Let’s Talk About Google Plus For Business
Any day now, Google Plus is going to launch business profiles for Google Plus, and boy is there excitement about how that will look. Google famously ticked off a lot of brands and companies when they kicked out profiles that didn’t have human-like names in the early days, but it was all with the idea that eventually this brave new world within a brave new world would arise. No pressure.
My trepidation about Google Plus for businesses comes out of two major channels of thinking. One, I think a lot of companies and brands still have work to do in figuring out how to use other social media platforms for business. Two, the broadcast nature of Google Plus that I perceive (as we talked about on Monday) will be a turn-off for potential customers rather than a turn-on.
You’ll need to remember ROI has nothing to do with mothers (or fathers)
We’ve talked about this on occasion here at ye Olde Blog, but I think a lot of companies and brands that have moved online have sort of forgotten that they are here to grow their businesses and make some money (or that is my assumption, anyway, given centuries of capitalistic tendencies). Indeed, brands and companies have gotten so far astray from real-life business on platforms like Twitter and Facebook that many echoed Gary Vaynerchuk’s sentiment that measuring social media ROI is like measuring the ROI of your mother.
Sadly, it is not that light and fluffy.
If you are a brand and business and you are spending time online, whether it’s Twitter, a blog, or Google Plus, you are using your company’s most valuable resources – you and time. Most likely, you are getting paid for that time. If you are not bringing in business because of that time, or, to put it another way, if you are not getting ROI for that social media work, you are putting in a lot more than you are taking out. In most other scenarios, businesses do not stand that kind of thing for long periods of time.
In order to use any social media platform successfully for business purposes, there must be a return to the idea that that is in fact what you are doing. Yes, it can be fun. Yes it can be a lot more humanizing and all of that great mushy stuff. But the mushy stuff si not the ROI. The mushy stuff is the tool that you need to capitalize on to grow your business. If you go into Google Plus thinking that just talking to people through your new business profile will be enough, it will not work for you. Sad, but true.
People get itchy when companies broadcast
In the world of Twitter, if you see an account that is doing nothing but tweeting out posts or promoting the owner of the account, you’re probably going to get pretty irritated after a pretty short period of time, right? My concern about businesses moving over to Google Plus is that the platform, as it exists now, is so geared towards broadcasting that it wouldn’t be hard for company accounts to fall into that hole. Posting news releases, company videos, advertisements, or anything else will not look out of place on Google Plus, but for that reason, too, it could really turn people away from wanting to engage with you on your company’s G+ platform. Social media has taught people that we all like to be talked with, not talked at, especially when the talking account wants us to give them our money. That can get kind of delicate.
What potential do you see for businesses in Google Plus land? What do you hope the business pages will bring to the Google Plus world? I’ve given you my take. Now, let’s talk about it!
Image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/cararr
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If there’s anything different to broadcasting with G+, it has to be the ability to broadcast targeted messages by organizing customers / followers into specific circles. A targeted message to prospects, first time customers, repeat customers and even problematic customers – that sounds like a good thing to me!
@janwong I think the potential is HUGE for brands and the ability to target the right customers is a big plus – but does this also take away some transparency. If I Circle the problem customers and only share particular messages with them and 1st time, repeat are getting a different message does this somehow seclude or even stifling opinions? Do you think this could become an issue?
@Tribe2point0 That is a very valid angle to look at the down side of circles but the question remains the same for businesses even on FB and Twitter – what to post? Having individual circles can indeed be stifling if mishandled. However it can also be done in a way e.g. for a fashion line: Prospects – Invite them to come of an upcoming fashion show to mingle with the brand and friends1st time buyers – to come for the same show to find out what else the brand has in storeLoyal customers – they get special seats upon RSVPProblem customers – invite them to come and take a look followed by a reception
The idea is really to have personalized message to different audiences with the same message. Crafting the message is vital and the more circles you have, it potentially becomes even more difficult but it can be done 🙂
@janwong that’s something a lot of people are bringing up. However, whose job is it going to be to sort all of those people? I’m woefully behind in even trying to circle people or circle them back, and I’m just me. How will you measure the ROi of such actions? I think that’s gonna be tricky.
@margieclayman Ah I get what you mean. Thing is, brands can now choose to follow back (don’t like the term but yea) who they deem as a fitting audience. It can even be as simple as creating circles for geographic areas or events attended e.g. Attended opening launch, visited outlet #4, advocates, bloggers / media and etc.
As for who will sort them, it is the same question as who will be responding to the fans on FB or followers on Twitter. It’ll be ideal if it is a collective effort of people from different functions of a brand else he/she may need so e time to circle them accordingly.
Hi Margie –
Great post and thank you for reminding me about GooglePlus. I kid but I have been neglecting G+ – I check in but have not been spending a lot time over there.
It will be interesting to see what brands are able to do – how the customer experience will change, how will they open up the apps to developers to enhance the experience.
Some time ago I wrote a GooglePlus wishlist: http://kellylieberman.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/my-g-wishlist-for-brand-pages/
The roll out of G+ brand pages could push Facebook to change brand pages sooner as well.
Important message about ROI as well – knowing how and where to spend time and resources is critical as more platforms are available.
@Tribe2point0 Hi Kelly, you raise several great points there. It will be interesting to see how many companies opt to start spreading their network aggressively to yet another platform. Will Facebook pages drop in number? Will businesses leave Twitter and head to Googlier waters? Your guess is as good as mine (probably better!) 🙂
I think the fact that G+ is so centered around sharing content makes it ideal for business. Seriously, most of what I see on G+, more so than any other network, is people sharing other people’s stuff. What if that stuff was advertising? And targeted advertising at that? I’m a believer and am psyched to see what the network’s going to do for social business. Can’t wait!
@dougricesmbiz You could be entirely correct there, Doug. But people are also getting pretty savvy in defining what is “promotion” and what is legit content. Do you think people would pass around, knowingly, a news release or an advertisement? There sure is a lot of outcry against that on Facebook and Twitter. It’ll be interesting to watch for sure!
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I also can’t wait to see how G+ will look like. As far as I heard it’s going to a lot like FB’s Fan page but in a much user friendly kinda way…hope it’s true.
Margie, you’re echoing my thoughts here! I have had a hard time of late with Google +, primarily b/c it can become monopolized by the broadcasters. Granted, I’ve met some new faces there; but overall, I’m not putting much into it because I’m not getting much out of it! As a small business owner, I watch every minute I spend on social media, my blog and any and all marketing efforts – probably to the extreme, but I have to! I have scaled way back because I’ve found a happy place for being online, engaging and reaping benefits in relationships and new business. Google + really doesn’t factor into it that much for me – at least not yet. I’ll still stay on board and I’ll monitor it to see how it could affect my business or those that I interact with, but for now…meh…:)
I am new to Google + as well. I have just started a new business that is free to use for everyone. I think it would fit in well but I have been suspended as I put my business name in and not my real name.
If anyone has some tips that I could use to help promote my business I am all ears. To be honest marketing is not my strong point. I can design and build great homes though.
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