Writing about Google+ wasn’t an option. When an 800-pound gorilla makes a frontal assault on Facebook, Skype AND Twitter, sending the tech punditry into breathless buzz and sparking curiosity about the potential seismic effects on social networking, well, that warrants ink. The question wasn’t if…but how. What hasn’t been said already (10 times over)? Where are the unique stones to be turned over?

Here’s what we decided: Google+ could eventually emerge as a robust platform for businesses of every ilk, including local, and its wide-ranging integrations with other Google products will open up social marketing possibilities that heretofore don’t exist. In our latest Advisory for Social Local Media clients, Andrew Shotland and I dive deeper into these business implications.

Over the past 12 to 18 months, Google has been on a frenetic streak of local product launches: Places, Hotpot (since rolled into Places), Boost, Talkbin (through acquisition), Offers, Wallet, +1. Yet we wondered what kind of meal these various ingredients could bake.

Google+, tied into Places, Offers, +1 social search signals and Analytics, may be the connective tissue that creates a new, comprehensive business communications suite for merchants. Or as Andrew put it:

“One day we are all going to wake up and find “Places” as a default stream in our Google+ experience and a business’ “Plus” stream as part of the default Place Page experience. When this happens it will be like local search chocolate meeting social media peanut butter.”

Of course, we’re making some assumptions about Google+ winning enough adoption to become at least an additive social layer. We think it can, but that’s no layup. Facebook already has 750 million users and is quickly iterating to become a full-serve media (movies, music) and commerce (Credits, Deals) company. How many social networks will the average Joe populate before closing off newcomers?

For you Google+ pioneers, let us know your early impressions. And from a local business perspective, what are the possibilities that you envision?

SLM subscribers can read the full report here.

The post Google+: The Business Implications of Google’s Latest Social Foray appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

In the “Field of Dreams” “if you build it, they will come” spirit, when Marissa Mayer takes the stage, thousands are sure to follow. Google’s VP devoted much of her keynote at SxSW Interactive to evolutions in Google’s mobile mapping products (Maps Navigation, route-around traffic and Latitude, among others).

Mobile mapping shares close synergy in the product suite with Google’s aggressive advances into local business and social channels through Places and Hotpot, and Mayer came armed with data aplenty to support progress in both. Among the highlights:

– 6 million Place pages have now been claimed by business owners.
– 20 percent of desktop search is local (a fact we already know). That share spikes to 40 percent on mobile, underscoring Google’s Maps-Places-Hotpot reviews marriage.
– Hotpot now sees more than 1 million ratings/recommendations each month and has 3 million total user submissions.

We had heard that Hotpot was catching fire quickly, but consider that number: 3 million is already one-fifth of Yelp’s 15 million reviews, and Yelp has a six-year head start (Hotpot debuted last November).

However, Mayer noted that recommendations only take a consumer so far…luring them in the door, but then what? The next step for business owners is cultivating a sustained consumer relationship. This is where “loyalty offers that cause me to come back and spend more and become a repeat customer” enter the picture through Latitude, which is testing rewards-based check-ins here in Austin this week. The problems that Mayer and team are trying to solve with check-ins are “what do I get?” and “how can it save me money?”

Speaking of problems, Mayer acknowledged that while all the mobile innovation is exciting, Google realizes that it has “too many features, and we need to condense them into products.” In other words, simplicity is the objective, both for users and especially for small businesses. This is expressly why the company has released Tags and Boost (three-click AdWords campaign generation) through Places, and has deployed SMB sales forces to test direct selling in Austin and Portland.

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