Google + Gets a Facelift and New Features

With over 170 Million registered users but dismal usage stats, Google + was in need of CPR

Google just announced a major redesign of Google+ “to make the social network “more functional and flexible.”

According to the official Google blog, the redesign is part of its plan to make Google+ easier to use.

“By focusing on you, the people you care about and the stuff you’re into, we’re going to continue upgrading all the features you already know and love—from Search and Maps to Gmail and YouTube,” says Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra in the blog post. “With today’s foundational changes, we can move even faster—toward a simpler, more beautiful Google.”

It looks like Google took a hint from critics and finally recognized that they did not need to reinvent the wheel just make it better. Did they succeed, it’s a little early to say since the new look and features are being deployed as we speak but we can already see that the home page looks pretty familiar, actually, a lot like a mix of the pre “Timeline” Facebook and the new Facebook interface.

Every Facebook redesign draws a lot of criticism and discontent, but will that be enough to breathe life in Google + and increase time spent on the site, which has been seriously lagging ( a few minutes a month, versus Facebook 7+ hours) and recent CNet statistics showing that March time spent increase 27% over February do little to close the gap.

The redesign does not seem to address the botched integration of Google’s other services particularly when it comes to YouTube, and Picasa

March 16, 2012

Social media is about social science not technology.

A Pivot study conducted in 2011, asked brand managers and marketers if they had a clear picture of who their Social Consumer is. An astounding 77 percent said yes.

When asked specifically if respondent organizations asked Social Consumers what they expect from engagement, most responded, “No.” This is intriguing because we have 77 percent of organizations who say they know what their Social Consumers want, but 53 percent haven’t really asked. They do not—cannot—really know how to deliver value in social and mobile networks. On the other hand, 35 percent did note that they asked Social Consumers about their expectations.

March 8, 2012September 3, 2021

Flawsome: why brands that behave more humanly, including showing their flaws will be awesome

FLAWSOME definition:

Consumers don’t expect brands to be flawless. In fact, consumers will embrace brands that are FLAWSOME*: brands that are still brilliant despite having flaws; even being flawed (and being open about it) can be awesome. Brands that show some empathy, generosity, humility, flexibility, maturity, humor, and (dare we say it) some character and humanity.

Two key drivers are fueling the FLAWSOME trend:

HUMAN BRANDS: Everything from disgust at business to the influence of online culture (with its honesty and immediacy), is driving consumers away from bland, boring brands in favor of brands with some personality.
TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH: Consumers are benefiting from almost total and utter transparency (and thus are finding out about flaws anyway), as a result of the torrent of readily available reviews, leaks and ratings.

HUMAN BRANDS

FLAWSOME sits as part of a bigger trend towards HUMAN BRANDS, something that we’ve touched upon in many previous Trend Briefings: RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS, BRAND BUTLERS, GENERATION G, and so on.

So, while HUMAN BRANDS might not be a ‘new’ theme, four currents are now converging to make consumers more focused on brand attitude and behavior than ever before:

“human nature dictates that people have a hard time genuinely connecting with, being close to, or really trusting other humans who (pretend to) have no weaknesses, flaws, or mistakes”

Consumers’ disillusionment at corporate behavior has (finally) spilled over into outright disgust. As a result, any brand that can show business in a new light will be (deservedly) welcomed with open arms.
- Nearly 85% of consumers worldwide expect companies to become actively involved in promoting individual and collective wellbeing; an increase of 15% from 2010 (Source: Havas Media, November 2011).
- Yet only 28% of people think that companies are working hard to solve the big social and environmental challenges (Source: Havas Media, November 2011).
Consumers are more and more aware that personality and profit can be compatible (think Zappos, Patagonia, Tom’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Michel et Augustin, Zalando and more). With every business that succeeds while remaining reasonable, helpful, fun or even somewhat ‘human’, consumers will become increasingly disenchanted when dealing with traditional, boring, impersonal brands.
- Most people would not care if 70% of brands ceased to exist (Source: Havas Media, November 2011).
Online culture is the culture, and inflexible, bland ‘corporate’ façades jar with consumers who live online where communication is immediate, open and raw (also see MATURIALISM). What’s more, people openly broadcast and share their lives online – flaws and all – and thus brands are increasingly expected to do the same.
Last but not least: human nature dictates that people have a hard time genuinely connecting with, being close to, or really trusting other humans who (pretend to) have no weaknesses, flaws, or mistakes – don’t assume brands are any different.

February 10, 2012

A few LinkedIn facts

LinkedIn is an ever increasing Professional Network. Currently at 135+ Million users (Jan 2012), the platform is used by professionals around the world, including job seekers, human resource departments, sales, business development and professionals of every sort. LinkedIn is one of the world’s most ideal professional business tools online today. The following are resources for everything on LinkedIn you would need for research, resources, “How To’s”, strategies, insights and much more.

Founded

May 5, 2003

Company Overview	LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 100 million members in over 200 countries and territories. The LinkedIn website launched in 2003 and currently counts executives from all Fortune 500 companies as members.
Mission	Connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
Contact Information	Phone Number: 650-687-3600 How to reach a live person: Press 1 when recording begins Email: customerservice@linkedin.com Hours of Operation: Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm PST

Company Background (Source: http://press.linkedin.com/about)

LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman in 2002.
The site officially launched on May 5, 2003. At the end of the first month in operation, LinkedIn had a total of 4,500 members in the network.
As of September 30, 2011, professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second.
The company is publicly held and has a diversified business model with revenues coming from hiring solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions.

LinkedIn Facts (Source: http://press.linkedin.com/about)

As of November 3, 2011, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 135 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
Fifty-nine percent of LinkedIn members are currently located outside of the United States.
There were nearly two billion people searches on LinkedIn in 2010. Based on third quarter 2011 metrics, LinkedIn members are on pace to do more than four billion searches on the LinkedIn platform in 2011.
Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., LinkedIn also has U.S. offices in Chicago, New York, Omaha and San Francisco. International LinkedIn offices are located in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Delhi, Dublin, London, Melbourne, Milan, Mumbai, Munich, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.
The company’s management team is comprised of seasoned executives from companies like Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, TiVo, PayPal and Electronic Arts. The CEO of LinkedIn is Jeff Weiner.
LinkedIn is currently available in fourteen languages: English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean,Malay, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
As of September 30, 2011 (the end of the third quarter), LinkedIn has 1,797 full-time employees located all around the globe. LinkedIn started off 2011 with about 1,000 full-time employees located all around the globe, up from around 500 at the beginning of 2010.

February 7, 2012

Is Facebook overstating it’s number of monthly active users

On the first page of Facebook’s prospectus for its sale of stock to the public, it pegs the number of its “monthly active users” at a whopping 845 million people. The social networking site arrives at an even more astounding number when it comes to “daily active users”: 483 million people.

Those are some huge numbers. If it is hard to believe that so many people are clicking on facebook.com every day, that’s because well, they aren’t, exactly. Those eye-popping numbers should have an asterisk next to them.

February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

The Coca-Cola Company: Social Media Monitoring on a Global Scale

The Coca-Cola Company’s Digital Manager of Communications, Natalie Johnson, shared how they monitored conversations about their brand on a global scale across the web.

January 31, 2012

Marketers Value Social Media for Both Branding and Customer Acquisition

As marketers include social media as part of their overall strategy, 97% agree that it provides benefits and value to their business.

In a survey of more than 700 marketers worldwide, 88% of respondents told Wildfire Interactive, a social media marketing software company, that social media helps grow brand awareness. Social media also benefited marketers by allowing them to engage in dialogue (85%) and increase sales and partnerships (58%). An additional 41% of marketers said it helped reduce costs.

January 19, 2012

Social Media ROI Metrics Still Chaotic

Brand marketers continue to struggle with determining return on investment for social media campaigns. Eighty-eight percent admit to gaining positive ROI on campaigns, but a study released Wednesday from Wildfire, a social media platform company, shows that the metrics remain all over the map.

While inconsistencies make it difficult to create and follow industry standards, Wildfire CEO Victoria Ransom said 75% of survey participants said they still plan to increase their social media budgets this year.

Gaining positive ROI is great, but what do marketers measure?

January 6, 2012January 6, 2012

Are You Afflicted With Social Media Proliferation?

Between Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube and other platforms, the average enterprise-class company has 178 corporate-owned social media accounts.

That’s according to a new report from Altimeter Group, which surveyed 140 companies with more than 1,000 employees. Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at Altimeter and the lead author of that report, says 178 are way too many, particularly because such accounts often lose steam after a while and go dormant.

“It’s just a poor customer experience, because it’s been abandoned,” he says.

It’s time to take a hard look at your company’s social media presence and pare down its accounts. A new Altimeter report offers an eight-point resource checklist to help.

December 30, 2011December 30, 2011

Study Predicts Growing Use Of Social Media In Healthcare

A recent study concluded that social media would continue to be a factor for healthcare providers and consumers while at the same time, ambiguous regulations, privacy concerns and a host of other factors limit how patients and healthcare providers use social media

Once these hurdles are overcome, the PwC report said, social media “will open new opportunities to improve health delivery and outcomes

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