Google+ Has a Perception Problem
Remember that smart kid who sat in the front of the class, but was ignored by the cool kids? That’s a good metaphor for what Google+ is going through.
I’ve heard from corporate social strategists I should be cautious about how much time and how frequently I discuss this nascent social newtork, and I spoke to media from a Tier 1 this week who said “does anyone even go there anymore? It seems like a wasteland”. Furthermore take this damning image which has been viewed 11k times suggests Google+ is filled with Google employees –and that’s about it. In fact, in our data on Super bowl ads, not a single ad by the world’s largest brand even mentioned Google+, an indicator of what the rest of the ads could look like for 2012 in this Facebook centric market.
Why Google+ suffers from a perception issue:
- Facebook IPO buzz leaves little room for Google. As analysts, we feel this quite heavily, in fact, we’ve been interviewed by many media about the Facebook IPO. in the last 30 days, I can recount on one hand a conversation with press and media about Google+
- Google+ doesn’t have the full backing of brands. Google+ Brand pages are substandard, forcing brands to double down on Facebook: The brand pages lack a platform (although their recent partnerships indicate feature rich apps are coming) and their gaming network is limited. Brands also are skittish to open yet another conversation area to manage and engage in, when resources are low.
- Strong growth numbers still dwarfed by Facebook, 16 to 1. Even with 60m members and growing, that’s less than 7% of Facebook’s 845m, despite making these big gains since Oct, this social network is still dwarfed by Facebook’s international spread.
To win, Google needs to focus on public perception beyond just building a platform. Google+ continues to integrate the social features with the newly updated homepage on Google.com and we should continue to see it span across their set of products now that they’ve consolidated their profiles which has caused privacy woes. Google knows they must make their social platform work, to meet the needs of the modern web, as advertising dollars shift to other social networks. They must not only double down on building a successful platform for users, brands and their business model, but must also do proactive media, press and influencer outreach.
View full post on Web Strategy by Jeremiah
Google has driven a stake into both the core of their company culture, and what customers have come to expect: relatively unfiltered search results. I hope Google’s competitors seize the moment.
Yes, the partnerships will be great whenever they eventually appear… but so far all those partnerships seem to be on a *management* point-of-view. And yes, this is sorely needed for a staff person who is trying to engage and interact in conversations across different platforms. Google+ is NOT in their “social media dashboard” today and until it is Google+ will always be “that other platform that I have to login to the website to use” and will get correspondingly less attention. So yes, that will be key.
Now, from a content distribution point-of-view, I want an API that lets someone create a plugin for WordPress/Drupal/Joomla/etc. so that the distribution can be under my control and integrated with my content management system. This API is there for Twitter and Facebook (and other services) but missing from Google+ so far.
And therein lies the proverbial “chicken and egg” problem. What is the need to manage interaction if your content isn’t published to the platform? And why should I bother to publish my content there if managing the interaction and conversation is a challenge?
Google needs to address *both* sides of that issue and provide the APIs that let people more easily interact and publish to the platform.
Totally agree and it is being discussed, but less from Google + platform engagement as much as offering +1 and sharing into Google.
Totally agree and it is being discussed, but less from Google + platform engagement as much as offering +1 and sharing into Google.
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Thanks Doug
There’s no winners, at least for more than 5 years running by my count. Facebook here today, but could be gone in a few years. The pattern ins cyclical, new networks continue to emerge. Friendster anyone?
Brooks thanks
The one real promise that I’ve mentioned in previous posts is that Google+ offers a promise (but can never say it) of SEO benefits in the Google search tool. Clearly, this is a sticking point for anti-trust laws, and was a debate when Google bought Blogger and other tools.
Kati it’s always a pleasure to hear from you. Thanks for this.
You raise a good point, if Facebook becomes flooded with marketers, users may seek another route. (see the comment from Dennis below)
Still seeing this as “early times.” Thanks for the sanity check on the big rush to declare G+ “Winner of the Internets” before it has really gotten on its feet.
Though I was part of the first rush, I wasn’t a G+ fan to begin with because, despite its millions of users, there aren’t a lot of active users (last I checked Google cited 90m facebook users in its annual report but totally muddled how many were active – citing, instead, how many G+ users were active with Google services overall). But I remember a lot of conversations back in the day were about MySpace v Facebook, which doesn’t even SEEM like a competition nowadays but was a very real debate amongst my friends. A lot of people moved to facebook because it was cleaner and was seen as less noisy. In teaching a Social Media course at my local college, I sort of came to that G+ offers this now. Facebook has become so action oriented but G+ offers me the chance to see what my peers are thinking about. I’m already seeing a migration path that parallels the move of my friends from MySpace to Facebook, but I’m still waiting to see what happens next. Good blog, Jeremiah!