Google announced a slew of developments to Google+ at Google I/O last week. Google launched in November 2011 and according to Google’s own data reached 500 million users at the end of 2012. It is working hard to drive up adoption. We’ve spent the last few days reviewing the new additions to Google+ and road testing some of the new features to understand what they mean for audience engagement.

1. 1 | 20.05.2013
What‘s new on Google+
May 20, 2013

2. 2 | 20.05.2013
Google announced a slew of developments to Google+ at
Google I/O last week.
Google+ combined with Google search, is an influencer
management system that enables Google to build a social graph
of each user and a semantic history of their web usage.
Google launched in November 2011 and according to Google’s
own data reached 500 million users at the end of 2012. It is
working hard to drive up adoption.
We’ve spent the last few days reviewing the new additions to
Google+ and road testing some of the new features to
understand what they mean for audience engagement.
What’s new on Google+

3. 3 | 20.05.2013
The layout of
Google+ has
changed.
Content is
promoted over
features of the
platform.
Content is served
in white cards or
tiles, against a
muted grey
background.
Form and function

4. 4 | 20.05.2013
Navigation menu
You filter your
news stream by
individuals in your
Circles, by
selecting a
Circle.
You can select
between a single
column or
modular
layout, optimised
for your screen
size and
orientation.

5. 5 | 20.05.2013
Analytics
Analytics
(+1s, comments
and shares) for
each piece of
content is
displayed on the
reverse of each
card.
It is accessed via
the drop down
menu on the
post.

6. 6 | 20.05.2013
Sharing content
Text posts are
truncated with
an option to
click to access
additional text.
If you share a
link, the headline
and URL appears
alongside an
image.

7. 7 | 20.05.2013
Hashtag conversations
New Google+
posts are
automatically
tagged with a
hashtag.
When you click on
a hashtag
Google+ collates
all the related
public posts, or
posts that have
been shared with
you.

8. 8 | 20.05.2013
Hangouts
Gmail Chat and
Google+ Chat
have been
merged into
Google Hangouts.
This is a powerful
feature in itself
that enables upto
10 people to
participate in a
live video
discussion via the
Internet.

9. 9 | 20.05.2013
Images
Google+ now
includes auto
enhancement to
tweak images for
brightness, colour,
contrast and noise
and automatically
identifies your best
photos.
Auto Awesome
creates new
versions of photos.

10. 10 | 20.05.2013
The relationship between Google+ and Author Rank announced
in November 2012, clearly sign-posted Google’s strategic intent
for the platform.
The opportunity for organisations and brands is to promote their
content via the platform through search and the networks of their
employees and partners.
Organisations and brands have a further opportunity to use the
platform to build their own communities via brand pages. These
provide a means to directly engage with audiences via the
platform, search and Google Maps.
Finally Google+ Communities and Hangouts provide an exciting
means for two-way engagement.
Recommendation

11. 11 | 20.05.2013
Stephen Waddington
European Director
Ketchum
35-41 Folgate Street
London
E1 6BX
stephen.waddington@ketchum.com
www.ketchum.com
@wadds
Contact