Why Google can’t let + #FAIL

By Antonio Petra

The future of the web is connected platforms. This is a bold statement, I know, but it is human nature to need parameters whilst at the same time revolt against institutions whose parameters are too onerous. No one platform can ever be an entire digital experience for users, for many reasons, aside from the one I’ve stated above.

What Google+ aims to do is create a layer on top of the internet, a layer which incorporates the connectedness of Facebook while simultaneously breaking down the walls that social platforms require in order to curate the experience of their users. In a sense Google+ is simply a situation where you can have your cake and eat it. Your cake is the connectedness of social media combined with the great experiences on the web you still love (like your favourite news sites) but are outside of the walled garden of social media websites.

You could argue that Facebook Connect gives you this, but Connect is really a way of pushing experiences or content back into Facebook. This, admittedly, is actually an effective way of sharing content. The fact is though it is more biased towards keeping you within the eco–system of Facebook. This is one of the many reasons big brands have simply given up the fight and have shifted their presence into Facebook — it’s really to avoid a conversion hurdle of getting people out of Facebook and into their websites.

In a sense it’s pretty easy to build a Facebook, several clones exist, however the biggest challenge that Google+ faces is in attracting users, and it is an incredible challenge when users are spoilt for choice. It’s why all the clones never amount to Facebook’s success — they may have better features but they can’t attract the audience. I’m not undermining how brilliant Facebook actually is, it has been incredible in terms of foresight into the human need to connect and be heard, and first to market with many features we take for granted today. What I am saying is that all the current criticism over Google+’s obvious Facebook-type features are actually pointless, they’re a ridiculous feature comparison which is biased by what the authors know and are used to versus what is new and maybe a little threatening.

Start up the marketing machine
So basically Google will need to drive users to Google+ in order to make it work. They know now that the subtle coolness of simply putting the product out there for people to discover won’t work (see Google Wave), they also know that simply opting in their entire Gmail user base will also not work (see Google Buzz). Hopefully they have realised it’s a combination of good, old-fashioned marketing and a dose of coolness — and omnipresence doesn’t hurt either.

Google has recently woken up to the power of marketing the brand. The success of Google’S $5-million Super Bowl advert (broadcast in February 2010) has had an impact on the way Google thinks about brand advertising. In a recent interview Eric Schmidt, executive chairperson of Google, actually said that the ad paid for itself. “We turned a Super Bowl ad into a ROI phenomenon,” he said.

Just to emphasise this point, + is actually a part of a wave at Google which includes a major re-design of all user interfaces, along with the rebranding of two of their major products. For a company of Google’s size, with its user base, that is a big statement to make. It means they’re taking the comfort of their users very seriously.

Why Google+ has to work:

Three strikes, you’re out!
This is a pride issue for Google. As every tech journalist has pointed out, this is round three of Google’s social media experiment. They have failed rather spectacularly before so I believe this is the make or break and they will throw whatever their $65-billion dollar machine has to throw at it. If they don’t succeed the only way they could get into social media is to buy into the competition, and this would probably prove more expensive a strategy than throwing a bunch of cash at making Google+ work.

Also, the competition is a complex arrangement of competitors, so it may not even be an option. At the moment the stakes seem high, several articles in the months leading up to the launch of Google+ asked whether Google is actually just a search company. I often express my irritation with this statement, because even if Google is just a search company, it’s a damn profitable one. This statement is akin to saying Coca Cola is just a sugary beverage. By making this statement, journalists are ignoring the true money machine behind Google. Google is not a search company — its money spinner is Pay Per Click (PPC).
The golden age of search
This brings me to the second reason Google needs to make Google+ work. The day the PPC model is threatened is the day Google will shrug its shroud of apparent complacency and become more aggressive in its approach to social media.

Frankly, I think that day is dawning. The reason for this is that we are experiencing a third fundamental shift in the way we “discover” content. The first phase in the early nineties was when we used to browse around for content. The second phase came in the mid to late nineties when search engines began helping us find content and the third phase began a few years ago with the arrival of social media.

This phase is predominantly a referral phase and PPC revenue can only be negatively affected by a referral-based community. Search has essentially become pretty cluttered and the race to ensure that search results are relevant is being closely run by Google, Affiliates, and Content Farms. However, if Google+ is actually successful it will give Google the opportunity to prolong a PPC-type system.

Because of this we are still to see the Golden Age of Search. Machines and the people who craft the Google Algorithm both seem to be getting smarter every 18 months.

Brands and agencies are scrambling to determine exactly how Google+ will affect their digital presence. I have already received countless emails from clients asking when we’re going to integrate Google+ and when we can show them the new Social Analytics data from the Google Analytics dash that has just been released. It’s not surprising considering Google+ gained 10-million followers in just 16 days, compared to Twitter’s 780 days and Facebook’s 852 days to reach the same amount. Google is indeed a force to be reckoned with.

Antonio Petra is Head of Insight at NATIVE and has worked in the digital environment for the past 15 years, with experience in online marketing, strategy, brand building, and analytics. His focus is developing and implementing measurement frameworks and diagnostic tools for large companies to assess their digital platform value and performance.