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I’ve written recently about Google’s latest venture into the social networking realm with Google Plus.
By now you probably know about all its bells and whistles and have heard countless arguments for and against its future success. Some people believe, like Google does, that Circles and Hangouts will fundamentally change the way we communicate online and that is reason enough for its success. Others believe that Google is too late to the social networking game and Google Plus will fall to the wayside like Wave and Buzz.

But at the end of the day, Google Plus’ success or failure comes down to a numbers game. Google Plus is reportedly sitting at around 40 million users (no report on how many of those users are actually active on the site) while Facebook has passed the 800 million mark. Yes, that means that Google Plus has plenty of room to grow. But that also means it has a lot of room to fail.

Google Plus and Facebook are both social networks. Networks, by their very nature, thrive on the connections between members of the network. Without those connections, there is no network. The 800 million users of Facebook have a well-developed network that contains their friends, family members, groups, restaurants, stores, etc. They know how to use the network, they know where everyone is in the network, they have established their personal network and are using it well. Now enter Google Plus. Initially, the innovators and early adopters all jumped on board to try out the latest Google product. But now Google Plus must move on to the next stage and attract the early and late majority of people. These are the categories where most consumers fall and these are the categories where products meet their fate.

However, the problem is not that Google needs a user to join its network; the problem is that Google needs the user’s network to join its network.

Many individual users have joined Google Plus, but they don’t come back because that isn’t where their network is. For Google Plus to be worth a person’s time, the user must be able to connect with people they know in a meaningful manner. Think about the old adage about a tree falling in the forest. If no one is around to read your content, did you really communicate? Even if the tree grew legs, danced and sang, no one knows it because no one is around.

Google is asking people to completely rebuild their online networks on a new platform. But what incentive do they have? We can talk all day about how Google Plus helps us better target our content, how much it will improve SEO, how we could one day integrate social into every aspect of our web experience! But at the end of the day, does the average internet user care? Or do they just want to look at their friends’ pictures and play Angry Birds?

The question Google must ask is “what will it take for the average person to abandon their online network of friends and completely rebuild it?” Why should someone open a Google Plus account and devote as much time to it as they do to Facebook when they will still have to maintain their Facebook profile… because that’s where most of their friends still are?

Neil Vidyarthi hit on this question exactly when he wrote that Google must create an incentive for people to come. He points out that Google is adding new features to Plus all the time, banking that one of those features will be the one to win us all over. But more importantly, Google is waiting for Facebook to make its next big mistake. The idea is that when Facebook does something so inexcusable, Google Plus will be ready and waiting for the flood of users looking to rebuild their network. And that may not be a bad strategy considering the past blunders that Facebook has had surrounding privacy issues and the always persistent threat of security breaches. But what about right now? I don’t think Google is satisfied with waiting for Facebook to fail. It looks like it will continue churning out new features and integrating Plus with more web experiences until the the winning ticket is found.

So what does this mean for your user account or your brand page? It means the exact same thing that it does for Google. Plus isn’t dead. It still might be the next big thing. You should be there, figuring out how it works, deciding what features work best for your needs, deciding how best to use them. It’s a sandbox right now. Play around, try different things. And when that flood of people finally comes pouring in, you’ll be waiting there for them ready to go with everything already figured out. Or Google Plus will shut down and you would have been part of a large social experiment that failed. But that’s the chance we have to take. After all, wouldn’t you rather be able to say you tried something and it didn’t work than have to say you ignored the next revolution in online communication?

Kleber & Associates (K&A), an Atlanta-based integrated marketing and communications firm specializing in the home and commercial building products channel, has been chosen as the public relations and social media agency  for the International Woodworking Fair (IWF). Now responsible for expanding brand awareness of the IWF event through media relations and online communications, K&A will head up these initiatives in an effort to promote and grow awareness of this bi-annual event.

“Recently, we have felt a need to expand  our reach into new business sectors,” said Michael Burdis, IWF 2012 Chairman and President of James L. Taylor Manufacturing Company, “With their experience in the building industry; Kleber & Associates was an excellent choice.”

IWF strives to be the tradeshow where industry leaders can find the latest innovative products, machinery, materials and design. IWF 2012 will be held August 22-25, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia USA at the Georgia World Congress Center.

“We are very excited to begin our work with IWF,” said Steve Kleber, president and owner of K&A. “Especially as the company plans to introduce new products and designs for their 2012 event in the months to come, K&A is honored to be entrusted with the task to help build the IWF brand through public relations and social media.”

About IWF- International Woodworking Fair

The largest woodworking technology trade show in the Western hemisphere is held every other year at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA, and is ranked among the largest trade shows in the world. Recognized around the world as the pre-eminent event for introducing and selling manufacturing equipment, supplies and innovative new technology, IWF attracts visitors from every level of the industry and over eighty countries and all fifty states.  For more information about the International Woodworking Fair, go online to www.iwfatlanta.com, or call 404-693-8333.

Very recently, Google made two big announcements – one you probably heard about, and the other you probably didn’t. Most people know that Google finally introduced brand pages for Google+, its social network launched this summer. Since the beginning, brands have been trying to get on to the site but Google has repeatedly denied their attempts, stating the network “wasn’t ready” for brands. But it seems like it’s finally ready. The brand pages have a similar look and feel to profile pages and allow users to subscribe to the page by adding it to a circle, just as they do with people profiles. And just like with Facebook and Twitter, it provides companies with another avenue to connect with their customers.

But more important than all that is the effect these pages will start having on search and online advertising. With the introduction of the +1 button, internet users could rate pages that they like, indicating to their friends which sites may be worthwhile and which are not. In essence, the +1 button made search more social. And now brand pages will make it even more social by aggregating all the +1 of a brand or company into a central location. The +1 history of a user and people in their circles will factor into the Google search algorithm to make search results more relevant to each person. In addition, this data will be factored into the Google Ad targeting algorithm, taking into account the +1 activity of a brand’s connections and the +1 activity of paid ads. Content that the brand generates with high +1 activity (on any platform) will feed information into the targeting information, allowing brands to better target ads and increase their influence. Google doesn’t just want brands to use this as another communication platform; it wants brands to increase their cumulative online presence.

Another announcement by Google last week flew lower on the radar and was overlooked by many companies in the excitement of Google Plus. Think Insights with Google was officially taken out of beta with a brand new look. The website is essentially a think tank of research about a variety of trends, industries and insights. For example:

• 70% of smartphone users use their device while shopping in stores
• Search activity doubles after becoming a mom: moms conduct 21 searches per week vs. 11 for non-moms
• Adding seller ratings to a search ad can boost click-through rates by more than 10%

In addition, Think Insights for Search (still in beta) also offers a wealth of information about search trends like:

• Canada produced the most searches for home building on the internet, followed by Australia and the US (Montana was the state with the highest number of searches for home building)
• Green home building is the top rising search in the home building category

Allowing you to organize search data by regions as small as cities, businesses can tap into this knowledge bank to improve their search optimization and online ad targeting. It also gives access to case studies and insights like the Zero Moment of Truth theory, organized by industry, media platform, audience, and marketing objective. I highly recommend that you spend some time on these sites… discovering what information is available.

All in all, it was a big week for Google and a big week for businesses looking to improve their online presence. How do you plan to use Google+ Brand Pages and Insights for your brand?