By Annie Hay, Marketing Associate
In another attempt to foray into the social networking cybersphere, Google announced the introduction of its newest feature: the +1″button.
We don’t want to accuse Google of attempting to +1 Facebook again, but it is hard not to. In the same way that we have been unscrupulously liking each other’s posts, liking each other’s companies, and well, liking each other all over the social sphere in general, we can now really prove our affection with the Google +1.
In a way strikingly similar to the Facebook “Like” button, the Google +1 allows us to click a little icon next to our search results and give it our stamp of approval, therefore recommending it to friends and anyone we have allowed to be our Gmail chat pals. Unlike the fiasco that was Buzz, this social attempt seems set up for a bit more success—and the “+1″-ing possibilities are endless:
Delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe? +1.
Site for the super cool hotel you stayed at off the highway somewhere between Omaha and another corn field? +1.
That great PPC ad you clicked on that took you to an even greater page, that then offered you that cool product, that you then purchased? +1!!
Yeah, you see where we are going with this.
With +1, searchers will be able to mark an ad they see or clicked on with the little “check this out” stamp of approval. While it really is reminiscent of “liking” a Facebook ad or “digging” a Digg ad, the sheer scope of Google and the Google Adwords world makes this undeniably important to the future of PPC.
As of right now, Google has said that +1s will only be visible to people you have approved for Google Chat, but in the coming months, leaks about initiatives to make all Google user profiles public could change the effect of the +1 entirely (Editor’s Note: Google launched Google+ in early July and it did change the effect entirely, see our post from July 6, 2011 for details.)
It is common knowledge that internet users trust their contacts or friends more than random advice (see our blog on “Trust” below). With the ability to make reccommendations to friends about “that great nonprofit a user followed the PPC ad to,” PPC legitimacy and the nature of how we market, how we strategize and where our conversions are initiated may change drastically.
Of course, we still have some lingering questions about +1: what happens when there are multiple +1s?Do they become +2, +3 anf +4d? How long will it be until my site can have a button that allows people visiting to +1 me? Regardless, no one can deny the +1 potential to impact our industry.
We’ve been harping on it for a few years now, but if there has ever been a time to accept that social media is changing the nature of marketing and advertising, that time is now.
