The official launch of Google+Pages is bringing home the realities of this latest social networking platform for marketers, both its good and bad points.
Not to Much Talking Allowed
The latter, unfortunately, loom large for companies that wish to communicate with customers. Only one person can “own” or “post to” an account, notes Robert Scoble, who says in this blog post he wishes he never heard of Google+Pages.
“There’s no way for a social media team, or a customer service team, to split up duties,” he writes. There is also no way to add Team members to this account without getting them to follow the account first.
The bottom line, he says, is that means only one person working on one team can post to a brand’s social networking account.
“So, if the brand needs to say something to customers in a high-touch, high-service business like ours (we have customer service people posting and answering phones and talking on chat 24 hours a day 365 days a year) they will need to wake me up to get me to post something?”
No Competitions Either
According to the terms of service, brands and businesses “may not run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions” directly on their pages, Sociable points out. Instead, they must link to contests on external websites or alternative social networks.
“Many brands, including ourselves, run competitions directly on networks like Facebook and Twitter so this may come as a surprise.”
It Can Move the Needle on AdWords
With its deep integration into search, it is clear that Google+Pages will eventually influence rankings. SearchEngineLand says this influence extends to the +1s on AdWords as well. “When businesses create a Page on Google+, they can link the page to their web site URLs and also to their AdWords account. When that’s done, +1s for any of the linked URLs — on web sites or landing pages for AdWords ads — will all accrue to the brand, making the numbers much larger.”
Analytics Will Eventually Be Incorporated
Analytics will eventually be part of the offering and that will have a deep impact, Israel Mirsky, EVP of emerging media and technology at Porter Novelli, told the E-Commerce Times. This will eventually give companies "a much deeper and more effective segmentation and understanding of the social networks' role in driving bottom line results."
