Contributing Authors: Caroline Tseng, Strategist & Jessica Samson, Community Manager at 360i
Still skeptical about whether or not Google+ is relevant for your brand? Some recent news from YouTube may have you thinking differently.
In YouTube’s latest update, users will now be required to have a Google+ account in order to comment on videos. More than just improving the quality of YouTube comments, this move hints at Google’s bigger desire to more deeply integrate Google+ within its other properties.
Over the past several months, Google has steadily been putting Google+ at the center of its search and video products— and is likely to continue in this trend for all of its properties. For that reason, marketers should view Google+ as a common thread linking each of these components, rather than an aggregate “community” of +1s.
According to Google, four out of five people who use comments have already synced their YouTube accounts with Google+ – so for most users, the change will not be a drastic one. Still, the update has some detractors (from Reddit users toYouTube’s cofounder) pointing out how the new functionality is a convenient way to require more people to use Google+.
What’s changing?
From Gmail Login to Google+ Login
- In order to start commenting and using YouTube’s other new features, users will need to connect their YouTube channels to a Google+ identity.
Note: Commenters will have the option to select which name they would like to have posted with their comment:either their Google+ or YouTube username.
From Most Recent Comments to Comments Relevant To You
- Instead of seeing the latest comments in the comments feed, users will now see comments from people in their Google+ Circles, creators and popular personalities which will now rank higher in the feed.
Note: Users will still be able to sort by newest comments, but this will no longer be the default setting.
From Separate to Connected YouTube and Google+ Comments
- Now, when users comment on a YouTube video from a Google+ page, the comment will automatically appear under the YouTube video through that users Google+ account. Commenting on the YouTube platform, however, provides an opt-in check box for posting to Google+.
New Posting Comments Features
- Choose who can see it: Specific people? A certain Google+ circle? Users can now choose how public (or private) they would like their comment to be.
- Add URLs + Rich Text: If a user poses a question, other commenters or the video creators themselves can now better direct them to an offsite URL. Additionally, users can now add style to their comments with special tags (i.e. _italics_ → italics; -strikethrough- → strikethrough).
- No more interaction with old comments: Old comments will still appear in the comments feed, but will now become static and users will no longer be able to reply to or rate them.
- Add people to the discussion: Similar to the tagging functionality found on almost all social networks from Facebook to Vine, users can now use the “+” or “@” to send a notification to someone in their Google+ Circles, letting them know that they’ve been mentioned in the comment.
Key Implications
For Consumers:
- Initially, we have seen a slight backlash and negative perception of Google+ and YouTube from the platform’s passionate community — but we expect the eventual result to be a greater sense of community amongst users on YouTube and Google+.
- The overall effect for users will be greater restraint, as profiles will be more strongly linked to their online identities through Google+. Accountability, though, will likely lead to more quality, thoughtful comments.
For Marketers:
- Anticipate a spike in activity on Google+. By requiring the Google+ connection for a user to comment on YouTube (with its one billion uniques/mo), there will likely be an increase in users and active engagement on Google+ for brands. This means more signed-in Google searchers leading to more personalized search results from “circles.” In addition, there may be an increase in search activity within the Google+ platform.
- Understand the increase in YouTube video views. A larger audience on Google+ means a larger audience for a brand’s YouTube channel. As YouTube users connect their accounts with Google+ and engage with YouTube content, their activity has the potential to be seen by users in their Google+ circles as well.
- Increased Engagement in the YouTube Comments Feed. While there have always been ways to share videos outside of YouTube, the ability for viewers to @tag their friends will foster greater in-stream conversation and allow brand content to spread organically within YouTube.
- Less “trolling” to worry about. We are hopeful that this change will bring about better-curated and less-offensive comments due to consumers practicing a new level of restraint to maintain their online reputation. And with higher-quality commenting, YouTube search results will be better optimized.
- Higher-quality interactions with YouTube commenters. Brands will now see a more relevant stream of comments from their most influential fans on YouTube. In addition, they will be able to provide better responses to those fans — now being able to easily respond with links, targeting legitimate questions or concerns, etc.
Conclusion
Google is making a strong push to consolidate all Google properties via the Google+ platform. With the integration of Google+ and YouTube, brands now have an opportunity to get their YouTube content seen by an even larger Google+ audience. And as Google continues to make Google+ a core part of their ecosystem, more and more reasons for brands to pay attention to the platform will arise.
Cover photo via JV Limited
