Social Media Optimization – Google+ Is About Survival

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 6:03 pm

Social Media Optimization – Google+ is About Survival

Google+ has been available, in limited rollout, for three weeks now. Membership reached 10 million in the first 2 weeks alone. Reports are that it’s already approaching 20 million. Compare that to LinkedIn’s 100 million members, and you can project it’s adoption will explode as it becomes widely available.

Did Google introduce Google+ just to gain a part of the social network pie that FaceBook created? If that’s the case, it certainly makes sense when you consider the following:

Facebook.com average user figures and facts:

FaceBook has over 750 million members
Facebook generates a staggering 770 billion page views per month
Average FaceBook user
- has 130 friends on the site
- sends 8 friend requests per month
- spends an average 15 hours and 33 minutes on Facebook per month
- visits the site 40 times per month
- spends an 23 minutes (23:20 to be precise) on each visit
- is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
- creates 90 pieces of content each month
- 200 million people access Facebook via a mobile device each day
- More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared each day
- Users that access Facebook on mobile devices are twice as active as compared to non-mobile users

Google+ has all the basic look, feel, and features of FaceBook. It adds some new venues, like Circles, Sparks, and Hangouts. These seem to go FaceBook one better than some of its existing features. They also expose Google’s larger objective. Learning more about people’s habits and relationships. Why?

Google’s Objectives for Google+

To preserve its position in web dominance. FaceBook fractured the web; creating a search web and a social web. The social web has grown rapidly in the last 5 years, at the expense of the search web.
To redefine itself. Google, while only 12 years old, is seen as the old guard. FaceBook is seen as newer, cooler, more relevant.
To improve its search technology algorithm. It needs social data to better determine where a web site should rank. Its current algorithm, while solid, can be manipulated by web sites using standard SEO tactics.
To expand its search inventory. FaceBook users share more than 4 billion piece of content with each other. Most of this is unavailable to Google. FaceBook knows what it’s members are reading, watching, doing. Google does not. Google has suspended real time search, at least in the short term. Its contract with Twitter expired at the same time it was introducing Google+. Expect Google+ posts to fill this gap shortly.
To improve the credibility of its search results. Search results don’t carry the weight of recommendations made with the FaceBook Like button.
To deliver targeted content to targeted audiences, resulting in higher revenues from advertisers. Companies can target ads on FaceBook to specific demographics. Coupons and Like counts provide valuable marketing data.

While Google+ obviously copies many of FaceBook’s features, it:

Adds venues like Circles, Hangouts, Huddles, and Sparks that expand the social network experience.
It adds the Google +1 button to gather user preferences and recommendations. Google+1 recommendations, on your Google publlic profile, provide content to its search engine.
It adds the ability to target posts to specific audiences. More importantly posts can be public, adding to its search engine’s available content.