Google Search Plus – A New Game Changer

As Google continues to roll out their new Search, Plus Your World capabilities, there is already growing concern that they are compromising search results.

Who are the most vocal objectors?  Naturally, their competitors – Facebook and Twitter.

Google used to have an arrangement with Twitter to index their streaming firehose of real-time data, one which Twitter decided to discontinue. Little did Twitter know that Google had a back-up plan that we now know as Google+.

It’s interesting that Twitter is crying foul at Google for favoring social content shared on Google+, when not long ago Google was doing exactly that with real-time Twitter results.

Go Where Your Future Business Opportunities Are

Google Search, Plus Your World, sometimes referred to as just Search Plus, is soon going to bring personalized social content to search results for anyone that has not opted out of the new feature.

So, if you not already, you’ll want to get familiar with Google+.

As a business marketer, it should not matter to you whether Twitter and Google are playing well together. For that matter, we all know the relationship between Facebook and Google and long been strained.

Your job is simply to play the search game, however it changes – and it will indeed change again.

I’ve heard the arguments. Why should I use Google+ when all of my friends are on Facebook? One reason is that you are not yet friends with the future customers you do not know, and you are more likely to meet them on Google+.

The power of Google+ is that of easily connecting you with like-minded people that have similar interests.

This is actually possible because the Google+ environment is more open than Facebook.

Notwithstanding the comparisons of Google+ with Facebook, it really feels more like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all rolled into one. Thus, you can use it practically any way you wish.

Just know that if you set your settings to public, your Google+ activities will start showing up in Google search results – and quite prominently, too.

If you plan for this, it can produce some profitable business benefits.

Choose No Favorites – Play the Search Game Wherever it Works

This time last year, there was quite a buzz surrounding Facebook marketing. And indeed, improvements such as Facebook Smart Lists have made for a more favorable Facebook experience.

Nevertheless, you still have to contend with the fact that the content you share on Facebook is filtered – dramatically reducing your ability to reach new customers.

What should you do? By all means, do not jump ship and throw all of your resources into Google+. It is always wise to maintain a distributed presence on all of the major social networks.

For one thing, you never know if Facebook will launch their own internal search engine.

Given how Facebook is allowing users to clean up their content for Timeline, it is entirely possible that search capabilities will follow – and that will change the game again.

Search is a means to an end – for you and those performing the search. Whatever is fashionable is what is going to work – and you have to be prepared to be flexible and roll with the changes.

You cannot hang your hat on one social network and expect everything to work to your benefit.

Just remember that the search engines are using all of us – individuals and businesses, in order to gather content to make for a richer, more real, and relevant search experience.

That’s their game.

What is yours?

Circle me on Google+ and we can talk about it.

Or leave a comment below or share this with your community with any of the share buttons below – or with those on the little red bar at the bottom of this page.

Until next time, Jeff

Authored by Jeff Korhan
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