Google Plus Unveiling

On June 28^th, Google announced via their blog, a new “real-life sharing” social media platform called Google+. Immediately, the online world clamored to the search giant’s doorstep in pursuit of a beta-testing invitation. In the beginning, Google severely limited the initial number of invitations. After finally opening up invitations to the public, the Google+ phenomenon is running at full speed with over 10 million users added last week.

It is difficult to predict the implications that Google+ will have on the internet. Will Google+ simply become an answer to Facebook’s highly criticized privacy issues? Will it provide a completely new social experience for users? Or will it be a flop, like Google Coupons? (Remember those? I don’t either) One thing is clear. Google+ will open the door to many new social media marketing opportunities and the potential to integrate search engine optimization (SEO) and social media.

As a member of the Upward Brand Interactions team, I decided to participate in an interactive tour on their website where Google has outlined some of the defining features of Google+:

+1 Button: The Google plus one button is very similar to Facebook’s “like” button. However, instead of only allowing users to “like” social media profiles, they can like anything in Google’s empire that they find interesting, including pictures, videos, and search results. Google describes this feature as “giving content your stamp of approval” and it is rumored to feed into their famous SEO algorithm.

+Circles: A quick and easy application to separate your friends into different social circles. This application is intended to make it simple to share the right things with the right people.

+Hangouts: Google “Hangouts” gives groups of friends the ability to… well hangout! It facilitates this by allowing specific friends or an entire social“+Circle” to engage in multi-webcam chats and the ability to indicate their current location. Other social media sites have tried different variations of group chat and have missed the mark. Why the heck didn’t Facebook think of this first?

+Sparks: This is a new system for discovering news and updates which utilizes the +1 system to allow users to designate and share topics which interest them.

+Instant Upload: Google’s instant upload helps to avoid the hassle of manually uploading all of the pictures and videos on your mobile device(s) by automatically syncing them to a private album hosted online.

+Huddle: Is an application that seems very similar to the recently Facebook acquired service, "Beluga." Huddle+ allows users to integrate as many contacts as they wish into a single text message or chat conversation

Upward’s director of business development (and social media guru), Billy Fischer, gave his input: “How will this impact search? My guess is that more and more your Google search results will incorporate your friend’s information, which Google has started to do, but I bet it will open the flood gates once + gets some activity. The biggest question: Can Google finally succeed in the social environment and gain the mass users needed to call this a success?” The new platform is already receiving some criticism for lacking business profiles and a convenient method to communicate with and manage groups. Google+ may not smite competitors in the same way the increasing popularity of Facebook affected Myspace and it is much too early to determine the direct effects of the new service.  However, it is evident that the new software will add another dimension to Social Media as it relates to Internet Marketing. The team at Upward Brand Interactions is here to aid our clients as we continue to explore the social media frontier.