Google + for Brand Marketing – #GoogleAtOMLogic

The world is a big circle, as defined by Google. For its featured product, Google+ is not merely a social media platform, but a way to enhance social search to find the right circles for engagement. The seamless integration of social layer with the product line offered by Google is niche & robust. With the new enhanced search, brands are now able to form a bridge to meet the customer requirements with ease.

This is how Nagalakshmi V and Riddhima from Google Inc. described Google+ during their visit to OMLogic on 26^th Feb, 2013. They came, talked about Google+ and shared some really interesting insights.

You can follow the blow-by-blow account of the session on our Twitter handle @OMLogic on the hashtag #GoogleatOML.

Here’s what they said:

Currently, Google+ boasts a solid global bandwidth of 235 million users. Here are a few prime features which can benefit a business in the online landscape.

1. Integration in Search:  Google is looking at Google as not just as a platform, but primarily a tool that makes search better and “social”. A couple of ways in which it is doing so:

• Right-side panel integration:
  A win-win scenario for brands wherein the visibility of a particular brand increases multifold by highlighting it in the right side panel of Google Search; thus providing a peek into the brand in first fold.

• Integration with Ads
  A brand’s “+1”s and other social currency will be used in ads – be it as basic as displaying “+1”s beneath the ad text or something more complex that they will soon release. It might be a game-changer on how ads are displayed.

2. Google+ Hangouts: For personal branding, there is no other tool which matches the dynamicity of Hangout Feature offered by Google. With Broadcast Hangouts, you get a chance to interact directly with an unlimited number of audiences. You can also build customized apps to improve the experience of the people connected to you via your hangout. It also offers Integrated Display for showcasing on top of the YouTube channel, thereby serving as mast ads.

Going further, it can also be embedded on the website for “LIVE” streaming which has helped many brands deliver successful results such as Cadbury and Obama Campaign.

3. Google+ Communities: As a digital frontier, Google offers social search communities which help in bookmarking and finding the data; the circles of reference. They also offer a great chance to meet new people with similar interests.

4. Ripples: One of the best features Google offers is “Ripples”. Here, you can trace the virality of content visually. And, it is magnificent to look at but will gain real significance when Google+ as a platform reaches much more popularity and hence reaching critical mass.

The sheer dynamic visualization of the data helps you trace the origins of the content, thus identifying the social influencers. Though, this feature is available for “Public” posts only. Do try it now… you will love it.

A recent report by ComScore (Dec’12) suggests Indian traffic on Google+ is nearly 17 million. So, it is not a barren landscape, as thought by many.

Rather, Google would like us to believe that it is indeed flourishing and so are the brands which realized its potential & were early entrants.

The jury at OMLogic is still out. What do you think?

- Nishant Mishra
Team OMLogic