Google+ for Business and Beyond

Google+ is the latest and greatest social media mousetrap to hit the streets since Facebook overtook porn on the Internet.

As many already know, Google+ is now in Beta with an estimated 10+M users at the time of this post. If you are interested in marketing your business on the Internet, then you might want to pay attention to Google+!

Google+, Business and Beyond
Google+, Business and Beyond

Google Plus was expected to hit 10 million users according to Paul Allen, Chief Revenue Officer at FamilyLink as cited in a recent post on Google+ published at Buzzom.com. That is one heck of a beta test! Google’s official position, as represented below by Google+ Product Manager Christian Oestlien, is that businesses should be patient and hold off on creating Google+ profiles for their brands, for now at least.

In the video below published by Google+ product management along with the accompanying Google+ blog post, according to Christian, the reason that Google is urging brands to exercise patience is because he states that the Google+ product team is currently focusing on user experience.

Google+ Product Manager Christian Oestlien on Current Focus of Google+ product team

The Google+ product management position makes logical sense as until user adoption reaches critical mass, Google+ relevancy to business beyond positive SEO impacts are currently unclear. That said, you can easily add a Google+ button to your website or blog without having to create a Google+ profile, just like you can add a facebook like button to a website or blog without needing a fan page. Thus eBiz ROI recommends that publishers and businesses with websites deploy the Google+ button to be able to reap the potential traffic and SEO benefits of users Google+ (aka Liking) your post. If you need help, contact us and we would be glad to assist.

According to Mashable, some significant brands are already hopping aboard including Ford, Breaking News and Mashable themselves creating Google+ profiles even against the Google advise.

As illustrated see from the following information from BrightEdge Research based on a recent survey, we can see that savvy publishers are already adopting and placing Google+ social pluggin (buttons) on their websites, probably in anticipation of broad user adoption over time, not necessarily overnight. Based on recent findings from BrightEdge Research looking at the Adoption of Social Plugins by Top Websites,image source: Adotas: Google’s +1 Shows Impressive Pub-Adoption Rate.

Adoption of Social Plugins by Top Websites
Adoption of Social Plugins by Top Websites

It is clearly evident that while deployment of the facebook like plugin (aka Like Button) by top publishers is still by far the leader at 10.8%, recent gains by the facebook like plugin over the period show only modest growth in adoption (.3%) while Google+ with an adoption rate of 4.5% surged ahead 3 full per-centage points which represents 350% growth over their previous 1% Google+ adoption by top publishers. Who would expect anything less form a dominant player like Google? The justice department?;-) Click the image above or BrightEdge post entitled Google +1 Sees Surge in Placement on Web’s Largest Sites, but Facebook Still Dominant Social Plug-In to read more about the BridgeEdge Research findings.

To those saying that Google+ will never catch up to facebook in terms of active users, I say look at the usage data. According to latest traffic (unique site visitors/month) data from Compete.com one can imagine how Google has the reach to catch up. Can you say Google Chrome? What about Android? I realize that facebook is the Mount Everest of social networks, but Google is the Goliath of search, analytics, video ala YouTube, etc. Nuf said.

US Traffic for Google vs. Facebook Measured in Unique Visitors per Month

US Traffic for Google vs. Facebook as Measured in Monthly Unique Visitors | Compete.com
US Traffic for Google vs. Facebook as Measured in Monthly Unique Visitors | Compete.com

Google.com remains more visited in the US than facebook.com, providing them the reach they will need to get distribution for campaigns to expand their search relationships into social. Given that Google was shut out of the facebook data that their prime search competitor, Microsoft Bing has, it will be a strong driver for Google to both increase user adoption of Google+ while using the data as a factor in their search algorithm, which I assume is a key driver for Google as a company.

eBiz ROI adoption of Google+

You might have noticed when arriving at this post that eBiz ROI has placed a Google+ button on our Internet marketing blog and a Google+ button on each blog post (see at the top of the post) by not on our business website. Yet.

eBiz ROI and our readers love to hear from other businesses and Internet marketing practitioners in terms of how they are leveraging Google+ to promote their business and build out their circles. We are also interesting in hearing about any observed impacts to the Google natural search results based on Google+ feedback and +1s (don’t you just want to say like

Why not join the conversation and tell us what you think about Google+, how you are using it and what factors, if any, you think make Google+ something that Internet marketers should pay attention to.

About

Rick Noel is an experienced digital marketer enabling businesses and organizations to grow through the Internet, while maximizing marketing ROI (Return On Investment). Rick is the CEO and Co-Founder of eBiz ROI, Inc., a full-service digital marketing agency located in Ballston Lake, NY.

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