Google+ Pages

It was always intended to be thus.

Google announced this week that it was allowing businesses to set up Google+ pages. Although according to the BBC, "Organisations will not be charged to use the scheme and Google says it will not put adverts on their pages", let's be honest Google isn't a charity and at some point there will be some form of monetization of the fact that these non-people entities (as a colleague calls them) have been given consent to be on this new (sort of) social platform.

After an initial bulge in interest, engagement with G+ has quieted down, maybe because, according to a  complaint in Slate, "There’s nothing to do on Google+, and every time someone figures out a possible use for it, Google turns out the lights."

At least the first part has been true. But now G+ is trying to turn itself into a creative brand playground, for good or bad depending on your perspective on the desirability of non-commercial social platforms. (That's for another post.)

As my colleague Kathryn wrote in an internal email to our social web team:

Businesses, brands, teams, places, plays and other non-people entities will be able to create a profile on Google’s social network with many of the same built-in features as an ordinary Google+ profile. Plus – and this is very cool – page owners will be able to upload media and participate with users in live events and video chats, called Hangouts, on Google+.

In a later blog post, she pointed out:

What is most interesting is the integration with Google search. Since everyone is Googling everything, it makes perfect sense. Using what Google is calling Direct Connect, when you Google by adding + before a word you now get the brand page option (like in Facebook) and will be asked if you want to add that page to your circle. For example, if I were to write in +Motorola, Google would say ask me if I want to add +Motorola to one of my Google+ circles. What this could lead to is brands using ‘+’ as commonly as they do ‘www.’ or ‘facebook.com/’ in marketing materials (i.e. +MuppetsMovie or facebook.com/Muppets).

Maybe if companies use the platform well - and I do worry they won't given the many false starts on Facebook initially - it might just give G+ the haulage it needs in its battle with Facebook, especially if Google provides back-up like the '+' convention. I won't likely invite any companies into my G+ circles, but enough people seem to like 'liking' brands on Facebook that they may gravitate to this new brand home . . . and stay.

Google+ is - Well - a Plus

Boy do social web natives draw the knives quickly when it comes to Google and Facebook. Google+ hasn't even launched yet but the judgments have come in short order. Right off the bat I want to ask the question Could we be sacrificing reflection, analysis and context simply for speed? But that's for another post.

Right now I think we should be willing to forget 'Wave' and 'Buzz' and give a little credit to Google for - perhaps - starting to get at least part of this social network thing right.   

Not having been invited into the Google+ corona I am for the moment on the outside looking in. But here's a few unbiased and admittedly speculative observations about Google+ based on a tour of the demo.

Google+ 'Circles' will allow you to share specific information with selected groups of people. For organizations which slice and dice their stakeholders into categories in order to tailor communications, this could be a way of structuring a social network to spark conversation and cement relationships. Natalie Bourre, founder of Marketing 4 Health Inc., points out that pharmaceutical companies for example, under the severest restrictions for direct to consumer and direct to patient, might create 'circles' of patients within closed networks. And, I would add, these social circles can take advantage of the user generation, visual, linking and speed elements not usually associated with online patient communities.

As I understand it from this Mashable article, Google+ 'Sparks' is "a recommendation engine for finding interesting content . . . a collection of articles, videos, photos and other content grouped by interest."  Whenever I hear the concept "recommendation engine" I think of promoted tweets and Facebook ads and their ability to target people and interests.

And then there is the group and video chat functions which could take the Facebook wall to a new level allowing people to self-organize online imaged group personal conversation. Companies could use the functions for stakeholder or community meetings, and activists for planning and organizing group education, proselytizing and action.

One final comment . . . sure, it will take a hell of lot to unseat Facebook as the king of social networks. But that doesn't mean that a new social platform from the mighty Google can't make a useful, important (and yes profitable) contribution to the socialization of relationships, marketing and group dynamics.