Google Plus Review: A Social Marketer’s Dream
Posted in: Internet Marketing Buzz Words by Fran on July 12, 2011
At the end of June Google rolled out their beta answer to Facebook LIKE: Google + a social networking “experiment” that can potentially challenge the Facebook LIKE button by allowing Google users to ”+1” their favorite site, page, article, product and even Google Ads. Watch the official video to learn more.
While Google + has experienced some growing pains, internet marketers are hopeful that Google’s new social network is going to stick. Yes – Google Wave and Google Buzz died slow deaths, but Google + has some features that may possibly be a social marketer’s Dream. Google recognizes that user popularity (votes) definitely improves click-through-rate (CTR) on paid and organic listings and Google + leverages this to the fullest.
Google Says:
“Use +1 to give something your public stamp of approval, so friends, contacts, and others can find the best stuff when they search. Get recommendations for the things that interest you, right when you want them, in your search results.”
You can join the Google + experiment by doing the following:
1. Make sure you’re signed into your Google Account (required)
2. Visit http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html and scroll down to +1 button (second experiment from the top)
3. Click ‘Join this experiment’ and Google will automatically generate +1 boxes on all search results.
4. Search for something you love on Google.com in this case “eCommerce Innovators”.
5. Click the new +1 button, and “make your mark on the web”!
Users will start seeing your recommendations. Market data tells us that 9 out of 10 people trust recommendations from their “friends”. Your action will create an annotation that your “friends” can read: i.e. Fran Jakubowicz and 323 other people +1′d this.
Google is responding to the users and marketers looking to leverage more corporate opportunities (tools to compete with Facebook Pages) and they are also working to building in more safety features.
So am I ready to dump the Facebook LIKE button? Nooo. But I am excited about aggressively integrating this social networking tool into my daily marketing activities.
