How to give a Google+ page its own password and login-name

This article is about setting up a Google+ page so that it is a stand-alone thing, and can log in to Google services without needing your personal Google+ profile.

When Google first introduced Google+ pages, they were totally linked to a Google+ personal profile.

Now, however, you can turn them into stand-alone entitles by giving them a separate login-id (chosen by Google) and password (chosen by you).

This means you can share your Google+ page with other people (eg employees, committee members), without either giving them your Google account password or forcing them to sign up for Google+ themselves.

This is a significant advantage of Google+ over Facebook

How to set up a separate password for a Google+ page

Firstly, set up the Google+ page, using an existing Google+ personal account (aka Google+ profile).

If you have logged out since, then log in to your Google account again (by logging into any one of Adsense, Gmail, Blogger, etc, or just by logging in to Google+).

In the top left corner, choose Pages from the Google+ menu.

In the list of pages that is shown, navigate to the Page that you want to work on, and click Manage this Page. This opens the Dashboard for your page.

In the top right corner, click the Google+ Page icon. This used to look like gear-wheel, but now (for me anyway) is a small circle with some of the Page's logo on it.

Choose Settings in the menu box.

When the settings page opens, scroll down until you find the Third-Party Tools. Underneath it, click Set a Password.

You may be asked to re-enter your own Google account password, just to double-check that you are you.

The Google Plus Page password assignment screen will open:

Enter and re-enter the password that you want to use, and click Confirm.

You will then see a confirmation page, telling you that

You've set a username and password for [your page]

And you will get an email telling you that:

Your Google+ page [page-name] now has a username (geeky-name-for-your-page-nnnn@pages.plusgoogle.com) and password.

Job done!

You can now log out of your personal Google+ account, and log in to use your Google+ page using its own account, rather than yours.

Who will get notifications about the page?

Google's confirmation page says that they will

...send notifications and other communication about this page to [the email address of the Google+ account that set up the page]. This page’s username can’t be used to send and receive email.

How to change the password

Other important information in the page-password confirmation email includes how to change the password, and what to do if it wasn't you who set the password.

The links provided are customized, so I'm not going to just copy-and-paste them from my own email. But hopefully I will work out the generic versions and past them here soon.

Understanding Google accounts (this article is currently out of age, focussing on Blogger vs Google Classic)

Google+ now has pages

How to set up a Google+ profile for an existing Blogger account