Google+

27th July 2011

Google has a huge array of products across Paid, Owned and Earned…

Owned EarnedPaid

...but historically, integration between products has been loose and variable.

Google+ is an integrated social network.

It contains new products and connects all of Google’s existing products using a social layer.

It is the culmination of a year-long project led by Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of social and has been called Google’s answer to Facebook.

GOOGLE ARE TAKING GOOGLE+ SERIOUSLY

Google+ hit 20m users inside 3 weeks

SMOOTH WEB EXPERIENCE FROM THE BEGINNING

Google’s server infrastructure has prevented downtime, growing pains and fail whales!

NUMBER ONE IN THE APP STORE, BUT REVIEWS ARE MIXED

6 KEY GOOGLE+ PRODUCTS

And the whole setup is aligned and integrated with Google’s other key products.

Circles

Hangouts

Huddle

Sparks

Profile

Photos

+1 button shares content into Google+ and also personalises Search Engine results pages.

In time +1 will be factored in Paid Search Quality Score too.

GOOGLE+ FEATURES VS FACEBOOK VS TWITTER

WHAT IT MEANS FOR ADVERTISERS

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES (Q4 2011)

Profile Pages (optimized for businesses).

Branded Hangouts with Customers

(or partners).

Content Distribution.

Applications.

Customer Service.

Collaboration.

Research & Data.

Natural Search becomes social and personalised…

“If Google can succeed in driving large scale Google+ adoption—and derive a wealth of social cues from Google+ users—search could be revolutionised. Google+ users could see highly customized SERPs that rank results based on recommendations /likes from Circles. Shared interests discovered through Sparks could float to the top of the SERP. In other words, the searcher’s friends will play a significant role in influencing where a result ranks and whether it gets clicked—both in natural search and paid search (if social cues are integrated into Quality Score).”

...and Paid Search will be affected too once social data factored into Quality Score.

GOOGLE+ WILL PROVIDE DATA FOR DISPLAY AD TARGETING

More social data for targeting = more ad revenue.

Google may use my information to personalize

content and ads on non-Google websites.?

GOOGLE CHECKOUT ALONGSIDE GOOGLE+ COULD BECOME THE KILLER SOCIAL /MOBILE PAYMENT SOLUTION

Provides a mobile-optimised web store

to brands who had not previously had

the money to develop one.

Allows Google to make money from

advertising AND sales, advertisers and

merchants.

SUPERIOR SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYTICS ALLOWS TARGETED OUTREACH BY BRANDS.

Average demographics of users in circles /hangouts.

Most common sparks /interests from profile data.

Identifies groups of users who are closely linked and all linked with your brand.

Understand which users are influencers with large voice.

Social data like +1 visible alongside engagement metrics like bounce rate, time on site etc.

+1 or +100?

Your Brand

ADVERTISER CIRCLES COULD ALLOW EASY SEGMENTATION OF FAN BASES + GREAT CRM POTENTIAL

People who’ve

mentioned

1034

Super fans

58

Detractors

13

HURDLES TO OVERCOME

Google+ is still small…

Google + LinkedIn Twitter Facebook0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Approximate number of users (m)

…it has to get people to switch as well as join.

FACEBOOK ARE NOT MAKING IT EASY

Facebook are not making it easy

ISSUES AROUND T’S & C’S AND PRIVACY?

“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”

WILL IT WORK?

WILL IT BE SUCCESSFUL? AN EXPERT’S TAKE

“When it comes to features, Google is at parity with Facebook, but isn’t compelling for a mass immigration of social behavior. They must quickly integrate Google’s unique products like YouTube, Gmail, Apps, and others to slowly attract users over.”

Jeremiah Owyang

 ”I don't think competitors kill companies and services. I think the vast majority of "deaths" are self inflicted. Facebook didn't kill MySpace and Friendster, they killed themselves.”

Fred Wilson

“Your mom won’t use Google+.”

Robert Scoble

“…lots of companies are going to build things like video chat, but Facebook competitors also have to build up their social graph first. Facebook’s job is to just keep innovating.”

Mark Zuckerberg

“Decided to forward http://kevinrose.com to my Google+. G+ gives me more (real-time) feedback and engagement than my blog ever did.”

Kevin Rose

FUTURE

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF GOOGLE+?5 PREDICTIONS:

1

Google+ will not be a “Facebook killer” in the short term. They will instead co-exist. Facebook will play a similar role to Apple iOS (more controlled) and G+ will play the role of Android (more open).

2

Google+ could become the premiere platform for applications for the Web and mobile.

3

Google+ will hurt traditional Web properties such as Yahoo and Microsoft more than social companies with the increased adoption of Google’s other products (i.e. Documents, Search).

4

Brands will love Google+ because they already own the majority of the Web. You’ll only need one partner. And commerce integration appears to be intuitive.

5

Google+ will look, feel and be used completely differently 5 years from now.

WHAT SHOULD YOUR BRAND DO NOW?

Register as a user and test the experience

Request notification for when business pages become available

Be prepared and stay updated

YourBrand