Want a Google Boost?

Growing your word-of-mouth promotion could be as simple as adding a +1 button on your advertisements. Earlier this year, Google released the new feature, giving advertisers potential access to their target audiences’ social networks.

Consumers who view the +1 button next to a Google search result, ad or even an article they happen to be reading online can click it to publicly flag the content they like, agree with or recommend. When they do, that button will turn blue and be added to the +1 tab of their Google profile.

Let’s say two shoppers, Jennifer and Alex, don’t know each other and are independently searching for a holiday gift card program on Google. Jennifer comes across your mall’s site and is impressed by what she sees. She decides to click on the +1 button that’s next to the search result, publicly endorsing your site. Then Alex conducts his own search and also gets your website in his results. Seeing Jennifer’s +1 next to the search result might encourage him to peruse your site and perhaps buy one of your holiday gift cards.

Now imagine that Jennifer and Alex actually know each other and are connected via Google’s Gmail, Talk, Contacts, Circles, Reader or Buzz network. When Jennifer clicks the +1 button next to your center’s website address in her search results, Alex can see her recommendation and, this time, it will be from someone he knows, making the referral even more meaningful.

“When making decisions, people look for recommendations from their personal and professional networks, but tools like e-mail and activity feeds don’t give them an easy way to find them when they’re actually ready to make a decision,” noted Daina Astwood-George, a consultant with Toronto-based APEX Public Relations Inc., Google Canada’s PR agency of record.

“With a single click, the +1 button lets Google users who are signed in recommend the content they like on the Web to their contacts at the moment it’s most useful—during their Google search.”

Just as in the case of Facebook “likes,” you need to give your shoppers a compelling reason to click on the +1 button and even when they do, the endorsements remain fully under their control. In other words, they can be deleted from their +1’s tab as quickly they appeared. Consumers can also choose whether or not they wish to see the +1 annotations that include the names of people in their social networks—another step you might encourage with the right retail incentive.

The +1 button appears on Google Search, Google Ads and other company sites, such as Shopping and Blogspot. It can also be used as a plug-in for other, sites across the Web—it is shown 2.3 billion times daily on non-Google publishers sites.
For more information, visit Google.com/support/+/?hi=en and click on “+1’s”.


Aug.
2011
Posted in Digital Marketing
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