First Impressions of Google+

Everyone knows that first impressions are vital, so how did Google+ do? WebProNews posed this question to numerous search and social media leaders and received a variety of responses. Loren Baker, the Vice President of Services at BlueGlass, told us that Google+ felt like a “private version of Facebook” but with a better user interface. He also pointed out that it had given people the ability to “reset” as far as selecting who to include in circles and who not to include.

When Facebook opened to the general public, most users tried to get as many friends as possible regardless of whether a relationship existed or not. Baker believes that people have gotten smarter now and are using Google+ more selectively.

Social media speaker and author Mari Smith added that there seemed to be a “different vibe inside Google+” since users were sharing more and having “more thoughtful conversation.”

One interesting aspect that Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, noticed was that it appeared to be a big traffic driver. What’s even more interesting is that the amount of time that users spent on his site to read the post he had shared was 4 times the amount that people were staying when they came from Facebook or Twitter. He said that this data was especially noteworthy since Facebook and Twitter were usually strong sources of quality traffic.

Google Makes Progress in Social

Although Google has struggled to get into the social space, Google+ appears to be its golden ticket. As many people have pointed out, the platform looks very similar to Facebook and has similar sharing aspects as well. However, it seems to flow more like Twitter.

At this point, it looks like Google+ is trying to re-produce the features that users favor on the other networks, expand on them somewhat, and also capitalize on their shortcomings. Steve Rubel, the EVP of Global Strategy and Insights for Edelman, told us that these developments have created a different type of social experience that is peaking the interest of users.

“This is their first entry that they’ve had that is really serious [and] that people are really using a lot,” he said. “It’s a very open approach that I wish others would take.”

On the other hand, Li Evans, the CEO and Co-founder of LiBeck Integrated Marketing, told us that, while Google+ is a better attempt at social than its previous efforts, its value proposition is still lacking.

“What is the value proposition? What do I get from Google+?” she asked.

She went on to say that, at this point, she did not see the same value on Google+ that she sees in Facebook and LinkedIn.

Google+ Vs. Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter

Because of the positive feedback that the platform has gotten, it is only natural that people are questioning how Google+ will faceoff against the other social networks. Tech analyst Rob Enderle recently told us that Facebook had an advantage over Google+ since it had the majority of users.

But, as we all know, Myspace was the biggest social network when Facebook began. Enderle indicated that, if Facebook wasn’t careful, it could fall to Google+, just as Myspace did to it.

While Barry Schwartz, the CEO of RustyBrick, speaks very highly of Google+, he doesn’t think that Facebook has anything to worry about.

“I don’t think Google+ will kill Facebook going forward, I think, Facebook will still be very strong… probably the strongest player in that market,” he said.

Rubel doesn’t see Facebook dying to Google+ either. He thinks it has promise but said he had some doubts too.

“There’s no doubt that it’s going to be a strong #3 or #4,” said Rubel. “Whether it goes mainstream… the jury’s out. I don’t see that happening so fast.”

Smith also agreed that Facebook should not be worried about Google+. She did, however, say that, while it would always be an important player, she could see Facebook losing its #1 spot in the social space.

“If Facebook could just launch a powerful search engine, it would be fierce competition right back at ya for Google,” she said.

She went to say that Twitter, even though it needed improvements, was also a valuable product that would not likely fall to Google+.

Odden believes that Twitter is very effective as well for both business and personal usage. He explained to us that the propagation that happens on Twitter is very different that the closed environment of Google+

“Google+ is all about Google,” he said. “It’s not about propagating externally so much, whereas Twitter, is completely wide open.”

He did add that, if Twitter and Facebook were smart, they would find ways to work with Google+.

Incidentally, Facebook has seemingly responded to Google+ with its group chat release and video chat feature. It also announced a new page called Facebook for Business, which some believe was to counter Google’s shut down of business accounts.

When Google+ does roll out its business option, Baker told us that he could see it having a “competitive advantage” over Facebook if it incorporates Google products such as Deals, Latitude, and Places. He also said that if Google+ is fully integrated into mobile devices and Android, it could have the same penetration that Gmail has. Since Android dominates the mobile market, he thinks that Google+ has the potential to grow exponentially.

Wishlist of Further Development

Despite its extensive growth rate, Google+ has had its problems in its short existence. There have been privacy concerns in regards to user names, and there was also disappointment that the service launched without support for many Google Apps. The lack of business product was, of course, another basis for complaint.

So, what else would people like to see from Google+? Baker told us that he has had issues with Google+ since he has both a personal Gmail account and an apps Gmail account. For this reason, he would like for Google to converge the two accounts together.

On the topic of search, he said he would like more integration of Google+ into the search results. He suggested that Google cater search results based on each users’ Circles.

Evans and Odden both told us they would like to see more sharing capabilities. Rubel also said that the mobile experience has to improve. He would  like to have Hangouts move beyond 10 people as well.

Smith believes that Sparks needs a lot of work. Additionally, she wants Google to allow developers to have access to its API in order to create tools and other features on top of the platform.

Odden said he understood that Google was trying to produce a product especially for businesses, but he thinks that, in the mean time, businesses should be allowed to have a profile. As he explained, Google could then give them a migration tool to transfer information, once a business option is available.

Google definitely has a ways to go, but it’s clear that the company is dedicated to Google+ and succeeding in the social space.

“Google has not said this is a fully baked product,” said Rubel. “They’ve said it’s a field trial patience is a virtue.”

The Internet has created more than one new way to reach your and engage your audience:

• companies can now publish their own content
• consumers have a voice
• influential digital news properties, like The Huffington Post, Mashable and Tech Crunch, have emerged

Which is a good thing, since research now shows that to effect behavioral change, people have to see or hear something at least 3 -5 times.  In developed countries, where there is so much more information overload, that figure jumps to 9 times!

To reach your audience in multiple ways Rubel advises that you work your content across four inter-related media platforms:

1. The first is Traditional Media, which still has influence.
2. The next is the Digital News Media -  make sure that your content appears in the relevant digital news outlets that have sprung up.
3. Owned Media – Every company can, and should, be a media company – in addition to their core business. Create blogs and curate industry news.  Set up  a social media online newsroom that invites people in and creates spaces for them to find and share content that interests them.  Connect them to one another.
4. Social Media – Spread the right content to the right people using social platforms and feeds.

All of which creates a trans-media storytelling strategy that will connect with your audience in multiple places and create those 5 – 9 touch points needed to get their attention and move them to action.

Originally published at the proactive report

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rubel and Kawasaki, Rubel is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman – the world’s largest independent PR firm. Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, and the author of eight books. Both are well known for their blogs "Micro Persuasion" and "How to Change the World", respectively.

The two talked a bit about Kawasaki’s company Alltop through muffled audio, and then shifted the focus to Yahoo!, who Kawasaki says "has its own share of problems." He said that if Microsoft offered him that much money, he would take it. He then went on to talk about all the PR pitches he gets.

The two of them spoke a bit about Twitter next. "Alltop would not be what it is without Twitter. Twitter has changed my life. It’s a weapon." Rubel on the other hand has trouble managing Twitter apparently.

Rubel asked Kawasaki if he would consider returning to Apple (he was once an "Apple Fellow"), to which he replied, "Apple doesn’t need me if it has Steve [Jobs]." He did say that Apple should be more open with the iPhone, and "let it all hang out."

The topic was shifted again, this time to Jason Calacanis. Guy asked the audience how many people used Mahalo. Only three people indicated that they did. The crowd erupted in laughter.

Finally, they talked about SEO, and Kawasaki gave his best piece of advice: "I don’t know much about SEO, so my philosophy is “Write good s***!"

WebProNews anchor Abby Prince-Johnson contributed to this article.

Editor’s Note: Steve is a former blog partner of WebProNews. As such, we held off on this story for a couple of days to await comment. That comment hasn’t come, but we imagine it’s like asking a star running back how he feels about fumbling. Fair enough, right?

A week ago, at 5:44 a.m., Rubel posted on his Twitter page the following:

PC Mag is another. I have a free sub but it goes in the trash

It’s a short pair of sentences long on impact: short because Twitter is for stream-of-consciousness blogging with entries limited to 140 characters; impacting because Rubel is a big player at Edelman, a PR firm representing Microsoft, Palm, Mozilla, Adobe, among others that like PC Magazine’s 11 million subscribers.

That takes it well beyond an idle (public and permanent) statement to 1,600 Rubel Twitter-thought followers (isn’t interesting we live in a time where people can subscribe, basically, to your every thought as you type them? Is that narcissism, idol worship, boredom, or progress?).

CNet was the antecedent to "another," posted at 5:43 a.m., when Rubel asked if anybody still read them. CNet doesn’t appear to have been offended.

But PC Magazine Editor in Chief Jim Louderback was incensed at the remark, posting a long response on Strumpette.com (Strumpette boiled it down to "systemic Tourette’s.") Louderback, who promptly canceled Rubel’s free subscription, asked if an Edelman boycott would be overacting:

But then I started thinking about what this means for our relationship with Edelman. One of the company’s top execs had stated, in a public forum, that my magazine (and by extension, my audience) was useless to him. He wasn’t even interested in seeing whether we’d covered one of his clients. Did the rest of Edelman think like Steve? Were we no better than fishwrap to the entire company?

Rubel was quick to post an apology on his "Micro Persuasion" blog:

I learned a valuable lesson. Post too fast without providing context and it can elicit an unintended response. While the item is true, it does not reflect my full media consumption habits. I subscribe to PC Mag RSS feeds and have linked to several of your publication’s online articles over the three years I have been writing this blog. Further, I have linked to articles from eWeek, your sister site.

Rubel’s been light on the blog posting this week, and seems to have stopped Twittering altogether. His last post was dated and timed 8:40 p.m., April 18 (note to self: to solidify alibi, sign up for Twitter account), less than 24 hours after he posted his apology.

The length of time between Twitters is significant since Rubel has been a fairly constant Twitterer for some time.

Some other, now sadly ironic, Rubel Twitters in hours before the overreaction (yeah, overreaction, because everybody goofs up from time to time):

Someone told me they miss my feverish twittering. Damn work; damn you. kidding. I love my gig. 06:28 PM April 11, 2007

Quote of the day: "Be excellent to each other." 05:58 AM April 12, 2007

Not trying to be a downer today, but read this. Execs wary on 2.0. http://tinyurl.com/22aeb5 08:19 PM April 16, 2007

How come no one’s talking about "The Secret?" It’s becoming one of the biggest viral memes of all time. It started as a web movie. 06:47 PM April 10, 2007

Okay, so the last one’s not really ironic, just wanted to say, "because it was better the first time when it was called The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale." A lot’s changed in fifty years, but some things haven’t.

Keep your head up, Steve, and remember Mr. Peale’s advice, as paraphrased in Amazon’s book description: Faith in yourself makes good things happen to you.

And secondly, yes I totally understand that it was probably unwise of Steve to say that about PC Mag, seeing as how Edelman pitches companies to PC Mag, and that we all have to watch what we say now, Twitter is not like instant messaging, etc. etc. Totally get that. But still — what the hell is Jim Louderback doing posting a long commentary on what Rubel did to some anonymous PR gossip rag like Strumpette? He has his own website, although it currently just hosts a bio and some links. Why not put it there?

Better yet, why not post a comment on Steve’s blog, or send him an email? Or talk to Edelman privately? Instead, he posts it on Strumpette, and muses aloud about penalizing Edelman in some way — not to mention that he takes what Rubel said completely out of context. What kind of person does that? It’s like overhearing someone say something offhand on the streetcar and then writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. Bizarre.

Comments

Tag:

(Welcome, Steve!) In case you had missed the original post regarding the “newvoices” tag, which appeared here in July, 2005, here’s what I proposed:

At least once a week, do a very simple thing. Find someone to whom you’ve never linked before, link to them, and tag the post with the following tag: newvoices.

Then, either in your aggregator, on your MyYahoo page, or wherever you want, subscribe to a feed of newvoices-tagged posts. Here’s what’ll happen: the good, emerging folks will come to you. Now for the really cool part.

This is a self-dampening system. It can’t evolve an “A-List,” since once you’ve linked to someone and tagged that initial post with a “newvoices” tag, that individual ceases to be a new voice for you. The next time you link to them, don’t tag the new post in this way, since for you, it’s no longer new. However, the really smart, cool, funny insightful folks who emerge will gather a lot of “newvoices” tagged links as they become visible. (N.B. Even if someone else has pointed to somebody with a newvoices tag, you should too! It’s not a contest to see who’s first…it’s an endorsement of someone to whom you haven’t linked previously.)

When I originally proposed the idea in July of ’05, here were the stats for posts tagged “newvoices”:

• None on Technorati
• None on IceRocket
• One on del.icio.us.

Now (Jan2007) there are over a hundred on del.icio.us alone, and at least a few dozen on Technorati and IceRocket.

Let’s keep this going!

Thanks to Dan Greenfield, whose great marketing blog is Bernaise Source, for the tip! (Dan is my newvoice for the week, by the way.) Dan also writes about speedblogging, which can be thought of as a complement to the newvoices tag.

Comments

Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

Christopher Carfi, CEO and co-founder of Cerado, looks at sales, marketing, and the business experience from the customers point of view. He currently is focused on understanding how emerging social technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social networking are enabling the creation of new types of customer-driven communities. He is the author of the Social Customer Manifesto weblog, and has been occasionally told that he drives and snowboards just a little too quickly.

The fake blog, or “flog” as it was so neatly put by MediaPost, collected plenty of attention for things it didn’t say. Like its traveling bloggers were professional journalists, one a 25-year employee of the Washington Post. Or that its financial backing came from an organization created by Wal-Mart’s longtime PR firm, Edelman.

Answers were not forthcoming from Edelman’s people, either. The blogosphere picked up on that with several of the more widely followed blogs asking what happened here. Now, both Richard Edelman and Steve Rubel have responded.

This post came from Edelman today:

And this response arrived from Rubel:

Neither post provided any other information on the ill-fated blog, which in itself was not a bad idea in concept. Additional details would be informative to see how the decision was made to go forward and try to cloak the participants and the backing from the public.

There are a few troublesome details to the story, to which the late Walter Matthau’s quote in “JFK” comes to mind – “That dog don’t hunt.” First is The Post’s Jim Thresher asking his boss for time off for the project, without being completely forthcoming about its backing. Thresher is very fortunate Executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. is not asking for a resignation, at minimum, for the “misunderstanding” between Thresher and the photo editor.

Second, Rubel said he did not have a “personal role” in the project. Why not? Wasn’t Edelman’s whole point to bringing Rubel into the fold to have the kind of knowledge and expertise with blogging that would have avoided the problem here? Why wouldn’t CEO Edelman want his top blogging gun involved? With such a high profile client, why wouldn’t Rubel ask to be involved?

Last, why so long to come out and say “mea culpa maxima” when the story has been percolating for a week online? Neither Edelman nor Rubel offered any details in their posts. Why did it take a week to say “oops?”

Here is a snippet from the instructive draft of those WOMMA guidelines Edelman helped compose. This is from the section called Honesty of Relationship:

All of this could have been avoided easily with not just transparency, but an up-front discussion about what the traveling bloggers were doing. Wal-Mart is going to be criticized for virtually every action it takes anyway, so why not practice full disclosure up front, and say they are sending a couple of professional journalists on a RV trip to camp at Wal-Marts and talk to employees?

If that would have dissuaded Thresher and his partner Laura St. Claire, whose brother works for Edelman, from participating, there are plenty of people who would have taken their place. Critics will complain anyway (that is what they do) so why give them extra ammunition to do so?

It’s still a funny old world.

—

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.