With all this talk about Twitter's Vine, Facebook's Graph Search and content being king, I found myself thinking, what about Google? This led to a discussion this morning with a colleague where I was put in a situation where I couldn't explain the difference between a Google+ Community and a Facebook Group. I couldn't let this uncertainty sit for long so I quickly jumped to it and developed a little clarity on Google's Social Network. Google+ Communities offer businesses a platform where they can quickly find a large amount of relevant people that all share similar interests.
People join these communities because they have similar interests with the founder and hope to learn, grow and build their network. Through sharing, the group becomes more knowledgeable and gains reach with every new member. Google Communities allow people to manage a public or private group where they can house an unlimited amount of members. But, unlike Facebook, when you share in your public or private GC your comments will not show up in your network's feeds. They will only show up on your page if you allow them to. GC's allow for unlimited discussion categories as well as events and hangouts. Members of Google+ are also permitted to participate, create and moderate within the community. An added bonus to GCs is that the network is relatively more organized than Facebook groups. With +1 you can also share anything from across the web with your community. Ultimately, GC's are very similar to Facebook Groups, but with subtle differences, better organization and SEO benefits. It is more discrete, provides more services and if you use it, Google rewards you.
I've read a lot of flack on Google+'s popularity based on its adoption rate, and how it was a ploy to copy Facebook. You're wrong. I was also guilty of believing this. What really convinced me was how much I started using Google myself. This was shortly after I found out that Google's search recognizes +1's coupled with the discovery of Google Authorship. Employing Google Authorship as a PR channel has proved very beneficial to Google as they are now the second largest social network, next to Facebook. I'm calling it a marketing channel because it has helped Google build their social network around business trends and technology. I mean that it is now largely populated with geeky types who write, advertise; and you know what else? Know PR like the back of their hand. These writers encourage people to check out their articles and share their work via Google+ because big media sites pay these writers by the traffic they generate. The writers are also eager to get their faces beside their latest posts in Google's search results because it increases their familiarity, credibility and following.
Google also corralled small business owners for the purpose of showing up in Google Maps and local searches. The added value of showing up in searches requires business's to set up a Google+ Local Business page and you need a Google+ account to do so. This has resulted in a surge of accounts and why not? As business people we are taught to opt for the win-win solution, right?
Some say that this was Google's plan all along. That it chose to rise to the top with the "slow and steady" approach. Personally, I don't know if I believe that, but I do believe that by the end of the year Google+ will present some exciting new features as well as a much larger audience.