Two weeks ago today, Google released “Ripples” for Google+ and most of the world went on with their daily activities. Personally I thought it was just another one of those features that was interesting but nothing I could really use. That was until this Whiteboard+ video which I filmed with Rand. Both Rand and I were blown away at the amount of data a Ripple gives you and what you can do with it.
What is a Ripple
The definition of a “ripple effect” is: a spreading effect or series of consequences caused by a single action or event. When it comes to Google+ a Ripple is an interactive diagram that shows how a Google+ post spreads as it’s shared by users. You can find the Ripple of any public post using the dropdown to the right of the post.
You can quickly see who the top sharers of your content are, the timeline for which it was shared and other statistics. A quick look at this post shared by the Dalai Lama shows that there have been 1,414 recent public shares of this post. You can zoom into each circle and see the sharing within different circles.
At the bottom of the page, Google shows you the top Influencers, stats about how the post spread and the different Languages of the sharers. We’re going to dig into how to use the Influencer information to help you get your content shared by the right influencers, not only on Google+ but on other social sites as well.
Make That Ripple Effect Happen
Sometimes getting an influencer to share your content can be very difficult, if not impossible. Ripples provides an easy way for you to investigate who are the influencers of the influencers. Let me give you an example of how this might work in a real world situation. Let’s say I write a blog post on Google Analytics and am hoping to get Avinash Kaushik to share it, since he is a leader in the Analytics area. However, I don’t have a direct relationship with Avinash, so I need to find someone approachable who does.
Step 1 - Find an influencer
Look at Avinash’s Google+ page and see what type of content he is sharing with his circles. Find a post that he shared that has quite a few shares and view that Ripple. Look for a Ripple where the original poster has an account that is in a reasonable amount of Circles. Below is a Ripple I found that is perfect since it was originally shared by user with a small but strong following.
Since Avinash shared Michael’s content, there is some form of trust between Avinash and Michael. Even if it’s a fluke, there is a good chance that Michael may be an influencer on a different social network and could still be worth contacting.
Step 2 - Make a connection
Reach out to Michael and make a connection. All of his contact methods are displayed in his profile on Google+. Most users have linked their Google+ account to their Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts which gives you plenty of ways to reach out and make a connection. Establish some sort of “relationship” before asking him to share your content. I suggest that you provide something of value first or other comment on something he has posted as the first point of interaction.
Once a connection is made, share your content with him via Google+ and ask him to share. With luck he will share your content and it will catch the eye of Avinash and he will re-share it exposing it to thousands of more people than you had before. Even if Avinash doesn’t re-share it, you did get Michael to share your content and expose it to another group of people outside of your norm. Plus there is a chance that he will expose your content on other social networks which he may have more visibility on.
Step 3 - Rinse and repeat
Obviously you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket with Michael. Continue to see who Avinash is re-sharing and reach out to those people as well. Soon you will have contacted a large number of people who Avinash trusts and the chances of him seeing your post are much higher.
Another Ripple Effect Example
Below is a Ripple of a post recently shared by Cyrus Shepard. His post was re-shared by Jason Morrison which then John Muller of Google shared. Now even though only one person in John’s circles re-shared it, it was still put in front of a much wider audience thanks to John’s share.
Future Ripple Uses
If Google+ continues to create things like Ripples that share large amounts of data on how users are interacting with your posts, I could see Facebook stepping up their game with the current version of Insights. Think about if you could see how your Tweets were shared and what effect power users have on sharing your content.
Lastly, Ripples is “very experimental” according to Google which means that there is no clear vision where this is going. There have been no rumors of this ever making it to an API version or anything beyond what the current Ripple version does. Do you have any plans to use Ripples and how do you plan to use it?
Great post Casey.
Surely Ripples is a great way to analyse the virality of a content shared on G+, apart from seeing the influencers nodes that have boosted the virality itself.
It would be nice if Twitter could offer this kind of "Analytics" too, not just also Facebook, as for many kind of content sharing it is the social media of reference. Imagine a Ripple feature about hashtags: wouldn't it be wonderful in order to see how a trend is spreading across the social network?
I've just realized that I must read comments before post. I talk about the same as you. We, the Twitter lovers, would appreciate this kind of features on the content platform.
I feel like a kid in a candy store looking at the Ripples of a post. This data could be quite powerful also in doing competitive analysis and general community building. Being able to essentially see the "linkerati" (or sharers of content on Google+) is pretty amazing. You can quickly see in many cases, that reaching key influencers may not be as difficult to reach as you may have thought.
Thanks for putting this great post together Casey!
Competitive intel!! Now we're really talking. THis could be incredibly useful in that fashion as well. People you "ought" to be networking with etc. So much fun!
I was really excited about this feature, until I realized that none of my own recent G+ posts have any ripples :( Maybe I need to participate more than once/week ;)
Poor Pete, let me know the next time you post and I'll share it.....
Casey, fantastic use of graphics here. Really helpful.
We don't have the Google+ Ripples option in Brazil yet.. I hope we do soon.. But is nice to know about this function.
The google ripples are really nice way to demonstrate the spreading behaviour of the interesting contents and additionally, We get to know the Interested topics about the users(One,who re-shared the posts) this way we can get a fine list of these interested people and apart of that we get to know the relationship behaviour with different users,the most active user(One,who reshares most)
I liked the statistics representation and watching the spread of news in Time period! I wish someone makes more advanced usage idea of it..it's simply fantastic..even a Non marketer Guy would love to watch it...! awesome! Thanks!
I'm dreaming of Ripple comparisons for Google+, Twitter & Facebook in the SEOmoz Social tool some day .... :)
Sha
So glad you wrote this!! Been doing some playing with this feature for this very reason myself. I'm super stoked about the potential it has. Of course this is completely predicated on the fact that we need people to continue using G+....but details shmetails right?
Good job Casey!! Would love to see FB step up the game in their data as a result!
Thanks Kristy,
I'm hoping FB steps it up as well since I find their Insights interesting but not that great. Would love something more actionable from FB instead of just some demographics of people who like my page...
For sure. They've definitely got the data. Used to have a data-mart full of data we pulled from FB. Gave some really interesting information on "like-networks" that when matched with this type of influencer stuff could really make ads become targeted to a degree that's just insane. Ooooooooooooooooh future :)
Great article Casey! I will be updated myself for your future articles! -Alex
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Excellent post Casey! Looking forward to what other gems Google+ will come up with. Plus like many of the comments above me have stated, I can see Facebook being forced to improve their reports.
Awesome, Casey! Definitely some powerful analytical potential here. LOVE the concept of being able to find out who the influencers of influencers might be and targeting them.
Makes me wonder how someone could come up with something similar for Twitter by scraping people's followers and who they follow and discovering which people are being followed by larger Twitter accounts. These people would certainly be easier to influence, but may yield the same or even more potential impact than some of the larger accounts because of their high-trust, high-value connections.
Maybe a new product idea for the Moz team? :)
Thanks for covering this. I haven't really been involved with Google+ at all, I simply haven't had the time. Your post makes it much easier for me and I think that I might find some time to give it a go now! Thanks, Ryan
Hi caseyhen,
This is fantastic. Your early research and analysis on Google+ is Invitiable and really helpfull. This is also a right moov of google into social media networking. I am looking for competitive analysis with face book and twitter. How much it will be frienly and effective as compared to these major jiants in present time being in social media.
Really cool feature and thanks for the great coverage of it, Casey. I really hope Google will expose this in API format quickly. While it is great, as you point out, to look for influencer behavior in individual posts, it would be amazingly helpful to view aggregate behavior across thousands of posts.
For instance, maybe your example above was the ONLY time that Avinash re-posted Michael's content. If that were true, then maybe he isn't a priority target. But if you could see that 40% of his posts are shared by Avinash...well, you've found yourself an influencer!
Thanks, Jason
Sounds interesting! I guess people that would like to advertise will have great benefit from this ripple effect. If this is also applied in Facebook, i'm sure a lot of advertisers or online shops will consider trying it.
Is it just me or do ripples no longer allow you to see where a post originated? It seems that when I look at the ripples for a post, I can only see where the post from that point onward - I can't see anything in the past.
For example if I look at Avinash Kaushik's Google+ page & look at the ripples for some of his shares, I can only see which people shared it AFTER him, and not who shared it BEFORE him. I can't see where he got it from...
Great content! Let's start using Ripples :-)
Is it just me or do ripples no longer allow you to see where a post originated? It seems that when I look at the ripples for a post, I can only see where the post from that point onward - I can't see anything in the past.
For example if I look at Avinash Kaushik's Google+ page & look at the ripples for some of his shares, I can only see which people shared it AFTER him, and not who shared it BEFORE him. I can't see where he got it from...
I can't see this on my Plus posts, or other peoples posts, has ripple been disabled?
Hi! Make sure that your posts are public. That's the only way that Ripples appear.
Hope that helps!
Finally something for us right-brain thinkers! Kudos.
Am off to check out the ripple tool and check out whether my stuff has ripped.
This is where Google scores over Facebook - I'm sure Facebook has similar data, but they just won't share it.
It's incredible how we can manage our contacts in favour of our interest (good interest, of course). It gives you a broad overview of your network, and the people within your circles networks. Possibly, it's easier and faster than Twitter, where you have to visit your follower's profiles and then, your follower's follower's profiles. Luckily there are tools that make this step less difficult (I think about SocialBro), but, no doubt, Google has gone one step further with Ripples.
The big Google is moving so fast at the moment it's a bit tricky to keep up - but really exciting times nonetheless! I'll have to get my head around Ripples but it looks as though it could be really useful in engaging with a brands top advocates.
Saying that I've only just got my Google+ Page set up. Note to self - I must get on top of the Google social side of things.
I see that both Facebook and Twitter have made some changes recently in the fightback - it's nice to see some competition in the social sphere, I just hope Google doesn't win and absolutely dominate that side of things as well - like they've done in the search sphere.
Ripples is the just so that convergence of SEO & Social......don't you wish we could just pause the internet for a moment, my head hurts with the possiblities.
Two weeks ago (!?) and this is the first time I play with this feature... I think I'm getting out of touch.
Don't feel guilty... You and all of us are suffering an update overload lately :D
I am waiting for my brain implant to interface directly with Google.
In all fairness, Google has done a really good job of training us to largely ignore, and not take seriously, their social endeavors :)
and now we have to worry about the business pages on Google +... def update overloaded!
I agree Casey this is a powerful feature, I think it has huge potential, I really like how it graphs together your networks too.
I think another feature google will rank up soon is Sparks too, I mean we have had all the press with Business pages, which have bee interesting but it is the things which go on in the background which make a big difference too =)
but great post overall.
That tool looks extremely powerful; I never thought about using it that way. I'm trying to build my network on Google+ because I can see how critical it will become in the near future. The Google+ intergration into the search results is a big tell to me.
Great post Casey, I hadn't paid much attention to Ripples, this is the reminder and encouragement to do so :-)
Thanks for the great post! I feel out of the Google + loop a bit and will have to read up on all the new features they're updating!
Great post I have a google + badge on my site but have not done much with it. Clearly there is some potential here. Video was great
What a Review Casey! I don’t use Google+ much and that is the reason i don’t take Google+ updates seriously, but this new update is super amazing. The ways you actually review it (with examples) actually open my mind to so many ideas...
This is one of the powerful ways to grab more eye balls in a short amount of time all one need to work on the right person to share the content, like you give the example of Avinash Kushak.
I guess i have to spend some more time on Google+ and keep my eye open for the new updates...
I couldn't have imagined the potential of this feature. You've made a great job, Casey!
It's incredible how we can manage our contacts in favour of our interest (good interest, of course). It gives you a broad overview of your network, and the people within your circles networks. Possibly, it's easier and faster than Twitter, where you have to visit your follower's profiles and then, your follower's follower's profiles. Luckily there are tools that make this step less difficult (I think about SocialBro), but, no doubt, Google has gone one step further with Ripples.
Thank you very much. You have broaden my vision of Google+. Thanks again.
Wow! What a useful tool. I haven't checked it out yet, but this looks like something that could be really valuable for brands and businesses. It'll be good to see how far your content is really reaching.
"However, I don’t have a direct relationship with Avinash, so I need to find someone approachable who does."
I am meeting with Avinash tomorrow at 9:30am for his Analytics Ninja Training Course at Market Motive. I'll tell him to share your stuff. By the way Mozzers, I recommend wathcing the video on that link I posted.
Glad to see Google challenging Facebook and Twitter with such analytics data. Of course it make much more sense for big sharers, heavy users, but that's their core audience for now.