Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Pause Before You Plunge Into Plus: Google + For Your Company/Brand


You probably have heard the news –
Google+ is now open for business(es). And I’m sure for many the announcement comes with an almost instinctive blind mandate from management to claim your place in the new space NOW. But this isn’t like the land rush when Facebook opened vanity URLs and, if we’ve learned anything from our collective previous jumps into social waters (including that one), it’s probably best if you take pause before you plunge into Plus.

One obvious reason is that it’s new and there’s some exploring/learning that needs to be done to develop best practices for implementation from a technical perspective.

But technical aspects aside, perhaps the biggest issue to address before diving in to Google+ is -- how does this new channel fit in to your already established and ongoing integrated strategic marketing plans as well as your tactical implementation resources? You need to ask or re-ask yourselves the core questions that formed the basis of entering the social landscape in the first place:

o What are my goals for this channel?

o What does success look like? How will it be measured?

o Will this require more real dollar budget allocation for advertising or promotion that we have learned is an important component of many Facebook campaigns?

o Who is going to be responsible for managing this
new social channel/platform? Do they have the time to add this to their
plate? How will they be trained?

o How will this channel be handled differently and/or integrated with other digital channels? With other offline channels?

In other words, as with DBE’s Phased Process for Social Media, the key to success with Google+ will be doing the thinking and planning first. Then you can act with confidence and with the expectation of reporting success.

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