Social collaboration is becoming an important aspect of Google because of what it means for marketers and the way they market products and brands to consumers.
With the advent of Facebook and the “Like” button, the Google+ implementation has transformed the way users engage with pages on SERPs. What was once a matter of brands controlling page visibility (through SEO and keyword relevancy) is now providing users with the ability to find products and brands using recommendations by people they trust.
Google+ allows users to “vote” for pages they have found useful after visiting and reading their contents. If a user finds information valuable and wants to recommend it to others they simply have to designate a +1 to that page to make it visible to those within their ‘circle’. To have a circle, Google+ users need to be signed into their Google Accounts and also have a public Google Profile to have the ability to +1 pages.
Since Google users are now able to voice their opinions on the products and brands they like, this new capability is transforming the way we use Google itself. Google has gone from a search engine that allows business owners to influence corporate visibility by optimizing websites, to a search engine which allows users to help each other find information by “voting” on it.
Marketers that venture into Google+ could potentially be tapping into a market segment which has a wider scope of customers by executing the kind of campaigns that encourage potential buyers to join their Google network, or ‘circle’.
Gaining market share as a result of having the most +1s allows potential buyers to see our pages because they’ve been recommended by their friends – people they actually know and trust. As a result of this, the chances that they will click on our pages before anyone else’s mean more traffic to our sites.
Google has also added the ability to leave behind reviews on pages that have been +1d by users. +1d pages as well as reviews by people within a user’s circle are shown first before any other provider’s results like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. (See the Search plus Your World blog for more information on this development.)
Google+ is transforming social collaboration into one of the most important ways users use the search engine to find valuable information. Trusting someone within your circle who has recommended a site could mean an entirely new way for marketers to market to Google+ users by displaying value through having the most votes.
What kind of impact do you think Google+ will have on the way you use Google for website visibility?
Click HERE to join the Couch & Associates’ ‘Circle.’
