Google launches social network – Google +

Google+ is the latest of a series of efforts that integrate social media into Google’s products. Prior to its launch, most of Google’s ventures only offered social features such as commenting and sharing on other social media platforms. From YouTube to blogger.com, to the image sharing platform Picasa and the social search Aardvark, Google’s efforts have been social for a number of years.

What Google lacked was a unified social strategy that can help it stay ahead of the game and offer something better than its competitors to its main clients: advertisers.

Clearly distinguishing itself from Facebook’s platform, Google+ introduces the concept of ‘circles’ to facilitate users’ ability to organise friends in customised groups, such as friends, family or colleagues. Users may then control privacy settings for each circle, share content only in that particular circle. To include a person in a circle, users have to simply drag the picture of the person into the appropriate category.

Perhaps one of the most obviously competitive feature of the + Project is the ‘+1’ button, first introduced on search results and articles in the style of Facebook’s ‘Like’ button. This little button is aimed at giving ‘social feedback’ to content owners and if used correctly can be a powerful game changer for Google: unlike Facebook, the company can integrate the data generated from billions of +1 clicks into your web search results, making the experienced even more highly personalized. 

Unlike Google Buzz, which made the mistake of integrating within Gmail’s Inbox with an aggressive opt-out strategy, Google+ doesn’t feel like the effort of a company born out of desperation to stay relevant. It offers a genuinely thought-out experience, a clean intuitive interface, and an alternative to the information overload that is now dragging down other social networks. 

Ultimately, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google are great tools to use as social marketing strategies. With the growth of new technology in the past decade or so, social networks have become a part of people's daily lives. As a marketing tool, social networks can be seen as a bit impersonal, the exposure and range of prospective clients that an advertisement can reach through an online social network can greatly improve clientele. Companies nowadays need to be ‘of the web’ not simply ‘on the web.’ Social media has helped usher in a new model: user-generated content plus platform equals interest. Between blog posts, status updates, tweets, check-ins, and videos, there’s a whole lot of content a click away that can distract your potential audience. Knowing what the latest-up-and coming social network or service is going to be is key to remaining competitive.