Google has been known as a web search company for aeons. Now, Google is literally into everything on the web, including a growing penetration into the travel vertical.
The primary factor behind this successful penetration lies in the smooth integration of all Google products. It’s all blended nicely with each other.
Google+, the social networking platform that was launched in June 2011, has integrated with multiple Google products.
Google+ is now the world’s second largest social network, with Facebook retaining the top position. Google’s YouTube stands third and Twitter at fourth, according to Trendstream’s GlobalWeekIndex.
Trendstream estimates that for the final quarter of 2012, Facebook had some 693 million active users, seconded by Google+, with its 343 million active users. YouTube was at number three, followed by Twitter.
One of the main reason for Facebook’s high rate of user adoption is that it offers the ability for any website or mobile app to allow “Sign-in with Facebook” option through Facebook Login. Even to comment on an article, Facebook login is enabled.
The mantra lies in making the network open for third parties to consume / plug-in / integrate. And once its done, the sky’s the limit on what third-party applications will do with those features.
That’s exactly what Google+ has nailed. They have made a “Sign-in with Google+” option available for third parties to integrate.
It makes sense for Google to do this—first grow the network in terms of users and then expose the network for third parties to do deep integration, resulting in a win-win-win situation, customer–Google Plus–third party.
Whether you are building an app for Android, iOS, or the web, users can now sign-in to your travel app with Google+ credentials.
This simply means that a hotel provider, say a hypothetical site like Tnooz-Hotels.com, will be able to offer Google+ sign-in while making a room reservation, offer a more customized experience in the website/app and allow customers to share your product information in Google+ with various ‘call-to-action’ buttons (new in Google+).
There are three main aspects to be aware of with respect to Google+ sign-in integration.
1. Google+ Sign-In option:
Allow users to sign-in with the same Google credentials. You can prompt users to sign in to Google not only at signup, but also when they return to your site, or at any other time, to take full advantage of your site’s social features.
An important step in this step is, as a travel company, you will learn more about your customers and their (Google+) friends.
With the user’s permission, Google+ sign-in gives you access to their basic information from their public profile and the list of people in their circles. Below are some of the details that you will have access to:
- Customer full name, profile picture, Google+ ID, age range, and language
- A list of people your customer is connected to on Google+
- Any other publicly available information on your customer’s Google+ profile
2. Interactive posts:
This is a unique feature in Google+. Travel companies will be able to create their own call-to-action button that will be placed in the post that a user shares in their Google+ page.
Example:
John reserves a Holiday Inn hotel room at Tnooz-Hotels.com.
When John shares the hotel details in his Google+ page, in addition to displaying the hotel name and description, Tnooz-Hotels will be able to place a “Book” button in that post.
John’s friends will see the Holiday Inn hotel details along with “Book” button.
When John’s friends click on “Book” button, they will be taken to Tnooz-Hotels.com (or to any link the company wishes to).
These kind of interactive posts allow customers to bring people they care about to a travel company’s app for a specific purpose.
Users can send posts asking people to sign up, write a review, book something, check-in, dine, eat, find a table, rate, redeem a coupon, save an offer or whatever your app calls for.
Google+ provides 100 such call-to-action button options: 100 button labels.
Now, the next logical question is, “How do we track the success of these interactive posts? What kind of call-to-action buttons work best for us? Will placing “Book Now” button yield better results than a “Book” button?”
Google+ Platform Insights allows a travel company to view data/report on post views, clicks, app installs from interactive posts, and more.
Make the most out of interactive posts:
- Make it meaningful:Â Users should be meaningfully engaged in your app before being prompted to send an interactive post to their friends. This way, posts will feel authentic and personal.
- Provide context:Â The post content should make it clear why the recipient would want to click the call-to-action button and where the button will take them.
3. Personalization:
Getting access to your customer’s Google+ profile information can open doors for lot of things, including:
a) Profile information:
New users to a company’s app/website can setup profiles in jiffy without needing to start from scratch or maintain a separate profile just for that app.
b) Connect friends:
This feature will help your customers find their friends who also use your service/app through their Circle connections on Google+.
You can recommend people to follow in your app, especially if you are in the social travel business or if you want to encourage users to recommend your app to their friends based on whom they are connected to on Google+.
A quick look at what TripAdvisor did with deep Facebook integration tells us of the importance of this particular feature. Read our earlier posts about ‘TripAdvisor + Facebook’: TripFriends, TripFriends the Sequel.
c) Content discovery:
Upon learning a customer’s profile information (after receiving their privacy consent to do so), travel companies can implement a variety of innovative features.
The website or mobile app can be customized based on the customer’s information – age range, locale, recent activity, network of friends, friends’ activities, language, and any other publicly available data.
Travel companies will be able to offer personalized services to the customer. Google+ data alone cannot personalize a customer’s experience; rather Google+ data will augment this process.
d) Dynamic marketing campaigns:
With the power of Google+ Platform Insights and access to customer data, travel companies will be able to segment their customer base.
Companies can identify and bucket their most influential customers. This lets you run campaigns and offer discounts in a much better way that might result in increased conversion.
Closing note:
This new feature rollout from Google is a boon for the travel industry. There will be some development cost in terms of various integrations, but it will be worth it, if done right.
Google says this is just a beginning. So that leaves enough room for anticipation on what Google+ might evolve in near future, not to forget the Google Glass that’s around the corner.
In the last couple of years, many Facebook-based travel startups have emerged, travel companies have built many innovative Facebook apps. Now, the same sequence of events is going to be repeated for Google+.
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About Karthick Prabu
Using Google Accounts to authenticate users isn’t exactly new and it’s been around for ages. It seems that they’ve slowly added more features to their Plus API to allow 3rd parties access more user data which is always welcome!
Alex,
True, the Google authentication exists even before. But, that is part of OpenID authentication, this is entirely different from Google+ sign-in which opens up the pile of information available in G+ network. Google+ signin is exactly similar to Facebook Connect.
Reading this, reminds me of the comments made immediately upon the introduction of Google+ many of which were immediately panning the new social network and predicted it would never take off in the face of Facebook dominance. Just shows again, the advantage of a more wait and see attitude before analysis. This article clearly outlines how much more lies behind this than just another social network.
Interactive buttons could be cool stuff if they were introduced by Facebook. But Google+… Who uses it anyway? Of course, if you’re building corporate travel agency with only client – Google, then it could be useful. Guess, there are lots of googlers on G+ but almost nobody else. And that’s its main problem.
Did you actually read this part of the post:
Trendstream estimates that for the final quarter of 2012, Facebook had some 693 million active users, seconded by Google+, with its 343 million active users. YouTube was at number three, followed by Twitter.
That’s not exactly nobody!
Interesting question is how G+ counts its “active users”. The fact is that it considers everyone who logs in into his Gmail account, for example, being “active”. So the most interesting part – the quality of such “activity” (e.g. number of posts, comments. likes etc.) – is missed in this stats.
We can compare some travel brand pages… let’s say Expedia.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/expedia
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/+Expedia/posts
Google plus page has almost 2 times less followers but that’s not the big deal. The big deal is it having much less activity on Google+ page even if we take its smaller user base into account.
You don’t need to have 800 thousand followers to get 100 – 300 likes per post on Facebook. 20 – 30 thousand would be enough. But that’s not what happens on Google+.
Psycho (I had to use this name as this is what I see in comment),
Google has been keeping quiet on how it measures “active” users. It isn’t still clear on what is considered “active”.
Power and potential of Google+ cannot be compared to Facebook (at this moment). Facebook is superior, purely because of user adoption.
But, there are lot of things that Google can do that Facebook cannot do. Google is slowly integrating all their products into Google+ (Picasa, Zagat, Maps, Chat, Search etc).
Even the users who aren’t inclined towards Google Plus – the nice integration that Google will put in place might “force” users to use Google+
Well, what Google DOES have, is a search engine that, of course, can be used (and is used already) as a source to drive brands on G+. But it doesn’t give that much value for the users right now.
Btw, don’t you think new cover pics format on G+ is awful?
In my view – Yes, they are way too big for a ‘cover’ post. FB size is ideal or a little bigger than that would be fine for brands. A huge picture like that would also hamper the page load-time.
Informative post, Karthick.
I have been tracking Google+ for some time for hotel clients and find that Google+ offers better features for brands than Facebook. What stops them is the low user activity – you almost feel everyone is talking business.
Anil,
Would love to hear in detail about the ‘better features’ of Google+. May be in a detailed post.
This recent article on here seems to show travel brands getting to grips with it. I have spent the last several weeks looking at depth into G+ and I will be using a lot going forward. I view it as foundations for building your online presence on.
http://www.tnooz.com/2013/03/06/news/case-study-travel-republic-hits-1-million-followers-on-google-a-uk-agency-first/
Peter