Google Plus vs. Facebook… What’s the Difference?

On 28th June, 2011 Google rolled out the beta version of its highly anticipated social networking site, Google Plus. It is no secret that Google has long been wanting to get a slice of the social networking market. So, what exactly is Google Plus and how does it compare to Facebook? In this post we are going to look at Google Plus Versus Facebook and examine some of their major differences.

Simply put, Google Plus has integrated many of the best features from our favorite social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in one convenient package.

Photo by Mike Volpe - CMO Hubspot

Google Plus versus Facebook – A Brief Comparison

You’ve probably seen some of the cartoons poking fun at the rivalry between Facebook and Google+. While they’re all in good fun, there’s a grain of truth to them as well. By all accounts, Google is trying to oust Facebook as the King of Social Media – and if any company is up to the task, it’s Google. But is Google+ a contender? Let’s compare the two and see.

Facebook

Once merely a hangout for college students, this powerhouse has become the goto network for family, friends, and even businesses and government entities. You can chat with your grandmother in Sydney, play a game of Bejeweled, post pictures of your wedding, and encourage people to sign up for your mailing list – all without leaving the site. Not only that, but Facebook has it’s own advertising network, making it easy and cost effective to get your business in front of your target audience.

Facebook also allows users to set up both private and public groups where you can dish about common interests and invite others to join the discussion. You also have the ability to set up “facebook pages” which are specifically designed for businesses and other entities.

Google+

1. Sharing Information

The new kid in the social media market has a lot to offer. Unlike Facebook, Google+ is not an all or nothing venue for sharing information. It allows you to pick and choose who can see your content, making it a bit like your Facebook wall with groups mixed in. Not only that, but Google+ gives you a lot more sharing space, whereas Facebook limits individual wall posts to 420 characters.

Although Facebook allows you similar sharing controls with lists, these are far from easy to find and use. Facebook is in the process of introducing easier controls over sharing of information, probably in response to Google+’s success with Circles, so it will be interesting to see how this all pans out, but for now, Google+ gets my vote on this one.

2. Hangouts

If you prefer to mingle face-to-face, Google+ has you covered with a nifty little tool called Hangouts. Using your web cam and mic, you can chat in real time with co-workers, friends around the world, or even total strangers. Whenever someone in one of your circles starts a Hangout, it will show up in your stream, so pull up a chair and join in.

3. Streams

‘Streams’ is probably the thing Google Plus does best. It offers you a way to filter the content you see. If it’s your day off and you don’t want to hear about work, click another stream. Feel like reading about a particular topic? Make a circle dedicated to it, then choose it from the “streams” list. You’ll hear only what you want, when you want. No more miss-mash of information sorted only by time of creation.

4. Google Rankings For Your Profile

And finally, probably the most exciting (and most speculated about) feature of Google Plus is the way your Google profile will quickly climb the search engine rankings. Use your keywords in your profile and get ranked in Google.

5. Personal Accounts Only….For Now

At this point in time, Google Plus is only available to private individuals, but business accounts are on the menu for the future, so watch this space.

Summary

In the battle of Google Plus versus Facebook, which one is the better choice? Well, it depends on your needs and how you choose to manage your social networking. One thing is certain though, Google Plus is a true contender in the highly competitive social media marketplace. If you’re not a member yet, you should make it a point to get on board, because Google Plus is going to play an important role in social marketing.

In my next post I will be walking you through how to get started with Google Plus and talking you through some of the Google Plus features in greater detail.

Are you already using Google Plus? If so, I would love to hear what you think of it so far and how it is stacking up against the established Social Networking sites. Please leave me a comment below…..and don’t forget to share and Google+ me

Facebook accounts versus Facebook fanpage: what do I choose?

This is a question I get asked a lot: For my business do

I get a facebook account and get lots of friends into it

or do I get a Facebook page and grow my Fans list?

Using the right strategy is not complex, but crucial.

Here are my answers:

Case Number One:

You are an accountant, a lawyer, a consultant, a coach

etc....or any other situation where you are known as a

business person and you are the main reason people

will do business with your company.

In that case you should have a personal account where

you build a Friends list and you become member of

facebook groups within your industry.

This in turn helps you build your following and you can

then direct them to your fan page.

So in many cases in small business you need both an

account under your own name and then a fan page under

your name or your company name.

Case Number Two

If you own or co-own a corporation and people do

business with your company mainly because your

company has a big name in the industry, then you can

go straight to having a page only, under your company

name.

The main restriction here is that a page cannot

be part of a Facebook group. That alone limits your viral

marketing options down the track.

Having a proper social media strategy can sound

complex but it is possible to keep it simple and easy,

with great return on investment.

This is a very brief answer to this question, there

are more elements to it but I just wanted to give you

some clarity here.

Social Media for Business is About Giving, Not Taking

Many organizations – and particularly businesses – still look at social media and wonder, “Where’s the value?” From their perspective, social media fails to deliver the goods. And the bad news is, from their perspective, it probably always will – because the question “What can I get out of social media?” misses the very point of social media.

At the heart of the misunderstanding is the question “Why is social media here?” Consider Facebook, for example. Was Facebook created to help users share their experiences and find like-minded people, or was it created to serve the needs of stalkers? Okay, that question was too simple. But if you change the second option to “to help corporations improve their profits by leveraging the social networks of unsuspecting users”, the answer would be the same.

Harsh, you say? Perhaps. At least from the business’ perspective. But from the average Facebook user’s perspective, corporations who use social networks to reach out only for financial gain are seen as outsiders – just short of “creepers” and “lurkers” (see Urban Dictionary).

By design, social media are venues for giving, not for taking. And to users, a participant’s motives are self-evident.

30 years ago, there would have been less scrutiny on organizations attempting to leverage social media for financial gain – had there been social media. In the ‘80s, it was cool to be a taker. Yuppies flaunted their earnings and their consumption, stocks (and retirement funds) were on the rise, and everyone-who-was-anyone expected to retire by age 55. Takers suffered a setback with stock market crash of 1987, but the mindset rebounded with great resilience, turning a blind eye to the footloose behavior of the ‘90s in favor of more big corporate gains. Then, with the new millennium, came the collapse of Enron, the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and a growing public distrust in corporations. To a new generation, “taking” was no longer cool. And it was this new generation that gave birth to social media.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that the current generation is innocent of “what’s-in-it-for-me” behavior. Quite the contrary. After all, this is the generation who brought us Napster (the illegal version) and Limewire. What I am saying is that the spirit of social media – from Myspace to Facebook to YouTube to Photobucket to Wordpress – is about sharing. Users turn to social media to share their ideas, their creations, their social circles, and their influence.

And as long as corporations engage with social media for the same reasons (or ostensibly the same reasons), then engagement can work.

Such examples of corporate sharing aren’t even difficult to find. Philanthropy is an obvious place to start, but stopping there would miss the point of social media. Because money isn’t the biggest asset in the social vault. Knowledge is.

So, start a dialog with your customers. Share your manuals (even on products you no longer support). Develop slide presentations that educate (not sell). Create infographics. Promote responsible behavior (which, for brewers, could include curbing sexism). Make a difference.

In brief, if you want to get something out of social media, you have to stop trying to take.

Starting in Social Media? The 5 P’s of a Perfect Program

So you are new in this Social Media revolution. You may or may not have been an innovator or early adapter – or perhaps you are still cautiously implementing Social Media into your business.

This article isn't going to convince you WHY to use Social Media, but rather teach you HOW to best use it.

Create your Perfect Program with your plan, position, platform, people and performance.

The 5 P’s of a Perfect Program -
Social Media Success:

PLAN: Social Media Strategy
Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance. So, before you venture out, create accounts and starting posting – take a big step back and think about your strategy. Then, put it on paper.

• Establish goals (recruiting, training, client interaction, PR, branding, education, culture, etc.)
• Integrate social media strategy piece with your business plan
• Establish a content strategy based on your goals
• Budget for both time and resources
• Set a timeline for frequency of messages
• Implement HR policies and procedures
• Partner with your IT department
• Communicate your plan and engage your internal audience!

POSITION: What’s Your Point?
One of the best parts (and biggest challenges) in Social Media is crafting a clever (and memorable) message. So, what is your point? What are you trying to convey? Finding your voice will help you differentiate and dominate.

• Differentiate your content
• Become the expert in your industry
• Link, link, link!
• Get involved with group discussions
• Value before self-promotion
• Research what others are doing
• Talk about what you are already doing
• How personal do you get?
• Is there such as thing as sensitive information?

PLATFORMS: Tools and Tactics
Over 350 mediums for sharing online – how do you have the time for all that?! Make sure you are learning which platforms are best suited for your strategy. The Big 4 (5 with the new Google+ platform) are most utilized because of their impact and influence online. Finding tools to expedite your posts and content will help!

• Understand key social platforms and their purposes – with an integrated approach
• The Big 4: Facebook (500M), Twitter (200M), LinkedIn (100M), Blogs – and Google+
• 350+ mediums for ‘sharing’ online!
• Resource libraries (Wikipedia, etc.) exponential growth in use, high accuracy of content
• Photo and video sharing phenomenon (YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr, etc.)
• Others: Tumblr (3^rd party), Foursquare (location), etc.
• Tools for managing multiple platforms (Tweetdeck, HootSuite, etc.)
• Link shorteners and trackers (bitly, owly, deckly, etc.)
• Tagging (@), hashtags (#), and other key tools

PEOPLE: Internal and External Audiences
Once you have a strategy and Social Media functionality figured out, what is next? Engaging your audiences. And yes, this includes both external and internal. You could have crafted the best message, but if no one is listening and responding you are missing half the battle.

• Who dictates your content (internal audience)?
• Who posts content, how many voices?
• Give incentives for posting good content
• Have a watchdog that monitors content
• Utilize training forums so your content is well thought out
• Who is your external audience?
• Grow your external audience
• Retain your external audience
• Interaction with People vs. Companies
• Small company can have a much bigger voice!

PERFORMANCE: Return On Investment?
Monitoring and measuring ROI for your Social Media efforts can seem daunting. Frankly, sometimes it is hard to quantify. The biggest key is to ensure you are measuring against the goals of your Social Media campaign. If you are looking to brand your business or recruit great talent, your metrics may be different.

• Utilize analytics already built into the platforms
• Use measurement tools available online
  (google analytics, ominiture, postrank, sentiment metrics)
• Monitoring vs. Measurement, there is a difference
• Report, report, report
• Track and improve your SEO
• Integrate your Social Media ROI with other business metrics
• Tracking the intangible parts of ROI (feedback)
• What are YOU learning in social media space?!

So is there really a “Perfect Program” in Social Media? Depends. What are your goals versus your successes? How much are you learning? Do your customers and colleagues engage with you in a new way? Then perhaps you are finding your Social Media Success.

How Social Media Takes Us From a selling world to a buying world

In the words of Raymond Aaron, author of "Chicken Soup

For The Canadian Soul", we are living through a transformational

change that has affects all businesses, whether on or offline.

What is very interesting is that in fact we have come the full

circle. Let me explain:

In the days where tribes and small villages were the biggest

social unit apart from families and armies, establishing a

relationship with clients was the only way to sell a product or

service. Trust was essentially created through Word of Mouth.


But with the power of advertising and communication through

mass media, selling became the main skill required. If you had

the "gift of the gab", you could sell ice to an eskimo, flippers

to a duck etc...

With the rise of Online Social Media we have now come back

to trust being the main requirement before people buy. The

"tribe" has no boundaries as the conversation spreads to the

whole global village. Word of mouth is the only thing that

counts. So in your social media strategy you need to focus on

giving value, advice, proof that you are trustworthy, and sales

will come!

Google+ May Be the Biggest Online Conversation in the History of the Internet

What is Google + and what are the main differences with Facebook and twitter is what most people are wondering right now. Should I be part of it? I can’t waste my time on Facebook, Twitter and now in Google+. This is what most people are saying right now, but what is actually Google+?

Google+ is the biggest online conversation since the internet was available to the public. It is still in Beta version and you need to be invited to join by someone already in it.

In Google+ you can potentially make a conversation with every single user of Google, not of Google+ only but Google, so if there are millions in it, you have potentially millions to exchange ideas with. Why? and How?

Google+ allows you to add to your circles everyone on Google+ and anyone with a Gmail account and they don’t even need to accept or add you in their circles to receive your status updates. In Summary everyone you add to your circles (and you can potentially add everyone) will receive your status updates in their “Stream” and they can add comments and likes.

This is a total new way of social interaction, online conversation and online sharing.

Many of us don’t believe Google can have a successful Social Network because of all their previous failures, but Google + is not competition to Facebook or Twitter, it is a whole new vision of the capabilities within Social Media in general.

Do companies actually see the potential of what Google+ is? I am sure not yet and they will not see it for a long time, basically you are able to reach your target market and potential clients without them even knowing you are there, but they will receive your posts about your business so you can reach everyone you want.

You can make the biggest market research ever imagine for your business by reaching as many people as possible and sharing the questions, they don't need to have you their contacts but they are still able to answer your questions.

This will create a whole new level in the way marketing is done online. Like we have been saying for a long time now... the news, services and businesses will find you, no longer you will have to look for them.

How will this affect Facebook or Twitter? That is only to be seen, all the attention is going to how Facebook will react about Google+ but what about Twitter? While not having all the eyes on them we might be giving the space they need to be the real threat to all social networks around.