UPDATE: Check out Google+'s product manager, Christian Oestlien, in the below video for Google's official announcement regarding plans for Google+ and businesses.

If you found this article because you've been reading about Google+, you know that it's a supposed "Facebook killer". But everybody is still waiting to get in. I finally got in last night. Some are begging shamelessly (on Twitter).

While the reasons behind Google+'s "Facebook killer" status are pretty well established--better privacy and usability--I'm really interested in seeing Google+ used in the workplace. As a web design company, we at aimtheory have a great interest in Google+. Not only for use in our own business processes, but we also have an interest in how it will affect the Internet marketing industry.

Why Will Google+ Be Great for Business?

Yes, Google+ will be great for business for the same reasons Facebook is currently being used by businesses and LinkedIn by professionals--business is, and has always been, highly social. But how will the specific features of Google+ be great for business?

1. One home base 

You'll be able to separate your contacts into groups, and this will remove the need to have two different accounts--one for personal and one for business--like many have to do with Facebook and Twitter. You'll just send updates to the circles that they're aimed at. This will make life a lot easier for professionals. Of course, they'll want to maintain a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn presence as long as they're relevant.

2. Hangouts (Meetings)

We meet in business for the same reasons we meet in our personal lives--to communicate. Google+ Hangouts are video conferencing meetings that can support up to 10 people. Meetings rarely exceed this and shouldn't anyway. The Hangouts feature has been hailed as the best free videoconferencing--it shows whoever is talking on a large screen and all others in smaller screens. If someone else talks, they take center stage. And this all happens on a web page. No need for a clunky OS-based user interface.

This comes pretty close to face-to-face interaction and will no doubt be highly utilized by remote teams.

3. Circles for Project Management

With Google+ you separate your contacts and friends into groups called "circles". You can create an unlimited number of circles and you can delete them at any time, too without deleting the people in them. And you can do this very easily.

You could have a circle for everyone in your company, but then you could also create ad-hoc circles for a particular project or workgroup. So, if you're only working with a few workmates on a particular project, you can create a circle just for that project. When you post updates to Google+ regarding that project, you can send them just to that special project circle. When the project is done, you can leave it there for historical purposes, or you can delete it and move on to the next project.

This will come in quite handy for project management. It will be especially useful for teams that work remotely and use cloud-based apps like Google Docs. Documents and links to other things can be shared easily and privately.

Google+ for Google Apps Users?

It remains to be seen when Google will release the power of Google+ to Google Apps users. But when they do, we can be sure that the over 2 million businesses already using Google Apps will be waiting to take advantage. Granted, any of them that have personal accounts will already start using it for business. I know I am.