How honest?

If you're a Millennial (aka Generation Y member) then you probably consume media a lot differently to previous generations. Millennials more often than not get their news from their phones (thanks Twitter), their television from their laptops (stay tuned for a Netflix blog post) and advice from peers (hello Youtube).Peer:

• a person of the same legal status

• a person who is equal to another in abilities, qualifications, age, background, and social status.

• something of equal worth or quality.

• a nobleman.

• a member of any of the five degrees of the nobility in GreatBritain and Ireland (duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron).

More than ever Millennials are taking advice from people who are like them in some way be it age, background or social similarities. Take Blair Fowler for example, an 18year old fashion and beauty vlogger with just over 1 million subscribers on Youtube. Blair's success on Youtube has been derived from giving fashion and beauty tutorials, advice and product reviews to young women. Marketers caught on quickly to the leverage of peer marketing.

Peer marketing includes product reviews, the use of a spokesperson, and use of a product. Product reviews in social media have been implemented in hopes of increased product trials, sales, and all-in-all word-of-mouth advertising. In my previous blog post about Google +, I touched on how Youtube should leverage partners to influence the use of the Hangout. Yes, they have that much influence on subscribers and followers. So, does great responsibility come with great power? The scales are tipping on the 'no' side.

Mashable recently reported some very interesting data. "By 2014, 10% to 15% of social media reviews will be fake and paid for by companies, according to a new study by tech research company Gartner."

This data is far from surprising to me and I will go even further by saying that Gartner is underwhelming the statistics. While legal sanctions are in place by the FTC to decrease the amount of fake reviews and ratings. I believe that marketers will continue to find a way to push their brand through peer marketing channels because it's working (at least for now).

Why hasn't Google+ caught on yet?

We have all seen the Google+ commercials. And we have all been annoyed by the Facebook game requests. So why hasn't the majority made the switch as yet? Many attribute the lack of adoption to the general lag of innovation. But is Google+ an innovation?

According to Everett Rogers, an innovation is "an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption" While Google+ is more so a convergence of already existing platforms, ideas and tools, it's an innovation because it needs to be adopted. In one college class last semester, my professor asked for a show of hands for all those who use Google+. Less than half the class raised their hand and the general consensus was a pity party. "It's good but no one uses it."

Rogers made popular the theory of 'diffusion of innovations' with his 1962 book of the same name. Diffusion of innovations occurs through a decision-making process including the following stages: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. After the commercials on television (knowledge/persuasion), the implementation stage is limited as consumers are not able to trial the Google+ service to it's full potential, thus hindering confirmation.

Added to that, the rate of adoption is the relative speed at which members of a social system adopt an innovation.

Despite Google's claim that the platform has 170million users. It's a ghost town. In order to change this, my recommendation is for Google+ to use 'influencers' to acts as innovators/early adopters to motivate the early and late majority. For example, the use of Youtube partners to host events, giveaways, virtual meetups in order to force platform use.

Individual consumers aside, for businesses; marketing for a competitive advantage should be the pitch. Carolyn Brown of Black Enterprise encourages the use of establishing a business profile page on Google+ as a good strategic move due to it's integration into Google Search. "It's also a great way to engage your customers with tools such as Google Plus Hangouts and Google Plus Circles. You can design circles to fit your business needs. ...one circle could be your vendors, another for customers, and yet another for your employees."

Here's the deal: convergence is the name of the game.


References
Brown, C. M. (2012). Use Google Plus To Position Your Brand. Black Enterprise, 42(8), 30
Rogers, Everett M. (1983). Diffusion of Innovations. New York. Free Press.