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Google+ adds Brand Pages

In their latest attempt to compete with Facebook at the internet’s leading social networking platform, Google announced the release of Google+ pages this past Monday. Since Google+ was in private beta this summer, Google+ brand pages have been a highly anticipated feature. Google+ pages are essentially Google+ profiles for brands, organizations, and companies. Similar to how businesses/organizations can connect with customers and supporters through their Facebook page, Google+ brand pages allow them to do the same on the Google+ platform. Shortly after brand pages were made available, dozens of brands and organizations registered their Google+ page. Among these companies/brands are: Coca Cola, Pepsi, Muppets. Even government agencies such as NASA, National Guard, the Air Force Academy, the U.S. Army Contracting Command,  the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, etc have created Google+ pages.

In class, we used a simplified model to demonstrate the cascading effects of adopting new technology. One of my classmates pointed out during class that it is not always necessarily true that we have to choose between two different technologies. In this case with Google+, many brands have both a Facebook page and a Google+ brand page. The two social media platforms are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it is advantageous for companies to have both a Facebook page and a Google+ page to reach out to a bigger audience. However, as it stands now, having a Google+ page has a much smaller impact on a company’s public perception than having a Facebook page, simply due to the difference between Facebook’s user base and Google+’s user base. Facebook has 800 million active users, while Google+ registered has 40 million users (most of which are inactive).

Although Google+ has amassed 40million users in its short life, it is still nowhere close to reaching the level activity that Facebook enjoys. Part of that is due to the fact that people simply don’t use Google+ as much as Facebook. Activity drives activity. The value that one derives from a social network is inherently linked to the amount of activity and traffic on that social network, especially activity/traffic from friends. After all, who would join a social network if none of your friends are on it? Part of what makes Facebook so addicting and alluring is the fact that a majority of our friends are on the social network-that in itself gives us incentive to log onto our Facebook account and spend countless hours clicking through our newsfeed and our friends profiles. Brands/Organization/Celebrity pages on Facebook give the social network another dimension in terms of how users use Facebook. In that sense, Google+’s brand pages offers the same added benefit to Google+.

Google+ pages’ impact is twofold: it singlehandedly has introduced a wave of activity and new users to Google+. With brand pages popping up everywhere, there will be more and more content on the platform. Brand pages offer existing users more incentive to frequent Google+, and offers nonusers more of a reason to get a Google+ profile.

While Google+ is still far from approaching the level of popularity that Facebook enjoys, Google+ pages was a step in the right direction. Now if only more of my friends were on Google+…

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2011/11/07/google-launches-branded-pages/

http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/231902795

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Google-Pages-Follow-Facebook-Pages-for-Brand-Building-646965/

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