Music selection to enjoy while reading this post: Love Me Two Times by The Doors
Quick - who am I describing with these sentiments: great, awesome, interesting, cool, better than Facebook, annoying, boring, stupid...
You got it (and of course the title of the post probbbbably gave it away) - Google Plus (aka Google+ aka Google plus 1 aka the Facebook Killer aka that new Google social thing).
Those terms are just some of the emotions that people have around the product. In a nutshell, people are amped about Google+, as you can see from this sentiment chart that shows positive and negative sentiment for Google Plus over the past few weeks.
But 35% of people talking online about Google+ are doing it on Twitter, followed by 24% on blogs and 16% on social networks, so I have to wonder how many of us talking about it are talking about it because we're /*nerds*/ and #social #media #marketers who can't help but squeal like schoolgirls about good ol', sock-em-in-the-eye-with-the-next-big-thing Silicon Valley rivalry in the hottest online movement since the indoctrination of Web 2.0.
I also can't help but wonder if we GeekTechMarketerNerds are skewing the sentiment, since people I've talked to in the real world (like, not through a computer) have often said "yeah it's cool but now what do I do?"
So what's really behind all of this positive sentiment? Let's look under the hood. Of 5,332 sound bites (aka mentions) expressing positive emotions for Google+, 21% like it and 16% love it. On the negative side, 34% hate it and 19% don't like it (that's from a smaller segment of 736 sound bites).
People who expressed positive emotions other than "love" or "awesome" seem to like it rather lackadaisically with somewhat weak emotions like "interesting", "enjoy", and "cool". The smaller group of people who expressed negative emotions seem to be a bit more ferocious with "hate", "f*ck", "annoying", "boring", "evil" and "stupid".
We can also look at the intended behaviors people have expressed around Google Plus. With Google's need-to-know-someone-in-the-in-crowd invitation-only launch it's only natural that 17% of the positive behaviors were made up of "need" and "want".
Most people are talking about using it, and more people are talking about trying it than switching to it.
Negative behaviors are even more interesting: 21% don't get it, won’t get it or can’t get it, 5% think it's a waste, 8% don't want or need it, and 2% don't trust it. Ouch. But again, the negative sentiments overall were on a much smaller scale, so there are fewer of these than positives.
Lastly, inquiring minds want to know… Is Google+ a Facebook killer? Well, here's what the data tells us: 13% of the positive “likes” about the product are people saying they think it’s better than Facebook, 13% think Google+ makes it easier, and 9% think Google can do more things better than other competitive products. A sign of what's in store or just the sentiment of a bunch of us over-excited geeks? Tough to say.
What does Google still have to work on? An easy way to get an RSS feed seems to be top-of-mind, followed by other technical limitations, their terms of service, and maybe just being a little less scary to some people. Oh, and is it too late to do something about that name...(and their use-your-real-name profile policy)?
Next reports to run...Google Panda?
21% won’t get it or can’t get it <- doesnt make any sense to me to group those together
I agree. It was what the tool defaulted to, although I'm sure it could be tweaked farther.
Even if someone doesn't like it you simply HAVE to participate anyway
a) to find out what this hype is all about
b) to really get to know Google+ and then you can decide if you like it or not
c) as marketer / SEO etc. you have to deal with it - you own that your customers
100% Agreed. Plus the indirect SERP impact through +1 and circles is not to be overlooked.
I can see the +1 being totally spammed within the next 6 months.
I agree!
Participating in new resources/tools/products is how we learn about them.
And Google+ influences the search results, so for me how much do I care about people loving it or hating it. Actually I don't care, as an SEO I have to adapt to it and face the circumstances!
The recent riots happening in England, most of these rioters are communication through BBM & Social Media networks (Facebook & Twitter) but no mention of Google +, so it still has a long way to go to target different types of audiences!
Nevertheless great post Laura.
Google+ wasn't linked with the riots as most people (other than us tech geeks) don't have an account yet and I don't think there are any mobile apps for it yet. The rioters were using BBM and Facebook on the move to organize. In the future though I wonder if these folks would have a Google+ circle of "riot buddies"?
I'd agree that marketers should be participating for the reasons you've listed, but I don't think the general public does. As much as I want to see Google+ replace Facebook, it isn't a dramaticaly new product which is going to make everyone feel like they are missing out on something, unless the people they want to listen to start speaking exclusively through Google+. I think people have realized pretty quickly that Google+ isn't a hover car breakthrough, it is just another model of car with a few different options. The only difference being that, as many have stated, it is unlikely that both Google+ and Facebook will co-exist long term.
This post wins in my book for best closing sentence of the year (so far). I would love to see the Google Panda report.
Laura this is a great resource.
Colleagues and I often get into hardcore discussion about the impact that Google+ will trully have or if it is going to be another "Google Buzz." It is nice to have articles like this to reference to.
I guess the take away is that the sentiment is not all that bad, and there is still more to come. But it is telling that " 35% of people talking online about Google+ are doing it on Twitter"
I think we will need to wait to see what Google does with the business pages for Google+ this will be a huge component of the product imo.
Because if it is set up wrong and in a spammy way, it will drive away users. I think if the team comes up with the right method for business pages it will be a Huge game breaker.
but overall great analysis on sentiment, I have done a fair bit in this area usually around brand sentiment using different tools to what you have it is a great area to be in.
I agree, there are two things what one should look forward to in Google+.
1. Business Pages
2. Entertainment section (a.k.a. games)
Business pages if executed in a spammy way or it contain a good room for spammers then great amount of business owners who are using social media to build their online presence and grow their business with the help of online mediums will move from G+ just like that…
Currently there is no room for mafia war and farm villa on G+ right now and no one can deny the fact that a large amount of traffic on facebook plays games and involved in related activities… if Google wants to drive that traffic they need to come up with innovative ideas in the entertainment section…
I'm in this boat too. I imagine a G+ business page where I can segment a customer base into circles based on all kinds of demographics (location/age/conversion/ect) and be able to target them specifically with products, offers, and content that they would be interested in.
That'd be pretty fantastic.
If businesses are on Google Plus and general public users begin to use the service regularly, will this type of targeted marketing draw large amounts of traffic away from AdWords?
Possibly not, but it will be fascinating to see how Google Plus plays out as a new marketing tool for services and products during the coming months.
Maybe they'll integrate a PPC model into Google Plus?
i agree 100%
I think the speaker at MozCon 2011 said it best - Google+ is a "third sock". It isn't really doing anything new for me, why do I need it?
Plus, do we really want Google to be the biggest player in every aspect of the internet? I would prefer they take Google+, put it in the trash can next to Google Buzz, and focus on what they are good at.
Can Google actually give an advantage in the SERPs to people using Google+, or to sites that are shared upon Google+, more so than they do to things that are shared on Facebook or Twitter? It seems highly immoral and I suspect that it might also be illegal as it would essentially constitute a form of bribery would it not?
I guess the second question to ask would be how would we know if this was the case? With the algorithm a closely guarded secret, how could it ever be proven beyond reasonable doubt that Google were giving an unfair advantage to those utilising Google+? Who do Google answer to?
Excellent!
What are the comparative net sentiments for Facebook and Twitter?
As far as brands go, Google is guaranteeing to get them on G+ because of the difference it can make in search results—if someone shared a post/site in your circle, it will come up higher in the SERPs. But getting the brands on doesn’t mean getting the rest of us, that only works vice versa.
Part of an SEOs job is figuring out what is genuine hype and what is just hype in our community. None of my friends in the non-online marking world were even remotely interested in this, even after I sent them an invitation. May a handful signed up, and of those few, none of them have posted, etc.
I have to say I’m rooting against it because of what the implications may be to search results, not as it affects my job but as it’ll affect the spread of knowledge and small businesses.
Next……
I use Google apps and hosted mail for both my work and personal email and have multiple Adwords accounts set up. I have to open multiple browsers (FF, Chrome, and Safari open @ all times) to manage everything (yes in addidtion to multiple MCCs). Signing up for Google + requires Google Profiles to be set up. You can't set up Google Profiles with an account using Google apps or already associated with Google services. You can't even add it as an alternative log in for a dummy account you set up.
So yeah I created a bogus gmail account to look at it, but no way I'm logging in and out of my other accounts all day to actually use it.
There are MANY complaint threads about this, and here's one! https://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Apps/thread?tid=1b296c46c43d4980&hl=en
I don't understand how it's not affecting you guys if you are web marketers. It blows me away Google is putting their true geeks and early adopters on the backburner. I think this will really hurt their chances. They said they'd fix the issue with Apps users not being able to make Profiles BACK IN MARCH lol.
So once Google fixes the issue with apps users creating profiles, then everyone will either have to use it as an alternate account or delete the temp account and start over, because in Google + you CAN'T change the mail email the account is associated with. Another odd feature that makes no sense.
Sure it's in beta, but they need to pull their heads out about issues like these if they really want to dominate. If the early adopters and apps users turn their back on it, that's a very influencial dominate group they're writing off. It will be reflected in blogs and social media as well as conferences and websites posting the Google+ icon.
Very informative post! I think now that they have released games perhaps there will be more positive sentiments about Google + as they will be more to do.
To be completely honest, I'd rather see Diaspora rising to be the Social Network To Rule Them All.
But I don't really see that happening anytime soon. Still, if hobbits can destroy the One Ring...
I was an early beta tester for Google+ and have watched its somewhat spectacular rise. In general I like it far more than Facebook which is annoying with its games and damn "mafia family" invites. I am a power Twitter user and I prefer Twitter to Google+ because of its brevity. While "circles" seems to be the main innovation, Twitter's lists perform a similar incoming (although not outgoing) function and allow me to screen out the noise of my 9,000 followers. I think that Google+ will be far more of a Facebook killer than a Twitter killer; at least I hope so. If anyone is interested, please follow me @ptaylor98 on Twitter, or on Google+. I think the web has room for both Google+ and Twitter.
I agree with some of you. Not too impressed, but I am definitley waiting to see how they integrate businesses.
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your post Thank you
Good break down of the way people are responding to the Google Plus Network. I personally want to see how all this will play out in the SERP's.
Well recently i got one article where there two gruops in their college. One is Google+ and other FB users. Very strange but true.
A big reason for the inital success of Google+ has been the gMail accounts. Another few months before the facts are out.
Re-tweeting this post! :) Some people might agree with me that they also felt this ambivalent feeling towards facebook or tweeter or some other applications when it started. Some says its addictive, some says its a waste of time and some just registered and never opened their accounts anymore. Google plus might be difficult to understand at first since its a new application, but once you get the hang of it, it'll be just like facebook, with its frequent updates and new applications.
Just pray to God that Microsoft doesn't come out with their own social network to rival Google.
Oh wait, just Googled it and my fears have been confirmed.
It even has an odd name to boot.
I personnaly dont like at all theses fonctionnality... videos are not embeding like facebook does and many feature are not user friendly.
Here in Brazil, I believe that Google has not yet reached a very large potential to try entering the fray of other social networks. After the news of this new social network, no doubt there was a leveraged new users here. Since then it's kind of stopped.
Google+ has a long way to go to be anywhere as good as facebook; I'm still testing it and seeing how it works, but for now I will continue to use facebook more than I will use Google+.
I was pleased to see there were no games on +. Hoped it would be a network from "grown-ups". Sadly yesterday they've announced that games are go!
I don't hate Google + and I think it deserves more time... But as of now, I love Facebook more than Google +...
Thanks
Too complicate.. still missing this.. thanks
Until Google+ adds fanpages and business pages, all the "fun" interaction that you see on Facebook won't transfer to G+
Google Plus is the new and dynamic approach for social networking to the people who is using the social networking sites for the purpose to connect themselves in the entire big world. Nowadays, Facebook is going to be the first and the best choice for the users to connect themselves. Both are having, infact all, same features but there is a slightly bit difference provided by vendors to be different from the other social sites and the major difference is the graphical forms of these web sites.
At last the conclusion is that the comfortness and reliableness differ from people to people, thats why i think both the social sites are on the top of the market.
Great post! I love all the data you collected. Google+ had such a strong opening - everyone was talking about it for a while and now I hardly hear anything about it. But of course this is only based on the online people... those in the real world who aren't hyper-connected don't know anything about it and never did!
It's still too much of a shiny toy for the tech community to be able to judge how successful it will be. At the moment we can only have a play and learn how it works, the real test will be in how many people actively use it once it's fully opened up.
Reading into what people are saying about G+ is fine too, but I know countless numbers of people who claim to hate Twitter and Facebook yet spend their whole lives glued to it. I think we should wait a bit longer to see what people are actually doing with Google+ rather than what they're saying about it.
I personally think that Google+ will never pick up but that is my personal view and I don't want anyone to take offense to that. It worries me also that Google haven't yet created clean URL Strings for a Profile rather than being labelled as a number like 6565353, it doesn't make you feel very good :(
I know its just a one month but i think Google should allow custom URL instead of those numbers that didn't give a very good feel...
In my opinion Google+ will stay but kicking facebook to be no.1 is not happening any time sooner!
I do feel that we should grant Google a chance just as we should with utter most everything, the crack of the whip is not determined until the end. The custom URL issue will, I am sure be solved accordingly and soon however sooner would be better.
I think there was a massive buzz about Google+, mainly because it was Google.
The whole 'invites' scheme I also think drove interest, people wanted to see what it was. Now that most people have access and have seen it's capabilities, they will start to migrate back to Facebook & Twitter unless Google+ starts a massive resergence - like was seen when people moved from myspace to Facebook. However, the same trend won't be seen where people use Facebook & Twitter simultaneously because Google+ is basically another Facebook.
The interesting part of Google+ is it's relation to increasing Google ranking, this I am interested by.
I think Google+ will take a lot longer to be widely adopted than many people expect. I suspect much of its current popularity is due to business speculators attempting to get ahead of the curve, in anticipation of Google+ becoming the next Twitter and the next SEO coup, rolled into one.
Google+ has a long way to go - especially in terms of what if offers to brands. But because of its obvious potential to influence search results and the anticipation that the power of Google will make it a major social network, a lot of people are already on the band wagon and many more will follow.
Few of the members already mention this. It is still early to say that, however I believe that there will be change in the arrangement after about 6 months and probably Google+ will be 2nd biggest network after Facebook and many of this will be related to new algorithms which will favor user reviews.
I know there was a good month and a half that half of the tweets consisted of nothing but how good google+ was. Now I barely see anyone talk about it anymore.
Everyone that's on my google+ account is just a fellow it'er. I haven't seen many woman to...
Laura,
This is a great post - some of the data is awesome!
I think that the hype has died down now, I consider the whole thing to be massively anticlimactic.
Once again, great post!
Paul
Thanks Paul!
I'm looking forward to running the data again in a few months (maybe as kalseo mentions below - in 6 months or so). Will be interesting to see what the sentiment is beyond the hype.
great post! I mean , Google+ is not a real thing for me yet, but I keep an eye on it, because I'm curious. I'm not a big fan of Facebook either: the only thing I know is I'm really enjoying Twitter.
Google+ is not adding anything new to me, and to my social experience. I've talked to many people around and the feeling was always the same: "yeah, it's cool but I don't know what to write in it because I'm using facebook and twitter already". It seems to me that people desperately want to differentiate what they write on the many social networks they own, rather then decide which one is fitting them the most and keep using it.
I think we have to wait until it gets taken up by regular internet users rather than people in industry to see whether it's going to be a success or not.
Ask anyone about Google + who works in SEO and they rave about it, but if you ask people outside the industry they have never heard about it.
Only time will tell I guess
Great post! Google +
I've been following social media experts like Chris Brogan and Jeremiah Owyang to see how they're using Google+. They seem to be posting personal content like pictures of their food and their personal life. Every post they make gets endless comments like "nice picture" or "I love sushi too!". It seems like many Google+ users are social media beginners who are not adding value to the conversation. They're just making useless comments which is disappointing. It will be interesting to see how Google+ evolves and how it will be accepted.
Wonder what's the data on the phrase "now what", because that's the sentiment I hear most from my in-person social circle. or as Laura said "yeah it's cool but now what do I do?". Maybe it's part of the 21% under the group "not get". and perhaps some of the 13% positive that say G+ "makes it easier" are actually saying "G+ please make it easier for me to search topics or find people to follow".
Looking at the dislikes graph, I notice that there is no one thing that stands out among the others. This is both good and bad. It means that Google+ is doing a good job of not being horrible for most users, but could still improve. It has the potential to become the social network everyone wants it to be, or it could fail miserably. We still can't tell.
Google+ is very superior to Facebook in my opinion. However, my normal friends aren't using it. They have spent years building up their list of Facebook friends. They love playing Farmville and all the silly games. It is kind of like the pc vs mac argument. If you want to get "real work" done then you like Mac. If you play World of Warcraft then you are most likely a pc user. If you like easy organization of friends and quick access to information then you like Google+. If you want your horoscope of the day, then Facebook.
Hello, Laura
An amazing post. Graphical presentation for Google+ is best for understanding and some information is good. yes Google+ really good and works.
I would give it another few months and ask this question again!!
The survey conducted by Appcelerator reveals Google + to rise as the new social networking giant, leaving behind Facebook
https://radiomobiletech.com/news/news-news/google-will-go-beyond-the-confines-set-by-facebook.html
I don't think you'll ever beat facebook
maybe tho. Agree 100% there will be only one.... people like my dad will only use one social network (and that barely). I must still check facebook because the majority of the people I'm personally interested in update there and not on G+. the adoption rate for the single-network users is the crux for who "wins".
G+ isn't better than Twitter (it looks like Twitter, but not so cool). G+ will monopolize the social net in a few years I think. Look at organic SERP... Google Authorship displaying avatars of G+ profiles in SERPs forcing webmasters to register and use this social engine to raise CTR in SERP...
There are two types of individuals who add to these stats: The technically advantaged and the technically handicapped. The technically handicapped still have yahoo or hotmail accounts while the technically advantaged will use a gmail account. Those who actively follow and write blogs will 'get' google+. Those who physically goto major websites for their information instead of using an RSS reader feeder, have a yahoo email address, and are active on facebook will have a harder time integrating toward google+.
Google+ is very blog like, but in a social way. It's far more sophisticated; I quit using facebook long ago. If you want quality content, use google+. However, if you want to know how your old high school friends, who you'll never see, are doing on farmville, than facebook is probably a better fit.