Through my ultra cutting-edge industry contacts, I received an invite for Google+ before many of my friends and acquaintances, so I have been able to track the way people are reacting to and using this new platform. The overwhelming first response seems to be “What is this?” or “I don’t get it.” However, this confusion has not seemed to deter people from continuing to use Google+.  Google has failed in the past by using the “Build it, and they will come model” with Buzz and Wave, but for some reason people seem to have decided to start using Google+ mostly just because it exists.

Confusion to the French

I think that the confusion is actually part of the reason that people will actually adopt Google+. Based on my experiences with Twitter and Facebook, I believe that people like social media that does not tell them how to use it. For instance, Google Wave flopped because people knew what they were supposed to use it for, but could not actually figure out how to use the program; however, with Twitter, users were just given a basic platform and users decided how they wanted to use it. In other words, people knew how to use Twitter but not why, while Google Wave was the exact opposite. Google has learned from their mistakes. Google+ is not quite as simple as Twitter or Facebook, but it’s so wide open that users can do whatever they want with it, even if they don’t fully understand all the features. Users still don’t fully understand why their using it, but they’re definitely figuring out as they go.

It's Mine!

In my opinion, the social media revolution capitalized on the human need to possess. People love Facebook and Twitter because they feel that it is theirs--that they helped define it and therefore “own” it in some capacity.  Whenever Facebook makes a big change, some people get outraged--How dare they change my site? There’s a reason MySpace is named “MY” Space. Humanity has been fighting for their own space since the dawn of man, and then, the Zuckerbergs of the world came along and finally gave it to them. Google did not want to cede control of space with Buzz and Wave, but as they say, “Fool Google once shame on you; Fool Google twice shame on Google; Fool Google three times...no one has fooled Google three times."

Freud Would Be Proud

Many industry types were surprised at the lack of innovation in Google+, and their surprise is quite understandable. There is almost nothing innovative technically about the platform. What is innovative is the psychology behind the program. Google knows you, knows your secrets and your desires, knows what you want before you want it, and above all they now understand your primal need for possession; so they threw a bunch of old ideas at a wall, took the ones the stuck, and said, “Here you go people, do whatever you want it; it’s yours now.” All that remains to be seen is if people actually accept the offering that Google has presented. Will Google+ satisfy that deep, basic urge to “have” that other social media have so successfully tapped? That, my friends, is the question.

What are group buying or deal-a-day companies?

Deal-a-day sites first emerged in 2008 as a unique approach to combating the horrible economic downturn. Sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and DealNation partner with local businesses to help them generate more revenue by offering a steep discount on their products and services that is promoted by the deal-a-day company on its site.

I bet most of you are thinking that this sounds exactly like your traditional coupon – boy are you wrong!

With traditional coupons, the company offering the discount is responsible for the cost of developing, creating and distributing the offer and usually the distribution method is not as targeted or expansive as what a deal-a-day would provide. When using a service like Groupon, there is no cost associated with creating and distributing the deal for your business because that cost is fronted by Groupon. Groupon will design, create, and distribute the deal for you, all you have to do is sit back and wait for your deal to go live and watch the number of people opting into your discount rise.

So what’s the catch?

Well of course a deal-a-day site isn’t going to just promote your company for free! Let’s pretend Blue Magnet decided that it wanted to expand into other business ventures and opened up a boutique donut shop. In order for us to build buzz for our newly found company, we decided to partner with Groupon. We come to an agreement with Groupon to discount a dozen of our delicious donuts normally priced at $20 to $10 – that’s a 50% savings to the customer! Groupon will then split the purchase price with Blue Magnet, meaning that for each deal that is sold we both make $5.

Selling a product that is regularly priced at $20 and only making $5 seems a little steep, doesn’t it?

If you’re looking at it strictly from a revenue stand point, then yes it doesn’t make much sense. But, if you think back to Economics 101, you’ll remember the Opportunity-Cost concept. Sure, Blue Magnet could decide to not partner with Groupon and wait for customers who are willing to purchase our product at full price, the problem is we could be waiting for something that never happens. Or, we could sell our product and make $5, create awareness and build a loyal customer base.

Hotels understand this concept better than anyone; an unoccupied room brings in $0 revenue, so selling it at a discount is often better than not selling it at all. Obviously this is true to a certain level, because at some price point the room will cost more to maintain than the customer pays.

The Good

Most small businesses don’t have the ability to reach out to a large customer database and build brand awareness the way that a deal-a-day site does, and that is what makes this service so remarkable. Groupon utilizes a variety of Internet marketing tools to promote their daily deal. For example, deal is posted on their website, distributed as an e-blast to anyone who signs up to receive daily notifications and is promoted on social media sites. In fact, there are blogs dedicated to promoting daily deals that are completely separate of Groupon’s efforts.

The amount of buzz and brand awareness that is created by Groupon for your company is incomparable! People who don’t even purchase your deal will learn that your company exists and may keep you in mind for future purchases. Think of it as positive PR!

Statistically between 20-30% of people who purchase your deals don’t end up redeeming them! So, while you would like the opportunity for these people to utilize your service so you have the ability to WOW them and turn them into loyal customers, you at least are making up for some lost revenue due to the steep discount.

The bad

The ugly truth is that some businesses have been severely damaged by using a deal-a-day promotion. Groupon does not cap the number of customers that can buy into your deal and there is no way to determine how many customers might purchase. As a business, you have to be prepared to handle a large volume of customers that you may not be used to serving.

Let’s use the Blue Magnet donut boutique as an example again. Let’s say that on a typical day our company produces 1,200 donuts to be sold throughout the day. We go forward and run a deal on Groupon in which 1,000 people purchase the deal and our customer base drastically increases due to brand awareness and customers wishing to redeem their Groupon. For the next few weeks we increase our production from 1,200 donuts a day to 1,500 to try and handle the requests but it still isn’t enough. Then the worst case scenario happens and it is multi-faceted and creates a snowball effect.

Blue Magnet’s donut boutique has more demand than it can handle and this can affect customer service, product quality and quantity, destroy relationships with loyal customers who in the past always had a great experience and fail to convert new customers into “regulars.” People will then discuss their subpar experience with their friends, on review sites and social media. This negative PR could destroy the very thing you were trying to create by using Groupon. Now you have a large number of people who know about you, but have nothing good to say AND you’ve turned away your once loyal customers.

It is important to remember that people who use deal-a-day sites are usually very internet savvy and are active contributors to sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. In a recent article from HotelMarketing stated that Nielsen research indicates that 9 out of 10 consumers believe another consumer like them more than they believe corporate messaging. This is exactly why you can’t afford to underperform and cause people to write negative reviews – it will be next to impossible for you as a business to then change their minds.

Is a group-buying or deal-a-day promotion right for you?

I think it is up to each hotel to determine whether or not a deal-a-day site is right for them. Like I mentioned before, you HAVE to be able to handle and impress the new customers that walk through your door due to this venture. If this is not something you can guarantee you will be able to accomplish, then don’t go forward with this strategy because you WILL do more harm than good. This is especially important when it comes to your normal clientele because you don’t want to lose the customers who supported you prior to your promotion.

Traditionally, social networks have been seen as a way to connect with your friends and family; or even reconnect with the girl you let get away in 5th grade, an old drinking buddy in college, or a friend you lost contact with after spending countless summers with them at camp. While social networks are great for all of these, they also provide an excellent outlet for businesses to promote their services. You're probably wondering what Facebook or Twitter can do for your company, and my response is – what can't they do?

Social networks are excellent for...

• Developing a relationship with your customers
• Promoting packages, special events, discounted rates and contests
• Growing your customer database
• Gathering important information about your demographic
• Building relationships with other businesses in your area
• Providing information about your company and its developments
• Keeping your brand fresh in the mind of your consumers
• Increasing traffic to your website

How Social Media Can Help Your SEO

Until recently, social media had no effect on the search engine rankings, making it strictly an outlet for businesses to build a database of followers away from their site, then forcing them to link back to it. Now, public Facebook shares and Tweets can actually help promote your organic ranking in the search engines.

Google now takes into consideration how many tweets, re-tweets, "likes" and "shares" your followers give you. They’ve decided that if there is active conversation and interaction with your company via social media, this would mean that you're popular and Google wants to reward you for this. Remember, the search engines' main purpose is to provide its users with the most relevant information.

Who Should I Target?

There have been studies done to analyze how to get the most SEO bang for your buck through social media interaction. Similar to Page Rank, accounts that are deemed credible or extremely popular will have a greater influence on the SERP results, so it is best to focus your energy to getting these high profile people to re-tweet or share your link. These accounts will also have a greater reach, which, if lucky, will result in their network distributing your information.

It is also important to note that the number of times your information is redistributed has also proven to be correlated to improved search engine rankings. Social networks already had numerous benefits for internet marketing purposes, and now with this change they are even more multi-faceted than ever. So what are you waiting for?  Get your tweet on!

Currently, when I'm looking for answers to my questions on everything from "how to fix my broken printer" to "where should I stay during my trip to Seattle" I instinctively turn to Google.  And why not?  After all, Google is my quick, aggregated source for all the world's online answers to all kinds of questions that haven't even been asked yet.  But usually when I search in that way I'm looking for answers to questions that have already been asked...by someone else.  I could go to a forum, or jump on Quora, but there's always a concern that my question would get lost in the mix.  And who knows when (or if) someone who actually has the answer to my question will actually respond to me.  Furthermore, Google searches, Yahoo! Answers and Quora are all great for more technical questions or how-to's, but if I need recommendations to a restaurant in my neighborhood or suggestions on the best hotels to book in San Diego, who better to turn to than those in your close personal network?

Enter Facebook Questions

Introduced to the world briefly back in mid-2010, Facebook Questions was a new feature that allowed users to pose questions to the entire Facebook community.  Questions posted to all 500+ million Facebook users could be answered by anyone, friends and strangers alike.  This feature never quite took off, likely because it lacked the intimate, personalized responses that can only be received from those in your personal network.  Since then, Facebook has revamped their Questions and has reintroduced it as a slightly different feature.  Now, instead of posing questions to the entire Facebook community, a user's questions are now directed only to that user's individual network.  The question then appears within the Facebook news feed for any of the friends linked to the asker.

Here is a screenshot of the Question feature on my Facebook page:

From this new section of your Facebook page you can ask two different kinds of questions: open-ended questions or questions with preselected options (polls).  Polls allow you to add preselected answers as options for your friends to select from.  You can see in the screenshot that I've included some local bars and restaurants that friends can choose.  Notice that you can even include the option for others to contribute additional answers to your question beyond the options you've provided.  In addition, once your friend contributes to your question, that same question is then distributed through the responder's network.  Theoretically, an intriguing question has the potential to go viral throughout the greater Facebook community.

Overall, this new feature is great for getting specific feedback and opinions from the people you (presumably) trust the most.  If you need to know the best way to change your car's oil, you might still be better off going through Quora or Yahoo! Answers, but for questions that are less technical and more opinion in nature, it never hurts to have a little help from your friends.  This isn't to say that users couldn't just post their question in their status update or a standard feed on the wall, but Questions offers a simple platform dedicated to the purpose of polling the community.

How Should Businesses Use Facebook Questions?

A recent study by Likeable Media found that the interaction rate of Facebook users who posed questions on their status updates, were six times more likely to illicit a response from their community than if they had posted a statement. This means that if you are a business with a Facebook page and haven't been asking question, you need to start...now!

Similar to the way you might ask your group of friends for their opinions on what kind of smartphone you should purchase next, businesses can also use their Facebook pages to poll their fan base.  So how would a business take advantage of this? Here are some suggestions on how hotels (and businesses in general) can use this feature:

1. Ask customers what their favorite attraction/restaurant/event is within the city.  Use this information to generate specials and packages around that attraction.
2. Ask customers what is features are most important to them in selecting a hotel.
3. Ask the community what "hidden gems" are to be found within the city.  Discover new businesses and exciting places that are off the beaten path or less publicized in the city.
4. Ask the community what packages they would like to see the hotel offer.

Businesses should already be posing questions to their fan base, but Facebook Questions is great because it provides a specific platform to start interacting and engaging with your community. The tool is there--all you have to do is ask.