Google+ (Google Plus), Googles answer to Facebook, may not have the massive membership numbers that Facebook now enjoys, but it has just recorded its strongest-month ever and, according to Experian Hitwise, should reach 400million users by the end of the year.

Hitwise tweeted: “Google+ total US visits reach more than 49 million in Dec-11, biggest month to date & up 55% compared to Nov-11 ow.ly/i/oT3R,” 

they further tweeted that Google+ visits have increased in all but one week over the last 5 weeks. As usual figures are base in the US but are a good indicator of the global uptake in english speaking countries.

Analysts expect that Google+ will reach about 400 million users by the end of 2012, thats half the current number of Facebook users but it will have taken Google+ just over a year to reach compared to Facebook taking 4 years to reach 60 million. Of course, Social networking is now in the public conscience and many will try a new network out or simply stamp their mark on it.

Google integrates its Android smartphones with Google+ so it is now even easier for users to access Google+. With sales of Android devices of more than 700,000 per day the numbers should soon increase.

What does this mean for business owners? It is one more place to advertise and engage with potential or existing customers. Have you set up your Google+ Business Page? Talk to AsOne about how you can make steps to leverage the potential of Google+, Facebook and other social networking services.

To complete the Commerce week today is all about the letter ‘S’ as in sCommerce. We have talked about eCommerce (electronic commerce) and mCommerce (mobile commerce, also electronic) and no it is the turn of sCommerce or social commerce.

It is to be expected that sCommerce is becoming more popular as the social media platforms it is driven by gain influence.  Bit is sCommerce simply getting your visitors to ‘Like’ your shop? Far from it sCommerce is powered by engagement.

Many businesses are failing to capitalise on this rapidly rising trend. Adding little more than adding a ‘Like’ button or setting up a Twitter feed. This is a great first step and gets you ready for the future but it is not a recipe for long-term success in sCommerce, which is likely to be one of the biggest generators of revenue for retailers over the next few years, but perhaps not just now. Even with the might of Facebook’s 800 million users their commerce project (shall we call it fCommerce?) was not successful. Most online retailers struggle to leverage social activities to increase their turnover.

Where newspaper advertising could be, and sometimes had to be, quite generic in its appeal and broad in its approach social commerce will thrive when retailers engage with their users and learn how to offer specific deals and products to the right people. Review sites are sketchy at the best of times. Who knows if the 1-star review was from a competitor and the 5-star reviews were written by the owner? Connection with people you trust and learning from their buying behaviour and brand choices will help retailers to discover people with influence who can be enticed into their product range and may become evangilists, spreading the word amongst those they influence. This is engagement, not with everyone but with those who can help you achieve your goals.

Unilever, the brand giant, have a clever approach. They invite users of social networks such as Facebook to ‘help them generate ideas and make their product better’. They offer points for engagement and even the chance of winning cash for ideas. This helps to make many feel like they are being heard and will help to generate loyalty. Almost as if they were ‘socialising’ with people who both talk and listen. Who would have thought social networking could mimic the real world! :)

sCommerce is not so much a new way of buying products but rather a way for retailers to market their goods and services and listen to feedback and the needs of their customers in an unobtrusive way, quickly and easily.

Have you got your social engagement started? Can you engage with your customers? Do you activly search out conversation about your brand and show the world you want to improve? If not its time to start, if you have started its time to get better!

AsOne can help setup and manage your social network and with our exclusive Innovation Club we can help to guide you through the ever shifting techniques to capitalise on this exciting medium. 

Did you know AsOne can build a fully featured eCommerce solution integrated into your social network for under £4000? Be up and running in weeks and capitalising on eCommerce instead of struggling on the high street. You can even spread the cost over 10 months interest free.

With so much focus on social media and the need to embrace it to improve and increase business the same hesitation continues to raise its head; “my customers don’t use Facebook”.

You know what? They are probably right, because those potential customers who do use Facebook are shopping somewhere else, Somewhere that does embrace social media. Lets look into who is using social media.

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There has been a lot of talk about the ‘new’ Google Panda update. This is a change to the Google filtering used to rank sites. The update is designed to hurt the sites that try to cheat or use what is called ‘black hat’ techniques to get to the top. The people it is affecting badly are the sites with traditionally high traffic and rankings. If they have used sneaky methods to inflate their position they will suddenly drop and others don’t necessarily rise, they just don’t drop. The net effect is they appear to rise.

However, a lot of SEO companies are advocating changing the sneaky methods to new sneaky methods to compensate. They fail to realise that the practice is the reason Google introduced Panda and when they see people working around it they will just make a new update. Its’ an expensive battle to keep on top of Google’s attempt to normalise results and keep high quality sites at the top. It’s why AsOne believe that Social Networking and Social Marketing using the power of people is a more reliably long term strategy and the foundation on which your Marketing should be based.

Think of this, Business has thrived for thousands of years based on word-of-mouth. You best clients tell their contacts and before you know it you have a good business. Concentrating on Search engines is like advertising in the yellow pages … time, effort and money getting a good advert, good position. Remember people changing their company name to ‘1st widget company’ so they appear first in the book? Google is the modern Yellow Pages. It relies on people ‘picking it up’ and looking for what they need. 

Social Marketing goes back to the beginning, it’s the modern equivalent of word-of-mouth. People will always trust their friends over an advert. Use that power to encourage and assist your customers to advertise for you.