When it comes to social media, contests are a favorite among page managers. Contests generate content, create interest, and provide an incentive for users to keep following your page. Google trumped all social media contests by introducing the Project Glass agenda: a contest awarding winners with their own $1,500 pair of Google Glass. Cue #ifihadglass entries.
While most social media users freaked out and hurried to publish submissions, fewer people realized what was really going on: Google was publicly delivering a knockout punch to Facebook.
Recently, Facebook unveiled its Graph Search, which truly changed the game in search engines. Although it will still offer competition, Google Glass has raised the bar: the only way to enter the #ifihadglass competition was Twitter and Google+.
The statistics aren’t out yet – but it would be a safe bet that there’s a lot of buzz going around about Google+ right now, and there’s certainly been some new users. What does Google+’s recent spike in popularity mean for social media and SEO?
For starters, Google+ will become a new, respectable competitor to Facebook. Google Glass is going to change the way people use social media – if they can get used to wearing headgear in real life. However, considering just how interesting the Project Glass campaign is, we’re thinking headgear will be coming into style.
We all know that Google is the main focus of SEO. Businesses rely on Google Analytics as a barometer for success. With Google+ becoming more popular, the Google giant will continue to grow. Pretty soon, people will be worrying more about +1’s than Likes.
That’s Google’s goal, at least. There are quite a few drawbacks to Google’s scheme (did I mention headgear?). The current retail price of Google Glass is set at $1,500. While many iPhone users carry $700 phones, it’s unlikely that the average user would shell out $1,500 to use a social network (and, we all know that iPhones are obtained through cell contracts, drastically reducing cost).
Another issue is Google+’s platform. It’s just not “cool”. There’s way too much going on with Google+. You can follow everything, make unlimited circles, and it features a progress bar to update you on your profile “completedness”. It sounds like work, not an inviting escape from reality.
Soon, we’ll start seeing the results of Google Glass. Judging from the awesome submissions on Twitter, we can expect some pretty cool people to be setting the stage for this technology. Don’t underestimate other social media platforms, though. Our next topic deals with LinkedIn, which is quietly taking over.