At first Google+ was launched as an individual only field test. Google soon after received an outstanding demand for new accounts and then opened it up to people over the age of eighteen. A few months later Google plus was opened for the younger age group. It’s obvious to see that Google plus received a better outcome then they expected. What make’s Google+ so different is because it’s not a social network. However, online communities can emerge from Google+ making it a wonderful side effect that no one’s complaining about.
Google+ is more than an ordinary destination site. Google+ goal is to make sharing on the web like sharing in real life. In order to make this possible, they provided their users with efficient tools that are easy to use. Some of their features include circles, hangouts, messenger, and search in Google+. Their unique timeline is called a “stream” which displays three columns with content from the people in their circles and an input box.
Circles are a way of Google+ organizing their users’ pages into groups for sharing. Circles can be labeled as friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, etc. This just makes it really easy for you to share certain content with certain people. You can filter your stream to show content from your specific circles. Hangouts are a place where video chats can take place with up to 10 people. This can come in handy when a business wants to have a group chat within a short notice and make it sufficiently.
The messenger feature is cool because it allows communication within Google+ circles. The messages are instant which is always convenient, especially when businesses are talking to clients via messenger. Search in Google+ allows users to search any content within Google+. This feature makes it easy for a user to find exactly what they are looking for. The search results will contain relevant posts and people, and popular content from the web. Depending on the keywords you chose to describe your business will help people get a better understanding of what you do.
Google+ makes it possible to make sociable accounts. In Google Analytics it offers social reports that show how Google+ influences your business, recommendations on your site, and what visitor from social networking sites come to see your site. Google+ also has another feature called Ripples which allows you to visualize who is sharing your content.
There are over 250 million Google+ users, which was recently unofficially proposed to now be closer to 400 million. On this social website, it’s impossible not to establish new connections. Networking can’t be done any easier with Google+. The site is continuing to grow and add on new features to help benefit individuals and businesses.
Sources:
- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-future/#comment-650265177
- http://www.google.com/+/business/
- http://mashable.com/2012/04/11/google-plus-redesign/
- http://mashable.com/2012/11/14/media-summit-daria-musk/
- http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1254208
- http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/03/08/for-the-last-time-lets-all-say-it-together-google-is-not-a-social-network/
The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.
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