Last week, the Washington Wizards became one of the first teams in the NBA after the Phoenix Suns to join the official ranks of Google+ Pages. Upon announcing Pages for the Google+ social network on November 7, a handful of major launch partners emerged such as Angry Birds, Toyota, Pepsi, and The Muppets along with Google’s own brands like Chrome, Gmail, and YouTube. Soon after, a few professional sports teams and the MLB followed suit.
While the Wizards have yet to attract a significant fan base on Google, we applaud the timing of the digital marketing team at Monumental Sports & Entertainment. With the league, players, and the entire 2011-2012 NBA season is in serious jeopardy of fading into the sunset, a new social media outlet, especially one as highly anticipated as official Google+ Pages, represents an opportunity for the Wizards to re-establish lost good will with their fans.
Last month, the Wizards re-launched their mobile SMS platform during the lockout by incentivizing fans via ticket giveaways, the first of which was two (2) tickets to see Jay-Z and Kanye West at the Verizon Center. The Wizards recently ran another mobile content promoted via the team Twitter, Facebook, and website to give away two (2) suite tickets to watch the Washington Capitals (another Monumental Sports & Entertainment team).
What’s Unique About Google+ Pages?
Although Google distinguishes between Google+ Pages and individual accounts like Facebook profiles vs. Pages, there is actually little difference between the two. Users are able to add Pages to their Circles and Page owners are able to post as usual as well as take part in Hangouts. One feature that is unique to Pages is the new Direct Connect (think the now Twitter synonymous @ symbol for mentions) which allows you to search specifically for Google+ Pages. For example, simply typing “+Angry Birds” or “+Washington Nationals” in a Google search box will take you directly to the respective Google+ Page. This is a fantastic feature that represents one added layer of authenticity over Facebook and Twitter.
What Are the Key Google+ Features?
By creating a Google+ page, athletes, teams, organizations, leagues can benefit from a multitude of features including:
- Hangouts: allows for engagement with fans through video conference calls; here’s a great example from Red Bull athlete DeMarcus Ware and his team the Dallas Cowboys
- The “Plus” function: the Google equivalent to Facebook “Likes”, the more pluses that a page accumulates, the higher that page appears in relevant Google searches
- Sparks: increase the performance of ads by relating search relevance within Sparks (a recommendation engine) and Google analytics; in other words, +1’s show up in search and display ads which means that brands will be able to seek out followers that they already have and provide them with more relevant message
- Circles: this feature is key as it provides seamless segmentation of fans which teams can utilize to organize their sponsors, partners, fans, etc. making Google+ content directly relevant to search results, potentially driving business value around “plus” functions of different Google+ pages
- YouTube integration: Google’s ownership of the world’s 3rd most trafficked website and largest online video platform makes for easy streaming of content in real time as well as the creation of brand channels
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Excellent SEO of both Google+ pages and individual posts due to Google’s majority ownership of search on the web
Why Google+ For Sports Teams?
Creating a Google+ page provides a competitive edge for sports teams, professional or collegiate, that want to want to reach a new audience. As more teams begin to create their own Google profiles, fans will have unique opportunities to engage with their favorite teams and players on a much more intimate level.
To date, the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Cowboys, all 30 Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, and even the WWE have created Google+ pages all with early indicators of success. With over 40 million registered users, Google+ is rapidly attracting more users, many of them loyal sports and entertainment fans.
As is expected in the early life cycle of Google+, the majority of the service is post based and lacks interactive features other than video Hangouts (see below). However, the ability to be able to target specific audiences through Circles will attract marketers during this critical growth period.
Britney Spears marketing team intelligently surveyed her followers to learn what country they are from and then circled those fans into different countries. Segment fans in this nature and other niche groupings opens the door for a multitude of strategies including targeted posts by language, lifestyle, etc. Anything Google can do to increase the feature set around Circles will expedite the mass adoption of Google+ within the sports and entertainment industries.
What Will Google+ Offer in the Future?
Google+ is just in its infancy so there are a number of key features the search giant plans to activate in the near future. A few of these include:
- Application Programming Interface (API) for third party development
- Faster search capabilities within friend circles
- Android mobile use as well as SMS capabilities
Do you think Google+ can serve as a key component to an effective social media strategy for sports teams?
