Should You Fuss with Google+ as an MLM Marketer?

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You may have heard some of the buzz around Google+ or Google Plus. With a growing base of around 20 million marketers, should you divert your attention away from what you are already doing and jump into Google+ marketing or is it simply too early? In this blog I interview social media guru Eric Walker and get his thoughts on the matter.

What is Google+?

Google plus is an attempt to combine a ton of services we already use into one social media platform. In this article I will break down a few of the cooler features of Google+ before I get into the interview with my man Eric Walker.

Float the Stream

The stream is identical to Facebook’s newsfeed where all your updates and updates of your friends are constantly placed. In this stream however are 4 new elements to the social media world.

1. Circles

Circles is pretty cool. You can very easily place different people in different circles and target your updates to the appropriate audience. This is much easier than any other social media way I have ever personally seen. Let me give you an example of why this is cool.

I communicate with my team differently than I do my friends, other marketers and leads that may be looking at joining my team. I send all of my training to my personal team but do not want other marketers getting their hands on my secret stuff that only gets shared with my team. I do this now by managing my email lists through my contact management software but did not have a way to do this in social media.

2. Hangouts

This is pretty darn cool. You can easily choose multiple people to join you in a face to face video chat without installing fancy software.

3. Huddle

Hanging out with a group of friends one night and want everyone included in the plans? Huddle up! This saves time and is pretty neat to use when you are spending time with a group of people. Example: After an event, want to invite a certain number of people to your favorite restaurant? Place them in the huddle so everyone knows at the same time what is going on.

4. Sparks

This is like your interests in Facebook, this will be hard to manage to keep from becoming spammy in my opinion.

My Interview with Eric Walker on Google+ and MLM Marketers

Eric Walker is a social media consultant and a teammate of mine in network marketing that has worked with some of the largest names in Network marketing including Ann Sieg and Mike Klingler. One cool dude that if you have the pleasure to meet, you certainly should.

Should Marketers Use Google+?

I kind of feel like this is THE question, so I’m glad you asked this first. On one hand, if we’re speaking directly to network marketers which is who we talk to…

No one wants to see ads or spam in there. At this point, I don’t think there are a ton of leads to
generate there unless your leads are web nerds and kumbaya social media types who like “sitting
around the campfire strumming their guitar.”

So, I don’t think it’s really for the typical network marketer person yet.

On the other hand, you MUST be asking yourself, “Should I get in early before anyone’s there to
bother with, and set myself up with a solid, consistent following, that I can nurture, experiment,
test, observe?”

There certainly will be a community to form here. No question about that.

Ultimately this is what I’m asking myself…

If I don’t bother with Google+ for a year, will I lose ground? And what is the balance between
what I have to gain and what I have to lose during these early days with Google+?

And finally, as a marketer you always have to question your social media use.

If social media isn’t enabling your business objective then it’s worthless. (note from Ray, absolutely) If you, as a
marketer, can’t tie social media into the daily daily business priorities and demonstrate how engagement and sharing and building community (all of which are cornerstones of social media) will enable your business to progress, you don’t win. You just waste time.

This applies to Google+ as it applies to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and whatever your social network of choice is.
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Do you think Google+ will overcome Facebook in popularity?

It’s hard to put money against Facebook right now. But Google+ has a lot going for it. These are early days. Let’s revisit this question in a year.
So I really have no idea. I know that I like Google+, at least initially. I am still not friendly with Twitter. Facebook is more my pace. Google+ can do a lot more than Twitter.

What is your favorite feature in Google+?

I like how clean and easy it is to organize people into segmented groups. I have a lot of social media friends and connections and people I follow who have no interest in network marketing yet that is an area I want to really grow within, so I like to keep the two separated sometimes.
Eric’s Rant

A marketer is a marketer is a marketer. Doesn’t matter what you put in front of it. Whether it be “network,” “online,” “offline,” “direct response,” “guerilla,” … it just doesn’t matter. Admit it or not, we’re all in the same game.

Whether you want someone to buy your product, join your email list, retweet or +1 your post, you’re doing one thing — leading your audience down a path at the end of which lies the action you’d like them to take.

You want them to do something. In other words, you’re selling. Period.

That said, there are plenty of die-hard social media aficionados who are anti-selling that like to warm up next the fire all day long while they escape from the reality of their cubicle listening to Jack Johnson on Pandora reading manifestos about socialism.

But that’s not us, and the good folks who read this blog don’t need to jump into Google+ or any social network site unless they are absolutely crystal clear how they plan to make it work for their business.

Are there any stats related to who is on Google+ now? Rate of growth, avg income, etc?

The last stat I saw was that Google+ has reached 18 million, but its growth rate has dropped by 50% from its initial peak. At first they had like a million or two per day sign up. But the last few days have declined. I think the growth rate of Google+ will significantly decrease because the buzz of Google+ is
going to die down.

Another reason for the decreasing growth rate could be that in the beginning people just wanted to know what this new thing looks like, and whether or not they like it better than Facebook or Twitter. I haven’t seen any numbers regarding average income.

Is there PPC for Google+ yet or plans for that?

Not yet. But I believe its coming. The goal at first, as I’ve read it, and chatted with other social media marketers about this, is that
Google+ is meant to improve sharing. Not much more to it than that.

Facebook is somewhat of a walled off garden, and I think they like it that way. For some, Twitter feels a bit slimy, spammy, and it’s hard to separate what’s real from what’s a bot.

Google’s attempting to pull it all together in a better way.

I see the potential in that regard. It’s easy to share stuff because you have all your stuff tied into your Google Profile, Picasa photos, and YouTube (which Google owns), and the organic search engines have incorporated the +1 button.

Last thoughts?

Frankly, I get the sense that most people have set up their profiles, and are sorta waiting. Maybe their peeking in every day to see if anything is happening, but overall, I think people are asking, “I’m not sure why I’m here, but I’m just going to organize my friends/following differently than I did on Facebook or Twitter.”

At least that’s what I’m doing.

Note From Ray

Thanks for the valuable input Eric, you’re awesome. I would not get too excited about Google+ yet but I like some of the features and if you would like to connect with me on Google+ you can here – Connect with me on Google+

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