MONDAY 31 OCT 2011 11:09 AM
ON THE PLUS SIDE
Has Google developed the ultimate social tool for brands. Marino Donati reports
If 90% of social media success is about showing up, as Ford Motor Company digital communications guru Scott Monty is fond of explaining, it is no surprise that the US car giant is one of the first corporations to sign up with Google+. The new platform promises to be the next significant step in the evolution of social media phenomena. Since Google+ first launched, in June by invitation only and then publicly at the end of last month, some estimates suggest that it already has 50 million users. This has sparked feverish debate about how this Facebook competitor could become a significantly powerful tool for businesses and brands, once they are officially allowed to sign up.
The ability of Google+ to separate users or followers into different categories, the inclusion of sophisticated video chat capabilities and powerful analytic tools, not to mention the integration with existing Google services, provide a mouthwatering prospect for many brands and businesses wanting to communicate with their various audiences.
Ford is currently one of only a tiny number of businesses allowed a presence on Google+ with a “test account”, ahead of the official launch of the business version of the platform, expected some time this year, as Communicate went to press.
Monty says that having a presence on social media platforms is an essential part of the business strategy: “People will look to Facebook before they send an email or pick up the phone. Social media allows us to just be human, and not speak in press release-ese all the time. People can see that there are real people working at Ford just like them, and that builds trust and credibility.”
But Monty is keen to point out that social media is about far more than just marketing. “Our dealers can follow what’s being said about them online, and are using social media more for reputation management than sales leads,” he says. “Our Human Resources organisation is now using a careers page on Facebook to recruit younger talent.”
When it comes to Google+, Monty acknowledges that part of the attraction of getting involved with the new platform is simply the cool factor of being seen to be an early adopter.
But there is far more to the attraction of Google+ than this. One of the main reasons that businesses and brands will be keen to get involved is the functionality of Google+ and how it differs from other social media platforms. Although the business version has yet to launch, it is understood that it will include the basic concepts of the current version, which include Circles, Hangouts and Sparks.
According to Google, the basic idea of Circles is to make sharing online more like sharing in real life, and to reflect the fact that while some of our friends are close friends and others are acquaintances, others yet lie in between and so on . Circles will allow users to put their friends or followers into different groups or “circles”, allowing totally separate interactions with the different groups, and the ability to share different things with each.
Social media communication expert Neville Hobson says this ability to effectively segment the different relationships translates well to businesses.
“It means you can create niches and only you know who is in those niches,” he says. “Your Circles can cover marketing, or you can put different customers in different Circles, or have a Circle for business partners and suppliers, but also groups for private or internal communication, which might include employees. It’s not as straightforward to do this kind of thing on Facebook.”
Joel Davis, founder of social media marketing firm Agency:2 agrees that the benefits are far reaching. “It’s not just about the external company trying to attract more clients,” he says. “It can be about working across stakeholders, relationship building with individuals, buyers, logistics operators, HR and recruitment and internal communications.”
This flexibility of being able to categorise could have its flipside however, with brands having to work harder to make sure that they are having relevant conversations with followers. Luke Regan, head of SEO and social media at agency Make It Rain says: “People could decide to put brands into certain Circles and some brands, especially on Twitter for example, don’t do the “engagement” part very well. If they are just going to hit people with sales messages all the time, they might find themselves being demoted into a Circle that people don’t interact with very much. It will be easier for people to switch off from you.”
The second Google+ concept that is getting users excited is Hangouts. Essentially a development of the video chat idea, it allows more impromptu communication with guests or Circles that you have decided to include.
Hobson explains: “Hangouts provide the ability to have on-the-fly video chats and ad hoc conferencing by inviting people to your Hangout. It’s easier than Skype with no need to install extra software, you just need a webcam and a microphone.”
Michael Dell, chief executive of computer manufacturer Dell, has already expressed interest, via his own Google+ page, in the possibility of using Hangouts to enhance the company’s customer support by allowing customers to connect to the sales and service teams via video.
At Ford, Monty is also excited about the business potential for Circles and Hangouts.
“For businesses that have a need for personal interaction, hangouts are extremely useful,” he says. “Customer service can be handled on video, you can demonstrate something, have a panel discussion and broadcast it.”
He adds that being in a Beta period for its Google+ site has allowed Ford to ask people want they wanted from its page.
Monty says: “Followers told us they want to see vintage images, they want Hangouts with designers and engineers, not just executives, but the people doing the work to bring these cars to market. We’re taking all this in and we’re going to evolve what we do on Google+, and we’re not just going to replicate what we do with other social media.”
Ford has also taken the opportunity to make suggestions to Google about what other features would be useful.
“Our vision is to be able to create Circles that are category specific, so we could have a Circle about the new Mustang car for example,” says Monty. “We would also like to see some sort of ‘opt in’ facility as there’s no way to manually handle the influx of thousands of followers. So, if you were to follow a brand you could pick the Circles that interest you.”
The Sparks concept aims to deliver a feed of the most relevant internet content on topics of interest to users which they can then share with others. Businesses are also expecting Google+ to include powerful analytics tools, making it easier to demonstrate the return on investment in the social media platform, something that some commentators believe has not necessarily been straightforward with other platforms.
Regan at Make It Rain says that this will be a key attraction for Google+: “It can be a battle to understand who is sharing what, working out who the advocates and influencers are rather than people that just read your messages but do anything with it, and I think Google+ has a head start with its Google Analytics.”
Davis from Agency:2 agrees: “With Facebook you can get some amazing data but my guess is that it will be very good with Google+, given the history of what Google has done with analytics.”
Despite the impressive sign up rate for Google+ in its first few weeks, it still has a long way to go to match social media giant Facebook, which has an estimated 800 million users worldwide.
But although Facebook may have the numbers, its use by businesses and the popularity of things like brand pages and fan pages has been more of an organic evolution from its original purpose of personal use. Meanwhile Google+ for business, if the expectations are verified, has been created specifically with corporate users in mind.
And one factor that many commentators say should not be overlooked when it comes to the attraction of Google+, is the potential for seamless connectivity and interaction that it has with existing Google features.
Richard Baker, managing director of digital agency Sequence, says his firm will definitely be setting up a presence on Google+.
“We don’t see Google+ as an alternative to our other social media activity but an addition, and potentially a very important one,” he says. “For business to business use, Google+ Hangouts provide a voice and video chat space for companies to virtually meet with clients in meetings that will probably have been booked through Google Calendars with minutes, reports and presentations no doubt being shared through Google Docs and discussed later in Google Groups.”
But perhaps one of the features that could have the most immediate impact for businesses and brands is the +1 function. This works in a similar way to “liking” something on Facebook, where a user can show approval for a particular website or post or other piece of information. The difference however, is expected to be the way it will impact on rankings in search engines.
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Google+ at a glance Circles: Friends or followers can be grouped in different categories or “circles”, which can be communicated and interacted with independently of each other. Hangouts: An instant way to video chat with friends, followers and Circles. Sparks: Provides a stream of the most relevant internet content on a particular topic chosen by the user. +1: Google+ way to recommend web content to others. Similar to Facebook “like”. |
Mark Pack, head of digital at MHP Communications, says: “The biggest impact is likely to come from the Google+1 button, as it will end up being used not only for sharing content via Google+ but for influencing adverts via Google Adsense and influencing search results via the Google search engine.
“In other words, what a journalist sees when researching your chief executive or what a potential customer sees when thinking about a purchase will both be impacted by the little +1 button. So the most successful brands and firms will be those that respond to this integration by Google by integrating work across their own departments more tightly as social media’s tentacles reach across the different traditional silos.”
So, does this mean we will see a rush of firms signing up when Google+ for businesses when it goes live, and should your company or clients be one of them? Although there is some kudos in demonstrating your speed to market, the golden rules of social media still apply.
Matt McGee, executive news editor at digital news hub Search Engine Land, says: “In my personal circles, non-tech people, I haven’t come across one person who has left Facebook for Google+. So, whether businesses can actually gain much from it really depends if their audiences ever adopt Google+.
“It’s better for small business owners to be patient and wait to see if their target audience adopts any new social networking site. Otherwise, early adoption could lead to a lot of wasted time.”
Regan says that businesses should avoid replicating what they do on Facebook and Twitter. “You have to ask yourself ‘What am I providing of value? Why should people put me in a circle? Is it of worth?’”
The social media world is developing at incredible rate, and even since the launch of Google+, Facebook has announced changes to its features that some commenters say close any gap that Google is trying to create between the two (see boxout). However, most observers agree that different platforms can co-exist, with different types of users and have different strengths.
Like many social media users, Mike Essex, online marketing manager at digital marketing agency Koozai, says that there is room for several platforms: “We have a very different strategy for Twitter where we auto-post all blog updates which might be 5-10 every day, to Facebook where we might only put out the most important bits of news that day.”
At Ford, Monty says: “Twitter has the advantage in terms of mobile accessibility and short updates. Facebook does a decent job of tracking what your friends are saying, and Google+ will probably be somewhere in the middle. These platforms can live alongside each other.”
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Facebook fights back Google may be making a play to become the social media king with its Google+ platform, but Facebook has not been standing still either. At its F8 annual conference last month, it announced major changes, including a new Timeline feature which will allow users to create a kind of online scrapbook of their lives, past and present. Essentially it will allow users to share more information about themselves more easily, and according to some commentators the Timeline format could allow brands to be more creative on Facebook. Whatever the case, much of the ultimate use for brands, marketers and businesses of these platforms depends on how many people use them, and it seems that the fight for social media dominance is set to continue. |
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