You’ve seen the hype. The Internet is going insane evaluating Google+ along with its features and uses.
“What does this mean for Facebook and Twitter? Who will win?”
“Do we NEED another social network?”
“What does this do that other platforms neglect?”
And my boss’s favorite, “Why didn’t they launch with business pages?!”
Piecing together what Google+ means for social networking is difficult. Personally, I believe it’s innovative and has tremendous potential.
Early adopters have been quick to hop on the proverbial bandwagon and tout revolution, while others have signed up and run quickly back to Facebook, deeming Google+ a copycat. There have been mixed reviews at Cookerly, and I’m slowly being added by my friends that have decided to dip their toes in the water.
Realizing this isn’t a network meant to push Facebook and Twitter aside is key. There are some significant differences on the new network.
You can clearly define which audience a message is intended for and easily shuffle friends and ‘followers’ into circles. Multi-use hangouts allow users to collaborate and video chat with several people at once. You can follow influencers, share articles with your friends and hold family-wide conversations in one spot. Seamless integration with other Google services is also a perk.
Still, at the end of the day, you still add friends, follow people and share. What makes these differences so innovative that we would divert our valuable social networking time?
Well, we do work in PR and a few reasons are shining through.
How about the +1? The ability to see posts and articles people like (it’s strange using that word) and having Google rank that in search results is fairly valuable in SEO. What about multi-video conferencing and collaboration without use of third-party programs? Invite your ‘Colleagues’ circle to an impromptu staff meeting ‘hangout.’ Quickly switch from your ‘social media’ stream to your ‘journalist’ stream depending on your pitch.
Let’s face it, Google+ is only a few weeks old. We’ve already seen wish lists of additions and heard rumors of new features. Facebook didn’t have all the bells, whistles and pages fresh out of the gate – it was a slow process of seeing what clearly worked (‘poke’ is still around!) Google is actively seeking feedback and molding the platform based on demand, which is a major step for the young network. Business pages are a given, though I’m sure the testing arena wasn’t meant to be as gigantic as what we’ve seen. It’s not a finished product. It will evolve.
I received this question this morning on a blog – “Do you think they have to grow organically to compete long-term or can they buy it?”
My response – “They have built their loyal base from the ground, tapping into innovative ways to connect and contributing to the productivity of its users. Sure not all of them have gained speed, but I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve used Google’s services and codes.
Let’s face it, Google can easily buy their way to the top by snatching up startups and established tech firms, but I think adaptability and ingenuity have helped Google grow is it’s audience from the beginning.”
What do you think the future is for Google+?
As senior vice president at Cookerly, Mike Rieman specializes in building and maintaining relationships with the media and has an excellent track record of landing significant placements in print and broadcast media including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Money Magazine.
As design director at Cookerly, Tim serves as the creative lead in the development of branding campaigns, print collateral and digital media for clients across a broad range of industries, including consumer, professional services, healthcare and technology.
As vice president of Cookerly, Sheryl Sellaway uses her extensive corporate communications background to lead consumer PR efforts, deliver strategy for marketing programs and share expertise about community initiatives.
Great post Candace. Like you, I think Google+ holds great promise due to its’ features that Facebook lacks, (Circles, Hangouts) and in some cases, improvements made to FB features (formatting text in comments, photo uploading and editing). Also, its integration with Google’s other services is a very strong incentive to spend time there. But is that a big enough incentive for people leave Facebook? As for whether Google+ poses a serious threat to Facebook’s dominance, here are some more key questions: What would it take for people to abandon Facebook entirely? How many will maintain an active presence on both? How will its Business pages compare to Facebook’s ? Will people consider Google+ worth their time?
Sorry – I see this was actually written by Nathan! Great jog Nathan.
Thanks for the comment Liz! Those are some great questions. It would clearly take a lot of motivation for someone to abandon Facebook, since it’s years worth of time investment (along with the personal value associated with being connected with friends and family.) Being hard to not compare this to the MySpace/Facebook power shift several years ago, we’ll have to see what happens with the development of Google+. Knowing it’s still in infancy, Google will surely unveil some clever features like they always have to set them apart from the rest. Being an early adopter for a lot of new social media, I feel that you always have that growing room to prove yourself. Liz, you and I should have this same conversation in a few months to answer these questions.