July 19th, 2011
User Engagement: Can Google+ Take It to the Next Level?
Google plans to unveil the bigger picture when Google+ integrates with Google Offers and Google Wallet soon. But before that happens, Google+ is already showing a lot of promise, user engagement and content syndication has been increasing. One of its functions, Hangouts, is already being considered as the next big killer application. But how exactly can businesses benefit from Google Hangouts?
While most people view photos on Facebook, and browse for news on their Twitter feeds, Google+ is seemingly combining both features, but only better with Hangouts. Mashable started a particular discussion on Facebook and Google+; the discussion posted was about a study that 34% of iPhone users think they have 4G. The Facebook post had 57 likes and 40 comments; on the other hand, the Google+ post garnered 183 +1′s and 116 comments. Now, imagine if those comments are drawn from actual video chat. Real-time video chat. Wouldn’t that be great?
Those results are surprising, but Google+ has just been launched weeks ago so most early adopters are very active on Google’s latest social platform. It’s not proof that people are about to abandon their current social graphs yet. And Facebook did answer with their Skype integration weeks ago. But hey, Google+ isn’t the new Facebook; it’s supposed to be more “open” and better than Facebook. Google has always been all about business and enhancing how people do business. High-level of user engagement can lead to ROI, when companies speak rather than advertise, people listen and turn into potential customers.
But let’s face it, people nowadays want to watch more than read, while conventional content like blog entries and syndicated articles are SEO fuel, businesses are entering the age of social where videos are deemed “content” as well. User-generated content like videos begets user engagement. Every response to a tweet or post is a simple yet direct means to increase user engagement, but video chat makes it more personal. Even Michael Dell thinks it’s the future of customer service. Why use a telephone if the customer is online? Google Hangouts is the catalyst that could make business capitalize on Google+ and enhance user engagement for them. Wait until Google materialize from its big integration soon and everyone will see the bigger picture.
March 22nd, 2011
Establishing a Local Web Presence: An Infographic
Web Equity by Mike Blumenthal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.blumenthals.com.
