The King Of The Web Conquers Social or Why Google Plus Rocks
Larry "Kickass" Page conquers social
Everybody is bitching about “Not another social network, I already have 5 to update”.
Imagine having one social network that combines Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Email, Groupon, Pictures, Search, Analytics, Readers, your Entreprise network, blog, and some other cool features. All while being privacy oriented and giving you complete power over your data.
Too good to be true? Welcome to Google +.
Gosh, not another Google + retarded post. Don’t read if you want to find out about Google+ features. Just Google them.
A couple premises: Google is a love brand, a trust brand and a smart brand. Its brand equity is substantial. In this context launching a new product is always easy. Now the company has to deliver.
With G+, Google is bringing a much needed breath of fresh air into the social media sphere. Here are a couple points I find interesting to mention after a couple weeks of using G+.
1. With the launch of G+ Google could prevent the social media bubble.
In the past 2 weeks Facebook probably lost about $20B in market cap. In 2012 competing with a year old G+, Facebook will not be able to IPO at $80B.
Suddenly every other social network is worth less than in June 2011.
2. G+ brings back on track the social media paradigm
Soon, social media data will be unlocked making it very easy to gather business intelligence and integrate services. Of course there are other social networks that use this philosophy but none have the reach to make an impact on the social media paradigm like Google does.
This is the promise of social media: connectivity, serendipity, ubiquitous communication everything supported and guaranteed by an open marketplace.
Google+ brings everything back on track.
3. Search is still the king
For all intensive purposes, Google owns the web. Adding the +1 button to the search results will shift SEO strategies into new, open and transparent territories. G+ feed is RSS ready, your content is as public and searchable as you desire, bringing new possibilities in content sharing, indexing and improving advertising targeting.
4. Who should be working harder?
Facebook: They wanted to become the next MySpace… Now this is their chance. When people love your product don’t fuck with them. Or they will grab a glass of wine and pitchfork marshmallows over your burning company. Again, it’s all about perception of arrogance and not giving in to consumer privacy groups, etc. Facebook people are awesome, we just have some brand work to do and stop listening to old school marketing boomers.
Twitter, Foursquare, Groupon: G+ just does it better. Google Offers, Places, Maps, Hotpot, G+. If all of these will become intelligently integrated it can conquer the local market.
Linkedin: G+ offers a very simple way to organize and contact people. 3rd party APIs will allow adding layers of intelligence and communication that have the potential to make the professional network obsolete. This is great news since now Likedin has the capital to invest into interface improvements and innovate a bit on the business model side.
Apple: Open web vs Closed web. The market share of Android is more than double of that of iOS and it will only get bigger. Nevertheless Apple is a very smart company with a lot of cash in hand. Very often Apple will test consumers with the closest posible option then it starts opening it up. So I am not very worried about them.
5. It’s not only about technology and innovation.
Too much innovation kills products. Larry brought Google back to basics. Simple, greatly intuitive interfaces or already in use by other products.
6. Engagement, new connections, recommendations
Anybody who used G+ will tell you. The engagement of this network is unprecedented. It goes beyond Twitter, Facebook and any other network. Users have the chance to start anew with hundreds of new connections (the Facebook friends list will naturally be built over time, same with Linkedin). If there is one thing other social networks should envy is this crazy engagement and the possibility of creating private lists (circles).
7. Content
On G+ anything goes. Period.
8. Integration
The secret lies in the integration of all Google’s products. It is a difficult game, dropping products that are loved in order to create a consistent social media network. Google is known for not being good at integrating their core products with new ones. The G+ launch success probably made them realize that there is a great need in the market and that users want Google to answer it. Now they only have to deliver and to not disappoint.
Conclusion
G+ is the shit and you should definitely try it.
Building a successful social network is hard. And finally Google seem to have a chance of making one. There are plenty of variables that can change the outcome of our analysis, however one thing is clear: the King of the web is back and is about to conquer social.
Oh, here is my G+ account: http://gplus.to/joker. Circle me!
So where’s that +1 cause I don’t feel like “Like”-ing stuff anymore? (if you know what I mean; and of course you do)