Google+ The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated said Mark Twain
Well with apologies to the great man I thought I would borrow this little quote to start off as it fits nicely the situation with Google+. There has of late been a lot of rumour and speculation about changes to the Google+ project. Some of our clients have asked us about the situation and I felt a great way to answer it was in using the blog.
The rumour started when the head of Google+ Vic Gundotra announced on the 24th April that he was leaving Google. Within hours a tech blog had announced the death of Google+ and several media reports since have repeated the story. You can read it for yourself here http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/24/google-is-walking-dead/
Even respected gurus have been taken in by the story. Google to be fair were very quick to deny that Google+ was about to be killed off.
We have been watching both sides of this discussion with obvious interest and the headline for us is Google is one of the most innovative and change driven companies in the world. New projects come and go and existing ones always appear to be in beta testing. A recent change to the Google sign in button was heralded as another sign of the death of the platform. In truth its just another tweak to the whole of Google. One of Googles newest products is Post Listing Ads and allows popular brands to promote their Google+ posts in the same was as pay Per Click. Building reviews, followers and driving traffic to your website will always be features and benefits of being involved in the Google space. That lies at the core of the Google eco-system and whilst it will change it will not disappear.
The benefits of the Google+ project for businesses are two-fold. The SEO benefits from the listing and the opportunity to build followers and join communities of similar-interested people. My advice is get involved as soon as possible and build your presence now.
And with one more quote I will end. “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
OSCAR WILDE, The Picture of Dorian Gray