In a recent development in the United States, the useful Google News service has begun to feature relevant comments from social media networking site Google+. The way in which other Google services have been used by Google to promote Google+ has become somewhat controversial. According to some fairly recent statistics, Google+ has managed to attract 170 million subscribers. However, it is still a very long way behind Facebook and Google might begin to alienate users of its other services if it is not prudent going forward.
At SEO Consult we are experts at social media marketing. This means we integrate three activities. Firstly, we research to keep on top of the changing nature of the ‘social’. Secondly, we implement effective social media optimisation in a site-specific fashion. Thirdly, we perform conventional optimisation to ensure that the traffic which flows to the sites of our diverse clients is not wasted.
When it comes to the Google News move, it is hard to judge whether or not it will benefit Google+ significantly. Existing users of Google News might be irritated by the innovation. Whether the majority of Google+ users are that keen on commenting on the news is also a bit of an unknown. The extent to which the scheme works may also be affected by the quality of the comments. In other places on the net, comments on the news are mixed in their level of insight and common sense.
However, the decision to use Google News in this manner has to be seen in context. Google’s promotion of Google+ has been widely perceived as excessively pushy. Google+ has not been given the space to sell itself on its merits. In the early part of the year, Google attracted a lot of criticism for its behaviour in this area. Perhaps ordinary users were not as annoyed as some of the expert commentators, but its lack of subtlety was something of a blunder.
On several occasions, Google has got into a degree of trouble with the regulatory authorities. This is because it is sometimes perceived as a monopoly. Regardless of whether or not the monopoly tag is accurate, it could not be accused of monopolistic practices so often if it was not blatantly pushing its own services so frequently.
Google+ has some great features so trying to plug it via Google News might be an unnecessary step. The notion of ‘Circles’ was widely praised, because it is nice to separate your colleagues from your friends when you are sharing stuff. The privacy issues of Facebook had also given Google+ an early boost. However, the bare fact that Facebook reached 901 million users in March 2012 may have meant that Google was reluctant to be patient in relation to the growth of Google+.
For consultancies, the important thing is to track segments of target audiences wherever they can be found. Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are too important to ignore. The social world is highly competitive and it is of considerable utility to have some idea of where it is headed.
The Article is written by Click Consult Web Development Services providing internet marketing, ppc and web services.