Did you google on Mothers Day? Between buying flowers and eating brunch, you may have come across the Google Doodle. If you had a moment to click on it, you would have gone through a clever little animation to produce a “hand-drawn” ( fridge-art style) Mothers Day card. Which then led to a Google-centric page showing all the ways they can help you celebrate (and a video guaranteed to make you smile).
Here are the headlines – can you guess the Google product?
- Need some last-minute gift ideas?
- Keep in touch with Mom
- Entertain Mom
- Find and send flowers nearby
- Share life’s moments with Mom
- Teach a Mom tech
[In order, they are Google Offers, Hangout, YouTube, Google Map/Locals, Google+ and “Teach Parents Tech”]
It’s an impressive list – shopping/daily deals, videochat, TV, Yellow Pages, LinkedIn/Facebook and, well, whatever Teach Parents Tech is.
Google may not be the best at each one, but the key is that they are slowly integrating them into a central hub – Google+. The clever folks at Google want to be the one-stop shop for busy people.
Like many marketers, I’ve struggled with where Google+ fits in the mix. Discussions normally focus on “what kind of unique content should I post; otherwise it’s just like LinkedIn or Facebook”. But we’re missing the point. Google+ as a social media platform isn’t really anything new or different. It’s Google+ as a convenience that is the killer app.
Of course, the other element is the importance of search. With Authorship, semantic search and +1’s, it’s hard to believe that a presence on Google+ won’t have a significant impact on your Google searchability.
So my advice – make Google+ a part of your digital marketing mix. Even if you’re not sure where it will take you, you can be sure Google+ is going places.
What are you using Google+ for?
Steve Cummins - B2B Tech Marketer 