A lot of people right now view Google Hangouts as a inferior version of Skype. “You can use it for video calls, but you need to have Google+ and use Google Chrome, and that’s just not worth the effort.” I’ve heard both these complaints before, and the one about needing Chrome isn’t even true.

At this point, if you have a YouTube account you basically have Google+ anyway, so the majority of criticisms have been abated.

Despite that, if you consider the number of people who use Internet Explorer just because it’s the default browser on Windows, and many don’t want to look for an alternative, I can see how this would lead to many people ignoring Google Hangouts.

A lot of people used Blackberry’s for business too, because there was a moment before smart phones took off that Blackberry had the most business-friendly phone. I know a business that still used pretty old Blackberries up until a few months ago. Now they’re using Galaxies. Better late than never I suppose.

You cannot afford to be late with Google Hangouts, because people will market the same thing you want to, and if they’re the first ones out the gate, it’ll be too little too late for you.

Google Hangouts blends together video calling, text, and video recording in a way that no other service has before. If you consider the business opportunities of a service that, for example, automatically records a video call and sends it to your YouTube account to make content with next to no effort from you, there is a lot of potential to be had.

While you can market to the masses with recorded videos and using advertising from those videos to make money, as just one example, there are many other ways to use Hangouts. You can give an instructional seminar to a small group of people, or even have a one-on-one private call with someone, all of which you can profit from.

Now, these things are possible with Skype, but you have to pay to use group video calls and screen sharing, which you don’t have to do with Google Hangouts. Plus, being able to have the Hangout recorded, have the recording set to private, and send your customer a recording of what they were just shown for future use will certainly earn you some points in their book. Especially when they know they’ll be the only ones to have access, as a faithful paying customer.

There is a world of profit at your fingertips.

There is a dramatic potential when Google makes a service that combines video calls, YouTube, and social media. While Google+ had a rough start with consumers, (especially when YouTube accounts and Google+ accounts were linked) people have moved on to complaining about other things. What’s important is the link was a success in the long run, and now Google services are more connected than ever before. A connectivity, that when considered through the lens of business and marketing, brings the opportunity for unprecedented success.

Google Hangouts, when used for business, marketing, and sales, allows you to be at your most professional and helpful. You don’t even have to put in any extra effort. Hangouts does it for you. Plus, it’s all free, so you’ve got nothing to lose. I highly advise you look into Google Hangouts yourselves, and see if it can help you with your business potential.

What you need to know is that Google has provided a free service that can make you a much better businessperson. That alone is worth learning more.

Thanks a lot for the read. If you’re interested, sign up for this free report about how to have Hangouts work for you, or at least consider the possibilities for business on your own time. Of course, if you found this article interesting, give it a recommendation. Here’s a link to Google’s information about Google Hangouts as well.