The first thing to be said about Google+ is that the marketing, as you would expect, has been excellent…
At present accounts are obtainable through invitation only; a tactic that has seen early adopters and tech geeks clambering around in cyberspace trying to secure their seat at the feast. Some were even selling on eBay last week. Others were obtainable if you agreed to retweet and follow strangers on Twitter.
Invitations have an air of exclusivity about them. But, in reality, there are plenty knocking about if you want one enough. And it seems a certain number of people do.
I was pleased to receive one from a friend last week and busily set about making my ‘Circles’ (these are how you separate your contacts into groups, so you don’t have to worry about your clients seeing what you did on Saturday night anymore). And I was enjoying staging a ‘Hangout’ (this is the inbuilt video conferencing platform). The UI is great and it boasts the same clean design that exists across the Google product range. It’s all very good.
Apart from one major fact, that is. I have hardly any friends. Google+ could be great but until more people are on +ing, it is very difficult to ascertain whether it is good enough to allow Google to finally secure a slice of the social media pie. The only messages I have seen on my stream so far have involved discussions about whether registering an account was worth it or not. There is a chicken and egg element at play.
It is too early to say whether + is likely be the success Google needs it to be, and way too early to determine whether it is anything the B2B world should be getting excited about. As ever, it is about monitoring your target audience and assessing whether the new platform is likely to offer meaningful ROI.
As with any new social media platform, time will tell.
But it is worth bearing in mind that most new social media offerings don’t have the power and resources of Google behind them. The company have invested heavily in this product and do not want to see it go the same way as Wave and Buzz.
Google’s B2B arm is a major source of revenue for the company. Rumour, and the smart money, has it that they are working on Google+ for business as you read this. So it may just be possible that in the future B2B marketers will be using this platform to share their messages. Empires come and empires go, after all.
What do you think?
Have you used Google+ yet?
And dare you risk a prediction regarding the platform’s future success?
UPDATE: One day after writing this blog it was announced the Google will release a different version of Google+, specifically for business later this year. Click for more information.
