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Google+ and Non-Profit Organizations

Table of Contents Introduction G-Morph: Hype and Sustainability G+: What s in it for non-profits Best Practices Page(s) 1 1 2-5 5-6

Introduction
Google + is the talk on the social media streets. The buzz around it is not unfounded. Within 3 weeks of its launch, Google+ reached 20 million members. This is quite phenomenal (it took Facebook 3 years to get there). Google is basically leading the field in terms of search engine popularity (Google), cloud computing and apps (Google Docs) and online picture and video sharing (Youtube and Picasa). Their prior attempt to go into social network (Buzz) was not as successful. However, the comeback through G+ is a strong one, with a new concept behind it. Through G+, Google provides its user with a one-stop experience integrating its core services search engine, online media sharing, GPS mapping and other multimedia capabilities that it provides - to enable networking from a different perspective. It accomplishes all this without compromising privacy and agency on the user s part. It ll be interesting to, first, understand what is spurring this phenomenal growth, questioning its sustainability as well as whether how suitable Google+ is for nonprofits and also when and how to start interacting with the platform.

G-morph Hype and Sustainablity

So what s driving Google + s growth? Apart from the usual gold rush effect stimulated by new products released to the market, the history of the social media landscape also provides valuable insight. The social media landscape prior to Google + was dotted with the ever-cropping issues about user privacy. Facebook has borne the brunt of this, with its lax privacy policy coming under constant fire. Google + has worked tirelessly to center its user experience on this concept of control. From circles to sparks to hangouts to huddles, Google provides the user with the power to explicitly gauge how much privacy and reach they want to have. This is largely unlike other platforms, which also have amazing features as well but favor open information flow at the expense of personal privacy. This has been the biggest ticket for Google s meteoric rise it is a new user experience with a different focus, a focus that is of most importance to its membership.

2 What about sustainability? How will Google + maintain the hype1 it has created so far? I believe the answer for this question lies in the G+ feature offering and dynamism characterized by Google. Google + comes with a neat interface loaded with features which not only enable better privacy control but also more propensity to share material. In order to enhance the user experience on Google +, Google has combined Google Profiles and Google Buzz and other new features. It is worthwhile remembering that Buzz was a mishit and Google Profiles never really got traction on the Internet (at least compared to other social networks). Google s ability to learn quickly from past mistakes and use them to scale bigger heights is what will guarantee its sustainability. John Haydon s rallying cry is that social media is about people, not technology. We are going to see Google experiment a lot more with this new platform in a way that s both refreshing and daring as they seek to optimize their users experience. Another issue of concern is to whether Google + will hit critical mass necessary to drive enough conversation on the platform in order to form a self-perpetuating social space. To give an idea about this critical mass or social inertia , think of Facebook which has 700 million users, and each user spending some 700 minutes a month on the site. This combines for a staggering 490 billion minutes. This is in addition to the fact that the average Facebook user is connected to at least 80 pages, groups and/or events and creates 90 pieces of content per month. This level of interconnectedness and membership is enough to sustain Facebook as a networking platform if not ensure persistent growth. It took 7 years for Facebook to get to this level. It is not easily estimable what will be the tipping point for Google + beyond which we won t have to worry about its sustainability. However we are sure that if it maintains the amount of growth it is experiencing, it should reach the target sooner than Facebook did. Ultimately though, it is the users who ll have to determine this.

What is In Google + for non-profits?

Google is in the process of developing specialized accounts for brands and businesses, and hopefully non-profits as well. The accounts will have Google analytics and other more sophisticated sharing options2. As a result, figuring out what is in Google + for nonprofits will be a continual process, working off the various experiences that nonprofits will have. However, its feature offering is quite commendable, taking the best from Twitter and Facebook and working a way to improve on it. The chart below tells it all.

- http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/report-googleplus-seeing-a-traffic-slump/2011/07/28/gIQAxRUAfI_blog.html 2 - http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/22/google-plus-business-profiles/

Credit: http://www.mediabistro.com.

a) A tremendous offering of customized features Sparks, Google s newsfeed not only encourages the use of more video and imagery in articles posted, it is also open and searchable throughout the web. Also given Google s deep information about its users, will enable groups to receive tailored news about the causes they support, not only from their peers but also from other sources. Think Google alerts without a flurry of emails. For advocacy and campaign-based organizations, this is music to the ears. For crowdsourcing information, disaster response and crisis mapping, Circles will be a point for networking but also points of organic and collaborative crowdsourcing, which characterizes crisis mapping. For example, one can easily create a Famine in Somalia and add the relevant movers and providers of information and as such has access to information and also be able to disseminate it across your other circles as well. b) Wealth of curiosity and social media expertise. As nonprofits venture into Google +, it will not be as blind as an exercise as it were when most ventured into Facebook and Twitter late last decade. Prominent social media gurus have come up since then, John Haydon, Beth Canter, Geoff Livingston to mention but a few. These leading social media stars are leading the way into Google

4 +, posting tips and starting discussions about the new platform giving due guidance and more importantly confidence about the new platform. In addition these discussions are taking place on Google+ itself in addition to other social media platforms on how best to navigate the new platform. This curiosity is definitely going to maintain the buzz and pomp around Google+ for a while. The level of innovation and mystery around G+ is essential, great and exciting. It draws massive parallels with what social media activism and communities are built around: spontaneity, constant discussion and novelty. Given these levels of discussion, I believe nonprofits experience on Google + will be more informed and productive than what they had on other platforms. c) Extensions. It is surprising how much Google is ready to invest in this new platform. Talk of about 20 more features to be launched on the platform in the next 12 months, is already on the Internet. However, what is even more exciting is the fact that users can program and add their own extensions. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, where programmability is limited, Google + has the malleability of Chrome and this is in effect power in the hands of its users. We all know the reach that such development improvements have had for Chrome - Google Chrome is now threatening Firefox for second-place in the web browser market. Who knows? Maybe Chrome might challenge Microsoft Internet Explorer for first place someday. Use the same analogy to Facebook and Twitter, and we have a formidable opponent. Moreover, this essentially means it will be the first time that non-profits can actually provide their circles/friends lists with custom avenues through which they can actively participate in their causes aside from tools provided by the social media platform they are on. Isn t that just powerful? d) Paradigm shift. I recently came across these two websites http://www.recommendedusers.com/bloggers/ and http://causepl.us/. Both give lists of people and organizations that engage in some level of leadership both in the technology and social media spaces as well as non-profit causes. Google + users interested in various causes can easily follow these individuals and organizations. It is interesting to note that we don t have an equal across other social media platforms. The social interaction paradigm on Google + is profoundly different from what we have seen on other platforms. Collaboration and commonality are the baseconcepts behind it. The utility behind circles is that two-way communication is based a lot more on what the user cares about and is willing to form relationships and discussions about rather than just plain sharing of information, which so characterizes Twitter and Facebook. This is not to say the models of social interaction on Facebook and Twitter are necessarily bad the world thrives on information but it is also undebatable that Google + s concept is much more organic and sustainable. Social media is about the people, not the technology.

Best Practices
The question of best practices is always the crux of such a report. Given the analysis, what is the best way to work through Google +? A disclaimer first - Google is yet to release brand profiles. It hopes to do so in the fall, they are currently testing out the brand profiles with a few companies and non-profits. Hopefully, we ll be getting some more inforation pertaining that. However, that does not mean that we should not indulge. Moving swiftly to what you need to do on Google + : a) Sign up for a Google Account (and subsequently Google Plus). This has a lot of advantages but prime among them is the fact that you will receive a notification when Google Plus goes live for all. Our research has shown that early adopters have a significant edge as regarding productivity on a web social platform. Although Google + does not allow brand pages as yet, sign up on a personal profile and learn from the already vibrant community in Googleverse. What you gain from this early interaction will benefit your future interaction with the platform either as a brand or otherwise. b) Add links to your Facebook, Twitter etc pages to your Google Plus profile Old advice it is but still relevant, perhaps even moreso with the collaborative and community-focused Circles. As you go about adding people(and as others add you to their circles), the About page will be of great importance as you look for points of commonality. The links will not only give the potential followers access to what you do as an organization, but also enable your other platforms to impact more people. c) Ease into Google Plus A lot of hype is revolving Google + at this point. And this is with good reason, given Google s pervasiveness on the Web and the tremendous impact that might have on the reach and social strength Google + might eventually have. Nonetheless, this does not mean that you kill off or spend fewer resources on your existent social network. Diversification of your brand is key because your audience also varies across social networks. Let Facebook and Google struggle over whose platform will be champ. Focus more on leveraging their resources to build your identity across their audiences.

6 This is the short summary about Google +. More will definitely come as Google opens the platform to the public and also released brand-profiling tools as well. Till then, stay put and indulge in Google +.