Google+ pages (launched recently) now provide an opportunity for businesses, and not just individuals, to participate in the still nascent social network. Along with this feature launch from Google came myriad articles and how-to guides all geared at bringing people up to speed quickly. There are a few key features that are showing great potential and also a few features that are glaringly absent.
First, the drawbacks:
1. Page administration – This is the biggest current drawback. Business pages on Google+ can only be administered by one person. Google prefers you be a “real” person to participate on Google+ as an individual. Further, only individuals (a “real” person as Google sees it) can create business pages. So once a business page is setup by an employee only that employee can do anything with the account because it is tied to their Google+ profile (and their Gmail account by extension). Trying to get around this requirement is risky as Google has proactively closed many accounts of personal profiles that were not genuinely tied to “real” people.
[Update: This is the single largest feature currently being requested by business users of the Google+ platform. Given the highly iterative nature of Google it is natural to assume they are working on this.]
2. Notifications – Business pages do not receive notifications via email or in the notification bar. Everything is still manual.
Advantages:
1. Search, of course. Google+ pages, the +1 button and Direct Connect (more on that below) are all geared at providing Google with more intelligence. This will help to improve search results and also search advertising.
2. Message segmentation – The Circles feature in G+ allows you to segment your audience. Once done, you can also segment your messaging (very similar to segmentation when sending email marketing messages). One big caveat is that creating Circles is currently a manual process and can be very (very) time consuming.
3. Direct Connect – This feature allows G+ pages to show up as the first result in Google search when using the “+” qualifier. Visit Google.com and type “+a”. Experiment with different letters and you will see the companies that are currently participating.
Those are the big advantages/disadvantages out of the gate. This platform will change fast. What’s clear to me is that Google has moved beyond a remedial understanding of social media. They get it now. They’ve spent critical time thinking about how to build out a social network and the most compelling issue for marketers to consider is how G+ activities will affect their search marketing (including advertising) results. Pay attention here and stay ahead of the game.
[UPDATED] Mashable reports that multi-admin capability is coming soon.
So the big news this past week were the announcements coming out of the Facebook f8 conference. If you use Facebook for anything other than business purposes you have no doubt seen the “I hate these changes” type of messages in your news feed. The “top stories”, the “ticker” and the general confusion about subscriptions are all fueling user discontent. This is a distraction from the most significant change announced at f8.
Facebook buried the lead during Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote. Yes, music sharing is fun (announcement number 1) and your new Timeline (replacing the personal profile) is visually pleasing (announcement number 2) but the changes they have made in enhancing the open graph trump everything else.
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I’ve seen a fair amount of debate over Google+ lately. The media has debated growth numbers, stickiness, and whether or not Google has the fortitude to stick this one out and make an impact.
Frankly, I don’t care.
No, really. I don’t care because it’s not a winner takes all competition. There is room for multiple social networks and we (collectively) will learn how to use them to our advantage over time. The use of a specific social network is a personal preference at this point. Not for brands, that is. They play by different rules. For the individual, it’s your choice. If Google+ doesn’t work for you, I’m not sure that’s the end of the world. Likewise for Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Ultimately, I think you should end up choosing a social network based on three questions: Click to continue…
The following is an adaptation from an article I wrote recently for the Sage Channel Marketing Newsletter.
With over 100 million registered members, LinkedIn is the largest professional social network. Sure, it is true that Facebook is approaching 800 million registered users (wow!) but they are not specifically focused on the business professional. This gives LinkedIn a distinct advantage, particularly when it comes to sourcing higher quality leads.
Follow these steps to build out a strong presence on LinkedIn and start connecting with the right people for your lead generation efforts.
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Are you thinking about incorporating Google+ into your social media strategy but haven’t made the leap yet? There are a few important advantages to participation you need to consider. But first, some background.
