Google has just updated their dashboard post in the forum detailing the new Places for Business Dashboard with the following one button upgrade of your listing to the fully social G+ page.

Update: Alex Cordes of LocalSEOupdate.com uncovered an interesting tidbit. If you have a non verified local G+ Page at the same email as a business claimed into the new Places for Business Dashboard, it will automagically create a social local G+ Page with the need for the widget or any actions on the part of the claimant.

What does the Google+ widget do?

The Google+ widget allows you to upgrade from a Google business listing to a local Google+ page (with social features, like writing Posts, editing the cover photo, allowing users to add the page to their Circles, and adding videos). The upgraded page will be searchable in Google, Google Maps, and Google+.

What criteria do I have to meet to upgrade my page via the Google+ widget?

• You must have verified your business in your Places for Business account.
• Your Places for Business email address should also have a Google+ profile.
• Your page must be in a category that is eligible for Google+.
• You cannot have activated AdWords Express for your business.
• You should be managing no other pages in your Google+ account. If you have other pages which you wish to continue managing, you should hang tight until the Google+ upgrade is available to you.

Please note that the Google+ widget may not appear for users who do not meet these criteria.

If you meet these criteria and are interested in upgrading to have social features, just click Get your Google+ page to upgrade. After upgrading, you may use either Google+ or Google Places to manage the page.

This upgrade process is coming along to more and more users, so if you don’t see the widget yet, sit tight while we work on getting you your upgrade.

And, yes, service-area businesses who need to keep their addresses hidden and who otherwise meet the criteria above may use the Google+ widget to access social features. The business address will stay hidden in the upgraded page.

What if I’m already managing a verified local page in Google+ but have not yet accessed Google Places for Business with my account?

If you log in to Google Places with the same account, you should see the page that you created and verified in Google+ in your dashboard already. You should be able to use either Google+ or Google Places to manage the page.

I’m an existing Places user…

If you’ve verified your business in both Google+ and Google Places for Business, you might see the new Places for Business dashboard when accessing places.google.com. If you don’t, don’t worry, we’re working on bringing you over.

Again, we ask that existing Google Places or Google+ users continue to manage pages as before. Please see the first half of the first post on this thread for more details. We do not recommend creating new accounts just to try to access the new dashboard. 

When we are ready to make the new dashboard available to existing Places users, we will come back with more details, including answers about how the Google+ widget will work.

Thanks,

Jade