Fallon Brainfood: The Google+ Opportunity for Brands

GOOGLE+ BUILDING A BETTER SHARING MACHINE

WHAT IS GOOGLE+?

LOOKS LIKE FACEBOOK…

LESS ATTENTION MORE ATTENTIONLESS ATTENTION MORE ATTENTION

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/users-look-at-facebook-and-google-the-same-way/2577

…TASTES LIKE TWITTER…

Interesting people sharing interesting things (friendship not required).

http://socialstatistics.com

…BUT WITH MORE FLAVORS.

Instant Upload Filtered by Circles

Editable Posts

Group Video Chat

THE BETTER QUESTION IS, WHY IS GOOGLE+?

(I mean, do they really expect me to join another social network?)

What does it mean for brands?

• Another channel to maintain?

• More fires to put out?

• More ad space to buy?

• What in the world are we going to say?

And how did it become

the fastest- growing

website in history?

GOOGLE MISSION STATEMENT:

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” ORIGINAL GOOGLE SERVER RACK

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexlomas/5914079322/

ORIGINAL INNOVATION:

Google revolutionized search with PageRank,

a technology that determined the

“importance” of a webpage by looking

at what other pages link to it.

PERCENT OF TIME GOOGLE EMPLOYEES CAN SPEND WORKING ON IDEAS AND PROJECTS THAT INTEREST THEM

20% 50%PERCENT OF GOOGLE’S PRODUCTS THAT

ORIGINATED FROM THE 20% TIME

ONGOING INNOVATION:

http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/24/google-facts-and-figures-massive-infographic/

Privacy is Paramount

Community is Key

SOCIAL STUMBLES:

Google’s misses in the social

space have taught valuable lessons.

PROFITABLE INNOVATION:

Google reinvented advertising with AdWords and now owns the world’s largest display ad network. All told, Google generated over $28B from advertising in 2010 (97% of total revenue).

But Google’s competition is aligning…

“The core of the (Bing)

search page will change

radically with the help

of your friends.”

+Mark ZuckerbergFounder, Facebook

October 2010

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/facebook-and-microsoft-team-up-on-social-search/http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/apple-brings-twitter-integration-to-ios/

…and gaining.

http://www.hitwise.com/us/http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity/

REGISTRATION INFORMATIONFRIEND CONNECTIONS

CONTENT KEYWORDSPHOTO

RECOGNITIONLIKES

LOCATIONCHECK-INS

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGGGGGGIIIIISSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAATTTTTTTTIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

FFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCTTTTTTTTIIIIIOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNSSS

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PPPPPPPPPPPPPHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNN

LLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIKKKKKKKKEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK-----KKKK IIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

http://www.europeupclose.com/article/northern-england-and-the-midlands/

WALLED GARDEN:

Facebook is even rumored to be launching its own

external ad network capable of unprecedented targeting.

Last year,

this painting was

put on display at

Google coinciding

with an urgent memo

to all employees…

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-was-super-nervous-about-facebook-used-this-painting-as-inspiration-2011-4

Emerald Sea, an 1878 painting by Albert Bierstadt

Harness the power of social networking or risk being crushed by it.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

GOOGLE

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/01/google-social-emerald-sea/

In 2011, Google CEO Larry Page announces that all employee bonuses will be tied to “how well we perform against our strategy to integrate relationships, sharing and identity across our products.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-memo-telling-all-google-employees-their-2011-pay-depends-on-google-sucking-less-at-social-2011-4

On March 30, +1 buttons

appeared as a gift from the Google

search gods.

Then on June 28, Google+ launched in a “limited field trial.”

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

PROJECT, NOT PRODUCT

“We’re calling this the Google+ project for a reason. It’s not a monolithic product…This is a project and

when we say “project” we mean it’s much broader in scope. This is something that will impact Google.”

+Bradley Horowitz Project Lead, Google+

http://allthingsd.com/20110628/google-execs-explain-why-they-launched-google-now-before-its-ready/

FROM PAGES TO PEOPLE

“When you look at the web today it’s obvious it’s not just about pages, it’s about

people. It’s not just about information, it’s about what individuals are doing.”

+Vic Gundotra Project Lead, Google+

http://allthingsd.com/20110628/google-execs-explain-why-they-launched-google-now-before-its-ready/

A PRIVACY NETWORK FIRST

https://plus.google.com/113117251731252114390/posts/Q6KB4Frbi6B

“We wanted to build the first privacy network that got social right. We wanted

to build something that you could feel comfortable sharing with, and we believed that if we did that, you would share more.”

+Vic Gundotra Project Lead, Google+

MO

RE

SHARING

MORE INFORMATIO

N

MORE PEOPLE

A Better Sharing Machine

ALL OPTIMIZED FOR GOOGLE SEARCH AND ANALYTICS. ALL O

PTIM

IZED FOR GOOGLE SEARCH AND ANALYTICS. ALL OPTIMIZED FOR GOOGLE SEARC

H A

ND

AN

ALY

TICS

. ALL

OP

TIM

IZED

FO

R G

OO

GLE

SEAR

CH AND ANALYTICS.

SHARING (AND RESHARING) THE FIRST 30 DAYSJUNE 28:

Google+ launches

“Limited Field Trial” (invitation only)

JULY 8:

+1 Button on more sites than Twitter share button

JULY 16:

+Daria Musk’s first Hangout concert with 98 people

JULY 23:

+Daria Musk’s second Hangout concert viewed by over 7,000 on HangoutParty.com

JULY 6:

+Marty Wetherall (finally) gets in

+Christian Oestlien announces application for Google+ business page pilot program (deadline: June 15)

+Soulja Boy has a Hangout with 27 people

JULY 5:

SocialStatistics.com lists +Mark Zuckerberg as most followed user on Google+

JULY 14:

CEO +Larry Page shares Google’s Quarterly Earnings Statement on Google+, confirms 10M users and over 1B items shared and received in a single day

JULY 22:

Users recommend other users to add for updates on Norway Disaster

JULY 9-11:

+Kevin Rose &

+Bill Gross redirect blogs to their Google+ pages. Reason: higher engagement

JULY 21:

All brand pages removed (except for +Ford Motor Company’s), promise of business pages for all by Q4

JULY 25:

Google+ fastest website to 25M visitors in history

+Mark Zuckerberg still top user

Still invitation only

All brandd

MOSTLY ABOUT GOOGLE+ CONTENT SHARED MORE ABOUT OTHER STUFF

“In just over six weeks, (Google+ has) moved

from innovators to early adopters to early mainstream

users visiting the new social network.”

—Experian Hitwise

http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/2011/08/google_plus_innovators_and_ear.html

KEY INNOVATION:

Circles improve both sharing and receiving.

http://techbend.com/2011/07/01/google-plus-new-google-social-network-whats-new-google-black-bar-google-products-page/

+Paul Adams (then with Google, now with Facebook)pioneered designing for different types of relationships.

http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-real-life-social-network-v2

+MIKE ELGAN’S GOOGLE+ DIET DISCOVERY

https://plus.google.com/113117251731252114390/posts/aQYKVc5GPVK

“JUST–WAIT–AND–SEE” INNOVATION

Sparks serve up easily shareable content sorted by interest, paving the way for a new form of sponsored search.

Hangouts take real–time social interaction to another level with almost unlimited potential for interesting uses.

THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIASHAREABLE

EVENTUALLY (IF GOOGLE

IS SUCCESSFUL), YOUR

CHOICE OF SOCIAL

NETWORK WON’T MATTER.

“Back in the bad old days, customers of one phone network couldn’t call customers of other phone networks, then people couldn’t email out-of-network. Today people can’t be social across networks, but few people mind because everyone they care about is on Facebook. Plus is a big push to change that.”

+Marshall Kirkpatrickhttp://marshallk.com/google-pluss-real-goal-is-not-to-kill-facebook-but-to-force-it-to-open

Sharing with friends, complicated privacy settings

EdgeRank filtering of Newsfeed

420–character post limit, threaded comments

Games get in the way

Content not searchable

Evolved from Wall posts to status updates

Public sharing

Self–filtering using Lists and Search

140–character post limit, no comment threading

No games

Content searchable (but no longer optimized for Google search)

Pioneered easy online sharing optimized for mobile SMS

Sharing with different Circles, easy control of who sees what

Self–filtering of stream

No character limit (auto– collapsing), threaded comments

Games in their place

Public content searchable on Google (and soon on Google+)

Specifically designed as a better sharing machine

FOR USERS, GOOGLE+ THREADS THE NEEDLE

FOR BRANDS, GOOGLE IS SEAMLESS…

TRIGGERSTRACKABLE

USER ACTIONSPERSONALIZED

TRIGGERS

…AND EVERYWHERE

ADDS NOT ADS

“…We may never even see an ad on G+—Google has plenty to gain without ever showing an ad, and, put

simply, Google doesn’t need the money.”

+Tom Anderson Co-Founder, Myspace

Ford is leveraging their early access to experiment with Hangouts and various forms of content, including asking users what they would like to see from the brand on Google+. Ford Social Media Director +Scott Monty is also active on the platform.

BRAND CASE STUDY: FORD

While Dell waits for Google+ Business Pages, founder +Michael Dell is actively representing the brand on the platform. He’s famously considering Hangouts for customer service, and he frequently posts content relevant to Dell customers including brand news and ads.

BRAND CASE STUDY: DELL

Every Google employee is active on Google+ and actively engaged with promoting its growth. They’re always sharing helpful advice on how to use the platform and appearing in Hangouts to answer questions, creating a welcoming environment for newcomers.

BRAND CASE STUDY: GOOGLE

• Sponsored Sparks

+1 Button • Polling

• View–only Hangouts for up to 10K viewers• Mobile Hangouts for guided tours

CONSIDER THE POTENTIAL FOR GOOGLE+ BUSINESS PAGES (DUE Q4)

All enabled from Google Search and Display ads• Mobile alerts to Circles

Nearby• Geo–targeted sponsored deals

• Public, joinable Circles• Targeted Content Delivery

• Place Page integration

Contemplate Content Strategy

for a Better Sharing

Machine

• Circles offer targeted content delivery across devices, meaning more possible content channels (each demanding fresh updates)

• No character limit enables all types of content in a highly networked environment built for sharing and resharing

• Hangouts put your brand in a virtual room with live consumer interaction (soon to be mobile and embeddable)

• Everything optimized for Google Search and Analytics as well as integration with other Google products (AdWords, Places, Offers, Checkout, Catalogs)

• First Mover opportunity when Google+ Business Pages appear (due Q4)

• Aiming beyond the “Like”, with more room than a ReTweet, what are your brand’s shareabilities?

Fallon Recommends

• Place +1 Buttons on all web properties now and save room for Google+ social sharing plugins soon (use Buzz This as a placeholder)

• Create a Google+ user account (let us know if you need an invitation)

• Consider appointing one or more brand representatives to initiate a following and test content strategy (see +Michael Dell)

• Circle interesting users and examine what content generates the most response (+1s, Comments, Shares)

• Ask users what kinds of content they want from your brand

• Evaluate Google+ as your primary hub of social brand activity (promoted via Facebook, Twitter, Google Ads) based on its SEO, analytics, and enhanced sharing properties

Summary

• The Web has matured from pages to people

• Google+ is a highly evolved sharing machine with an active, fast-growing user base

• Google+ is the thread that will make other Google products and services better (and seamless)

• Brands can harness improved social functionality (Circles, Hangouts) and end-to-end analytics

• Cultivate your brand’s shareabilities