Jul
19
Is Google+ The New Sheriff In Social Media Town?
Photo Illustration by Nikolas Allen. Model: Fina Noel Wolfe
Google recently entered the social media fray with Google+ (Google Plus), and for weeks the blogosphere has been buzzing about how it’s going to be the death of Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, and anything else that might make for a compelling headline.
While it’s too early to making such grandiose predictions, Google+ is poised to become a strong competitor, and will no doubt keep Mark Zuckerberg on his toes.
Currently billed as The Google+ Project, the site, not yet open to the general public, is in an invitation-only field trial stage, similar to a beta-testing phase. I was invited to join (Thanks to Michelle Quillin @NEMultimedia) and, after a little investigation, I see that there are currently five key features of the platform: Circles, Hangouts, Instant Upload, Sparks and Huddle.
Circles allows you to group your friends into different circles so you can share different items with different groups. Unlike with Facebook, where your updates are seen by your entire list of friends, Circles permits you to share selectively.
I know a restaurant owner who fired a waiter for posting nasty comments on Facebook about the owners and their customers. When confronted by the boss, the waiter protested, “It was supposed to be private!” His first mistake was thinking anything on the Web is private, but if he used Google+ Circles, the waiter could have shared with his friends in one circle and not his superiors, who would reside in another. He’d still be a jerk, but at least he wouldn’t be an unemployed jerk.
Hangouts is a video conference tool that allows up to 10 users to talk on screen, text, chat, and share YouTube videos simultaneously (Google owns YouTube). While the name seems very teen-centric, Hangouts has already made headlines for facilitating the world’s first Google+-powered video press conference regarding a decidedly adult human rights issue.
Tibetan advocacy group, International Tibet Network, held an event featuring speakers in India, the United States, and the United Kingdom, who addressed China’s oppression of Tibet. Using the Hangouts feature, they invited select journalists to join the press conference online and the resulting video was quickly rebroadcast via Twitter and YouTube.
Instant Upload automatically uploads photos and videos from your smart phone as soon as you take them. They go to a private album on Google+, where you can then share them with your friends.
Sparks is similar to Google Alerts, only smarter. You indicate topics of interest and Sparks automatically sends related content from the Web to your stream, where you can watch, read and share at your convenience.
Huddle allows several people to text in a simple group chat. If five people in different locations are texting each other, everybody’s comments will be seen by the whole group instead of the typical one-on-one interaction of normal texting.
While these are some strong features that offer advancement on currently available options, Google+ will not be sending all the other platforms to the gallows anytime soon. It will, however, offer users another choice and force its competitors to continue to innovate.
So, what does this mean for Small Business Owners? Is Google+ one more digital tool they have to concern themselves with when implementing their marketing strategies? Not in the immediate future, when it will mostly be populated by techies, early adopters and social media junkies who need to be on every platform available.
As of this writing, Google+ is not even allowing brand pages on the platform yet, preferring to focus on the individual user experience rather than a company’s. So, if you do decide to get in on the ground floor, you will have to set up a personal profile and not a business one.
However, as it picks up steam, Small Business Owners will surely need to determine whether or not their audience is migrating to Google+. If so, they will want to be there, too, as it will offer opportunities for new forms of customer interaction, new insights from customer sharing and public behavior, as well as new opportunities for advertising, thought leadership, or sponsored content.
At the very least, it’s recommended to keep your eyes open an ear cocked so you can keep track of the Google+ buzz – which, at this point, is deafening.
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Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting, where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.
If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com
