Google Plus Business Pages - Short Of Expectations?
| November 30, 2021 | Posted by Prasant under SMUpdate |
Can you tell me what is associated with these two dates June 28 and November 7, 2011? The question becomes simple if you are a product guy or a crazy social network guy.
June 28, 2022- Google launches its new social network ‘Google plus’ for users.
November 7, 2021- Google officially launches Google plus brand pages or business pages for business.
What happened with Google plus in these five months was no less than a melodramatic Bollywood movie. The world went mad to have a Google plus invite. People proudly boasted and according to one story, people were also selling invites on eBay. End result Google hit the jackpot and within two months the user base touched crazy numbers. At the same time, I was proud to be an Indian as we were being labeled as early adopters. India was the second country after US in terms of adoption of Google plus.(via)
On the other end there was a plethora of articles, blog posts, etc. from gurus telling the whole world how Google plus is going to change things, how social will drive search, how can brands benefit from the new social network, etc. Chris Brogan went on to delete his Facebook fan page and announced that he is moving on to Google plus as he thought it is the future. Our home grown digital media guru, Pradeep Chopra shared an amazing article on AFAQS where he wrote about what brands can expect from Google plus. Integrating Google plus with other Google products and digital advertising were some of the key takeaways for myself.
But everyone including it’s competitors, businesses, etc. were asking the next big question - when can we have business pages for Google plus?
Finally after five months of its official launch on November 7, Google plus launched its business pages. People were excited, Twitter timelines were trending with Google plus business pages expecting something big from Google but alas the version 1.0 wasn’t that mind blowing and an out-of-the-box innovation. Adhvith Dhuddu, CEO of AliveNow who was also excited initially was left disappointed.
Was very excited about Google+ launching business pages. I was expecting much more and am quite disappointed with what I’ve seen so far. No path-breaking features, no unique functionalities, overall not very exciting.
When it is Google, you expect more and among other reasons to kill this excitement, one of the main reason was the prolonged wait for the launch. Preetham Venkky, The Asia Head of KRDS thinks the same too:
Think G+ pages move was the next logical step but the issue is that it seems to have launched a tad too late. 5 months post launch is a LOT of time in the current internet world. Looking at the current buzz, the common user will not even notice (or care) about the launch. All the initial steam has fizzled.
But not everyone was disappointed, lot of them loved the new move by Google and were upbeat that Google plus is a perfect platform for brands. Vivek Bhargava, CEO of Communicate 2 is one of them and he adds this:
Most social media platforms reached the tipping point once celebrities joined them. The media budgets of Brands and the fan power of celebrity ends up promoting the platform. The benefit of Google plus is that it is a twitter and Facebook into the same platform, the other advantage is that brands can easily group people into Prospects, customers, great customer kind of circles, thus content can be segregated based on your involvement with the brand. I think Google + features are perfect for Brands as it allows them to control their social media endeavors better. I love the ability of brands to put prospects, customers, good customers and great customers into different circles and communicate with accordingly.
Circles are undoubtedly a brilliant feature of Google plus and Vivek has well pointed that but this feature could also lead to a problem which Preetham shared. Preetham also considers that the business pages have been a complete rip off of the Facebook pages.
Everything seems to be ripped off from FB Pages except the Hangout feature, so I don’t find it entirely interesting. Except there is the problem of adding Pages to circles. I call it a problem since people can create a SPAM circle and add all the brands to that; and not really visit the circle
Content challenge is already there in other social networks and that will be the same for Google plus too. However, I am also aware that Google plus brand pages have just hatched now and we need to give some more time before we think it is a #fail product. Adhvith is hoping the same too and wishes that Google will come up with some exciting features sooner or later.
I think this is just in the beta stage and will be curious to see how they navigate going forward. Although I am disappointed now, you never know Google and within a few months some fantastic features might make Google+ business pages a social weapon to reckon with. I say that Google+ business pages is partially dead on arrival, but it can script a comeback within months with new features, functionalities and it requires some “wow” in them.
Personally, I have spent some time on the Google plus brand pages and definitely it has a great future but it needs to evolve fast and bring in really great ‘WOW’ features. For me some of them that I look forward to are as follows:
1. Easy customizable brand pages depending on business needs.
2. Full fledged launch of Google plus API and support for third party applications.
3. Paid Media strategy. A thought that was shared by Preetham.
4. Integration of Google Analytics with the business pages.
I wish that the version 2.0 of Google plus is a quick one in this fast paced internet world. Until then, Google plus business pages are really not exciting. Even a Shahrukh Khan endorsement won’t help Google plus in India.
So how effectively are you using Google plus and what new features you wish it had?
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http://lighthouseinsights.in/ Prasant Naidu
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