This week, a Google+ invitation is in high demand across the web industry. Google opened the service on Tuesday to a small group, by invitation only, describing it as a "field trial". By Wednesday, the tech blogs were covering little else. Wikipedia already has a Google+ article, which illustrates how quickly this is moving.
Based on the screenshots and reports, the product is well executed and, in many respects, cleaner than Facebook. The central concept is Circles: users sort contacts into groups (friends, family, work, fellow divers) and choose which circle sees each post. Hangouts allow free group video calls, a particularly useful feature for anyone living far from most of the people they know.
For businesses, the question arose quickly: should we be on it?
What does Google+ offer businesses at this stage?
At this stage, the answer is no, because it is not possible. Google+ is designed for individuals and offers no business version. Some companies are creating personal-style profiles regardless. We advise against this: the platform belongs to Google, which sets the rules. If Google determines that these profiles violate them, they will be removed. A proper business option is likely to appear sooner or later; we recommend waiting for it.
The +1 button appeared in March on search results, and this month on websites. Google clearly intends to link social signals to search. The SEO community is already discussing +1s as a future ranking factor, and the risk of falling behind in Google for businesses absent from Google+.
This hypothesis has not been confirmed. We recommend caution toward anyone who claims certainty on the matter.
How can you test a new social network without putting the business at risk?
The sensible answer is methodical, which may seem unexciting in the current climate.
Test it by allocating a small, fixed time budget, for example one hour a week. Establish a presence once it is permitted, post some of what you already publish elsewhere, and observe who responds. If your customers are there and they engage, increase your investment. If, after a few months, there is no activity, little has been lost.
Define your success criteria before you begin: enquiries that mention the network, visits from it to your own site (which Google Analytics will show), and comments from actual customers rather than other marketers. Without written criteria at the outset, the assessment will rest on how active the network feels, and a new network always feels active in its first month. Activity from the wrong audience has no value for the business.
We advise against a small business with two employees rebuilding its entire marketing around a network launched three days ago.
Why watch your customers rather than the tech press?
This is the essential point. This week, Google+ is populated mainly by technology professionals, developers, photographers and social media consultants, the people who write blogs. The blogs therefore report that everyone is on Google+.
The people booking dive trips are not on Google+. They are on Facebook, looking at their friends' holiday photos, and on TripAdvisor. They use Google search, but they are not familiar with Circles and would likely have little interest in them.
For a business, the question is never whether a network is growing. It is whether your customers are there, and whether they interact with businesses there. For most small tourism businesses we know, the answer today is no. This may change; we recommend reassessing in six months.
What lesson does the MySpace sale, the same week, offer?
The timing is particularly telling. Yesterday, News Corp sold MySpace, reportedly for about $35 million. It had acquired it for around $580 million in 2005.
A few years ago, bands, bars and small businesses were told that a MySpace presence was essential. Many invested considerable effort in their profiles: custom layouts, music, friends lists, years of posts. Those customers are now mostly on Facebook. The businesses that had concentrated all their communication on MySpace are starting over elsewhere, with little content to carry across.
This is not a criticism of Google+. It is a well-designed product, and Google has the resources and patience to promote it vigorously. That is precisely why the lesson matters. A network can be good, well funded and busy, and still not become the place your customers end up. And a platform has no obligation to you if it declines.
Why does your mailing list outlast every network?
The one element that withstands all these changes is the email list. MySpace rose and fell. Facebook changes how Pages work every few months. Google+ may or may not succeed. A business that holds its customers' email addresses can reach them in any circumstance, without depending on a third party.
The same applies to your website: it remains stable while everything else changes.
Here are our recommendations for this week, and likely for the next new network as well, since there will be others:
- Request an invitation if the service interests you, and try it personally first.
- Publish your content on your own site first, then share it outward.
- Give any new network a small time budget and a decision date.
- Keep building your list.
If you do not yet have a list, we recommend starting there, before any new platform. An email newsletter for a small business does not need to be weekly or elaborate. It needs to exist, and to belong to you.
The Circles concept is a sound idea, and Google+ is worth exploring personally. At this stage, however, it does not justify moving a business's presence there.