Within the last few weeks, two major players in the social media world have offered significant updates in their current offerings. Google’s Google+ project and Facebook’s new videoconferencing capabilities both have implications for marketers. Let’s take a look at each and see why.
Google+
Google has been trying, unsuccessfully, for some time to tackle social media. Google Wave never got off the drawing board and when Google Buzz launched in early 2010, it was plagued by data privacy issues and quickly faded. This time it looks like Google has finally got it right with Google+. Here are some key elements of the new social media network:
- Circles: Google+ provides you with a dashboard for organising your own social media networks. It is a simple drag and drop operation that allows you to build as many different social media circles as you like (for example, a work-related circle, a family-related circle, a political circle and so on) - all from one central point.
- Sparks: Google+ publishes streamed content you can respond to, with whatever sparks your interest.
- Hang-outs: Google+ gives users video conferencing capability, integrated right in to the social network.
- Huddle: This is an instant messengering option that provides Twitter-like functionality.
- Google+ supports their own Android platform and presumably will support other platforms too.
So what are the implications for marketers? First the demographics which were initially overwhelming male, is quickly shifting, with one-third of users now women. Even though Google+ is still in beta, it already has about 10 million users. Google can easily push search engine users and the almost 200 million Gmail account holders towards Google+. In other words, it's potentially the biggest thing to hit social since Facebook! Here’s a link to the developer’s blog for more on Google+.
Facebook Videoconferencing
Speaking of Facebook, they aren’t resting on their laurels either. About the same time Google+ was rolled out, Facebook announced it had teamed up with Skype to offer videoconferencing. Users can now use their webcams to use Skype to talk to friends and family. While not as big an evolution in their product as Google, Facebook has still just given 600 million users the ability to use Facebook as a real-time personal communication platform. Here’s the news from the official Facebook blog.
What does all this mean for your marketing? It means there’s a whole raft of reasons for your customers and prospects to spend even more of their time in social media. Social media is, with the exception of LinkedIn, a very female-oriented part of the internet. What’s your plan to reach them there? Digital Chameleon is currently developing a new online learning suite focused just on learning how to use social media effectively in your marketing. Stay tuned for details or drop me a line (patty@digitalchameleon.net) if you’re interested in more details!
