It’s been a while since I last penned a Friday mail, and while there are plenty of reasons as to why this is, events over the weekend have now forced my hand. Last week, saw a few events take place which merit a deeper exploration and a better understanding. Google finally released a beta of its socially-enabled services, called Google+, Monster released its competitor to LinkedIn – BeKnown, and LinkedIn shut down its API, blocking access to its data. I’ll go through each of these in detail.
Google+ a socially suitable successor to Facebook?
Ever since Facebook started to gain traction within the collective global consciousness, Google has tried to jump in on the action. Its first foray, a service called ‘Buzz’ was deemed a disaster and served to reinforce the growing belief that the team at Google didn’t really ‘get’ social media. Last week, however, Google launched its newest venture, a social network called Google+. And the feeling is that this time, Google has done something right.
Google+ is a social network. As with many social networks, it requires membership to get the most out of it. Unlike many social networks, you can still participate if you are not a member.
There are a whole host of services on offer – users can capitalise on many of Google’s existing products and services in a manner that facilitates social engagement. For example, increasingly you will start seeing the +1 symbol on Google search results pages. This is Google’s equivalent to ‘liking’ something. Google+ users have unlimited storage on Picasa, which is a piece of image editing software that allows users to store, share and more importantly edit images. It also has face recognition, but I’ll come to that later.
You will probably hear a lot about ‘circles’, which is Google’s way of allowing users to associate an individual with a particular group. For example, one circle may be ‘family’, one may be ‘work colleagues’. Depending on how granular you want to get, you may also have a circle called ‘drinking buddies’, or ‘people I met at Tom and Marie’s wedding’. It is possible to get as granular as you want and also, allow one person to be attributed to lots of different circles. Its pretty intuitive and more importantly, you can specify very clearly what group is allowed access to what information.
It’s all very clever stuff and as I spend more time over the coming weeks, you’ll probably hear more. For now, it is worth noting simply that Google has launched a credible competitor to Facebook. With Facebook starting to lose numbers, it is worth paying attention. There are however, a couple of things to bear in mind.
There is a fear that Google+ allows Google to be even more intrusive in our lives. Google wants to be all things to all people, and, no, this is nothing to laugh at. Google continues to build the largest computing infrastructure on the planet, but still manages to generate large amounts of liquidity. At the end of March 2011, it had more than $36B in cash. Google is extremely capital efficient.
The other concern is about how Google use the information that a Social Networking product will provide. Google’s one and only goal is to sell advertising. The path to this goal requires ‘radiation pressure’: Google wants to make sure we don’t escape its ads. It wants to insert itself into all aspects of our lives, to find out as much as it can about as many aspects, activities and relationships as possible. And Social Networking is about as pervasive as it gets.
Do I think that this will stop people from taking up its new offering? Yes and no. Yes, because Facebook is falling out of favour with many and people are starting to look for a credible alternative (which Google+ provides); no because Google is already a behemoth with a staggering amount of information. We tend not to like it when organisations or people have too much power. On top of this, I’m expecting Governments around the world to wake up to this and to start talking about monopolisation, data integrity and security.
Social Networking and Recruitment
Social networks are powerful recruiting and job seeking tools. The $120 billion corporate recruiting industry is being transformed (and upset) by LinkedIn because the system is such a powerful tool for recruiters to find passive candidates. People in the LinkedIn network maintain their profile actively, giving recruiters a real-time, highly accurate database from which to search and contact candidates.
And the growth of LinkedIn has dramatically impacted many of the big players in this market. Executive recruitment firms like Heidrick and Struggles, Korn Ferry, and Spencer Stuart are losing the value of their proprietary executive networks. Mid-sized recruiting companies are seeing big companies develop more and more expertise in the use of social networking internally. And large job boards like Monster.com, The Ladders, and others are seeing job seekers (and recruiters) move their money and energy toward LinkedIn.
That’s not to say that LinkedIn is the only professional networking tool out there. Nor is it to say that the more innovative agencies, like MDH, are doomed to fail. It is simply outlining that the speed and voracity of social recruitment has caught a lot of people off their guard.
Monster finally joins the game; LinkedIn responds
Last week Monster threw down the gauntlet with the launch of BeKnown, a new Facebook application that aimed to become the professional social network for Facebook users, and a vital new tool for recruiters, human resources, and talent acquisition teams.
Monster wasn’t the only recruiting provider to use Facebook – for example, a product called ‘Branch Out’ has been around for a while and recently been gaining traction – however, it is certainly the biggest.
The use of Facebook, however, was perceived as a real coup. Whilst LinkedIn has an estimated 100 million users and is growing at a rate of nearly 3 million per month, there is an entire world of Facebook users who do not use LinkedIn (yet). Facebook, with more than 750 million users, taps into a broader audience who uses the network for different purposes.
Now, and here is where we come to the interesting bit; any social networking product or service requires a critical mass before it become effective. Monster had hoped to circumvent this by using LinkedIn’s API to allow individuals to upload their LinkedIn contacts to BeKnown. LinkedIn, recognising the threat that this posed, simply shut down its API.
It’s a clever move, despite being criticised by many in the industry. With a single keystroke, LinkedIn has forced Monster to actually go through the difficult process of creating its own network, which takes time and effort and will act as a barrier to take up by many individuals. It has prompted a huge debate about data ownership and also gives LinkedIn time to consider a response.
Expect a LinkedIn Facebook app to arrive imminently…