Social Developers Hopeful About Google+ Platform Potential
August 7, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Facebook has had a de facto monopoly on social platforms over the last couple of years, and until the launch of Google+ the main other options for developers been mobile — and those require a distinct set of product and marketing skills.
So you’d expect social developers, especially companies wanting to diversify beyond Facebook on the web, to be pretty interested in what happens with G+. Even so, we’ve been surprised by the optimism among companies we’re talking to, and they’re not just having wishful thoughts. The specific reasons: Google+ is a respectable product, it’s grown quickly, there are clear social communication channels like Streams where developers could promote discovery and engagement, and the transaction fee is likely to be quite low.
Here’s a look at where G+ is so far, followed by details about what a platform launch might mean.
Good Product and Solid Early Traffic Growth — What’s Next?
The initial set of features in G+ accomplished what at least a noticeable subset of internet users have been wanting — Facebook features without the Facebook part. Between the Stream, Circles, the integration with other Google products, and complementary launches like Hangouts, users can experience many of the positive social interactions and information-sharing dynamics that Facebook has defined. The initial result has been impressive traffic growth, with G+ reaching 25 million, according to comScore — and as every would-be platform company knows, the first step to attracting developers is having users to connect them to.
It’s clear that users who love Google and/or hate Facebook are on it in force. And that audience, in and of itself, ensures some sort of longevity for the service. The big unanswered question is how quickly Google+ is going to be adopted by mainstream users, especially considering that the majority of the US and many other countries are already on Facebook. Already, some third-party measurement firms are showing traffic slowdowns (although that data is qualified by the fact that Google has not yet fully opened registration to all users).
Still, the results so far are much better than its past efforts. Its OpenSocial platform standard was widely adopted by other Facebook rivals, but didn’t manage to create big alternative platforms. Buzz, an earlier social product meant to take on Facebook, had a variety of privacy issues and never fully got off the ground.
Going forward, Google is pushing big marketing campaigns and developing tighter integrations with its other products — one can imagine a version of G+ being quite useful for companies using Google Apps, who want a Yammer-style interface for sharing and discussing changes to Google Docs, emails, calendars, etc. All of those efforts should drive many more users.
But what will keep people coming back and socializing? Google still can’t duplicate anything like what Facebook did — launching quietly to closed groups of real-world young people, building on key viral features like Photos — that feature got college students to share their party photos with each other (and tag each other) back in 2006, and that type of voyeurism has been a key ingredient in Facebook’s growth, as evidenced by the massive ongoing popularity of its Photos product.
While Google has been integrating various other content properties, like its Picasa photo service, it doesn’t have the same set of compelling social features that Facebook has offered. And that’s where developers hope a social platform could come in, providing consistently entertaining activities for at least a portion of the user base.
What a G+ Developer Platform Might Look Like
Google has made a few official statements about a developer platform, but there’s plenty of evidence about what the company is up to.
It has been hiring product managers to do things like “Drive feature requirements for Google’’s gaming platform.”
It has a site up for developers interested in working on its platform to sign up for more information.
In an official guide to G+, a now-deleted line informed users that they could find game information in a dedicated “Games stream” that has not yet launched. This stream would presumably be similar to Facebook’s Games and Apps Requests bars on the left-hand column of its user home page, and serve the dual purpose of helping gamers play while keeping the inevitable social spam from polluting the Streams of everyone else.
Google+ source code includes some language about how Game invites might be phrased.
On top of product evidence, Google has also been busy hiring and acquiring gaming and platform talent. The biggest is Slide, a top social app developer on MySpace and Facebook in past years. After selling to Google for up to $228 million a year ago, some of its executives have taken on expanded roles building Google social products, while others are continuing to maintain games like SuperPoke Pets. Having seen all the pros and cons of platform live from a developer perspective, Slide’s team could help shape a platform that strikes the right balance for users and developers.
Other acquisitions include payments service provider Jambool, which more or less got forced off the Facebook platform when Facebook made Credits the exclusive paid currency, and is now helping to lead Google’s new in-app web payments product. Pricing, in contrast to Credits’ 30%, is apparently just 5% of the transaction revenue.
And, Google has also been investing in social gaming companies. At some point it put a significant amount of money into Zynga, although it didn’t confirm reports on the matter until it listed Google as one of its investors in its S-1 filing (which it was legally obligated to do). Earlier this year, it also led a big new round in hardcore social game developer Kabam. Now, both investments could be purely about making money on any platform, but an obvious line of thinking is that these two companies might be launch partners when the platform goes live.
Conclusion: Can Games Make G+ Entertaining?
Developers have regularly gotten hopeful about social platform alternatives to Facebook, but so far the main platform alternatives to emerge have been the not-very-social iOS and Android mobile platforms.
The early growth of G+, the long-term means that Google has to make it keep growing, and in particular the social and low-fee environment, look far more promising than anything else that social developers have seen in years. Some developers have told us that Facebook has been feeling the same way, and has gotten noticeably more responsive to developer issues in recent weeks (although to be fair, Facebook has been trying to improve developer relations since last year).
Expect Google to work hard to woo developers, and expect developers to experiment with G+ more intensely than they have been elsewhere.
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New, improved marketing manager
August 7, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
The role is fast changing from managing to being a growth champion.
The relationship between brands and consumers is growing more dynamic, challenging and multi-dimensional. New challenges are emerging with each passing day thanks to technological, social and cultural breakthroughs. These changes mean that the role of the marketer is undergoing immense change — and like brands, marketers also need to stay relevant with time.
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Two big shifts are impacting marketing at the macro level. Classically, a manager would make a business projection and work backwards on the marketing spends and the avenues thereon. Media would cost money and thus the marketing cost had to come out of product sales. But today a manager has the wherewithal to market a product before it is available, as spends are not a challenge in the new media vehicles like Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to the new forms and channels of media available, a sense of intrigue can be created around the products before launch and that too at no extra cost. This was not part of a conventional marketing plan, and hence, the profile of marketing managers.
India, by its sheer size and subsequently the scale that it offers, especially in categories like food, appliances or entertainment, develops its own trends that may not necessarily follow the tastes of developed markets. Managers in India face the task of leveraging local nuances and concerting the offerings into a global scale. Customers seek validation of their behaviour from family, community and culture. So the room for influence available to marketers is partial.
A case in point is the hair oil category that was deemed as a dying category in India by many multinationals and the brands kept changing hands. Till one company stuck to working with the consumer by making shampoo an ally and went on to create a large business on the basis of this one brand. And it has become large enough to expand overseas while keeping its foothold in India strong.
In the times that we live in, the marketing manager’s responsibilities extend beyond marketing strategies and programmes.
From managing to growing and creating: The marketing manager’s role needs to evolve from just managing to creating. Most of what is done under conventional marketing involves looking at the scenario in terms of the 5Ps of marketing, which essentially is only about market planning. But marketers need to be enablers of creation, moving from brand management to brand enhancement, from brand promise to brand action. From what a brand says to what it actually does. Nike’s ‘Just do it’ explains this shift. It’s a movement, a call for action.
Earlier, roles were clearly demarcated. CEOs would hold the fort for expanding and retaining the customer base, work on innovation, and be responsible for revenue management, while marketers would apply traditional marketing tools to fulfill that agenda. Now, it is imperative that marketers take part in transforming the business model. This creation process implies marketing as a growth centre and not a cost centre. There is a gap between what marketing is delivering and what can be delivered. From managing a brand it needs to be seen as a growth champion.
From managing an asset to adding value to the brand: While marketing is the new line function with the brand profit and loss, many marketing managers are still living in the staff function role. The marketing manager needs to be both a businessperson (left brain) and a marketer (right brain). While a creative background is an asset, the key for marketers is to understand and speak the financial language of business. The role now demands that marketers are equipped with a broader set of skills and personal qualities, and are able to demonstrate financial accountability using metrics like revenue, cash flow and profitability. This brings credibility during management meetings. From developing a marketing strategy after the business plan is made, the shift demands identifying opportunities where the company invests and has the capability to win consumers, thus creating business. Recent acquisitions of brands have shown ‘brand investeeship’ at play.
More partners to collaborate with: The marketers’ partners have expanded from marketing and advertising agencies. The rules of the game are constantly changing; retailers now offer significant influence in shaping consumer preferences. A marketer who sees retailers as allies in shaping consumer behaviour would be furthering the growth agenda of their categories.
From a broadcaster to an aggregator: It’s not about communicating to the consumer but with the consumer. A relationship is a two-way process. Marketers trying to control every interaction hinder the development of a real relationship with the customer because the customer base is fragmented and is looking for a conversation. The marketer needs to acknowledge that he/she is no longer a broadcaster pushing out messages but essentially an aggregator who brings together content, enables collaboration, and builds and participates in communities.
The views are personal.
DEVENDRA CHAWLA
President, Food Fmcg, Future Group
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