there isn’t a better way to do that than involving brands and businesses users interact with, into the service. The more Facebook-like these brand pages get, the higher the chance of the social networking website being widely adopted.