8l August 2011 I www.dmnews.com

THH LOWDSWru

Marketers wait their turn for Google+Google has long lagged behind Facebook and Twitter as a social media destination. Months afterCEO Larry Page reportedly told employees that bonuses will be tied to the company's social mediaprogress, it launched Google+, its own social platform. Google excluded nearly all brands fromparticipating at launch, leaving experts to speculate about the platform's marketing potentiai.

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Joe Wilcox,BetanewsThe service allor'vs peopleto create discreet "circles"for sharing statuses, Ioca-

tion. photos, videos andmore. and users can groupchat or video cail as well. It's l

a service sure to keep peoplewho use it on Google sites

longer. For all the obsessionabout page viervs and pageranks. particularly amongadvertisers, time on any site i

matters more. Whether ornot Google* succeeds orlails remains uncertain. par-ticularly given thc service is

still invite-only. It's not howmany people are using theservice . but who they areand who listens to them.

OUR VIEW:

Thomas Claburn,lnformationWeekGoogle's business custom-ers, specilically users ofGoogle Apps. har e to waita bit longer to try Google+.The Google Proliles service.a required component ofGoogle, has not been com-patible rvith Google Appsfor several months. Googleengineers are rvorking toremedy the situation butthere are significant hurdlesto ovcrcome. palLicularll'while Google* is still rvork-ing through privacy issues.

Google product managerChristian Oestlien said ithopes to make its social net-

working services availabie tobusinesses later this year.

Glenn Gabe,Search Engine JournalWhile Facebook has thelargest social nenvork in thervorld rvith 750 million-plusmembers. it has almost noserious search capabilities.Now that Google has hit thescene with Google*, and it'soutstanding, it has a seriousopportunity to achieve a

unique closed loop market-ing platform. For marketers.this is incredibly important.

Amir Efratiand Tom Loftus,The Wall Street JournalThe good ner.vs is that thesettir.rgs lor Google* appearto be lairly' straightforward,thor-rgh some users havealreadr- misunderstoodsome ol rhe prir.acy controls.Peopie can choose to allowtheir inlolmation to bevicned bv anvorre on theWeb. onlr' ce r tain Google*members or nobodr'. Butsome usels are findingsrnall kinks. Firuncial Tinres

reporter Tim Bradshawdiscovered a feature that he

lelt could be a privacy issue.Inlormation shared rvirhin a

private Google+ circle couldbe shared to the public.

More important to marketers chan the Google-Faccbook rivalry is rvhat features Google* rvill give them to promote theirproducts and services to consumers and communicate with the public. So far. the service shorvs promise as a marketing tool.For instance, if Ford Motor Co. is any example, the platform's "huddle" sclvice'rviil allow people to chat lvith esecutives aboutcompany initiatives, and its "circles" fcature could also help brands pick the consumers they want to target rvith messages.Marketers should embrace both fe atures to target consumers by intere st and communicate r,vith them in innovatir-c n ays.

EilTERJohn Caples

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