Google+ and Marketing

Google+ is a new social sharing platform developed by Google that promises to occupy an important piece of social media field dominated by Facebook and Twitter. This is new, unclaimed territory for Google and they want to make it big and revolutionary.

It's About Quality, Not Reach

Google+ will shape online marketing by taking the focus away from general popularity to interest specificity. First of all, Google+ enables a more selective sharing of information using Circles. It allows users to organize contacts by specific parameters that they can define. It means that online marketing will have to be done focusing on quality and not on large audiences, as in the cases of Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, Google+ Sparks feature allows users to connect with each other through certain common interests that they define in their profile. It means that efficient online marketing will have to penetrate Google+ by delivering specific high-quality content addressed to an audience with high expectations, but also enthusiastic about the subject or product. This approach is very different from targeting general audiences on Facebook and Twitter, but might prove more effective. For more on this, check out this article by Gizmodo on how Google+ changes sharing behavior online.

There are some social media experts that believe that Google should not venture into unknown territory. Although Google+ has some new exciting features, the company's expertise is centered around organizing information, not people. There are voices that say Google should focus on improving their search optimization to address problems related to keyword manipulated scraped content placed on low-quality websites. If Google could somehow tie their success with Search and Gmail to social information management through Google+, they might change the face of online marketing and social media soon. More information on Google+ and Google's new search algorithm from this recent Washington Post article and for specific advice on B2B marketing from from Business 2 Community's website.

Changing Landscape and Competition

With the new privacy features, interest specific threads and advanced video and mobile communication capabilities, Google+ seems to be a step ahead of the competition, but people should not expect that Facebook or Twitter will do nothing about it. This might provoke an intense battle of ideas that will change the way social media marketing is done.