I’ve been following Google’s launch of Google+ Pages for brands with some anxiety. I envisioned Social Marketers everywhere flocking to Google+ and spamming my circles with brand promotions.
If you don’t think Google+ is big enough for that yet—citing it’s still in its infancy—learn your facts. Google+ has acquired 40 million users worldwide since its launch in September—kicking Facebook’s launch on its proverbial ass.
The controversy surrounding the launch of Google+ Pages continues, and rightly so. Users are freaking out. These 40 million users left the brand spamming of Facebook to have a social network.
If you are a brand considering creating a Page, go for it, but tread cautiously. The reality of social is that the story is not what a brand is telling you—and Mashable, Google, and any other news delivery systems are brands too—it’s in the comments of the ultimate end-user. It’s the opinion of the audience.
Mashable just released the article, Want to Run a Contest or Promotion on Google+? Not So Fast. Great article—definitely worth the read. But the comments are far more relevant to me as a Social Strategist. Here are a smattering of comments reflecting how people feel about brands in their Google+ space.
“I am already uncircling brands, they are saturating my stream and killing all the social aspects I have been enjoying. Cheesey competitions and granting permissions to view your personal data are so Facebook ;-)”
“I cant Stand contest and quiz crap! If your page and content therein isnt promotion enough youre doing it wrong.”
“Great move from Google, spammers will stay in FB.”
“I think that’s great, I get so many promotional tweets and fb posts sometimes I miss the stuff from family. I like just having information about a company without being smacked in the face with, contests and polls.”
“I agree with others that this is a good move. Contest promotions on the net were getting to be just ways of data mining, and not a way to engage your market segment. Maybe that option will happen in the future when Google’s had time to observe what works and what flops.”
And so on, and so on…
UberScribbler 