Evaluating a new social network
A new social network is weighed by its audience and access, its connections with existing services, the visibility and control it offers, and the effort needed to maintain a presence. Membership totals, audience activity and forecasts describe different aspects of that decision.
Audience and participation
Social networks change: some serve selective audiences, others change as their membership evolves, and a site that meets a writer's purposes at one point may cease to do so.
Google+ illustrated the difference between membership and activity in 2012: it had more than 400 million members by September, but these were not all active users, and creating a Gmail profile automatically enrolled a user in Google+. By early February 2013, Google+ ranked sixth for social-network traffic globally and in the United States. An April 2013 analytics report cited 356 million active users, placing Google+ second to Facebook. Reported monthly active users rose from 190 million in May 2013 to 300 million in October, while members interacting with any Google service increased from 390 million to 540 million over the same period. In 2014, the platform's eventual audience was still considered undetermined.
Integration and discoverability
In 2011, Google Buzz combined profiles, status updates, photographs and videos with Gmail and Google Maps integration; public updates also appeared in a layer on Google's mobile maps. At the time, its links to those services were considered a reason it might become widely used.
In 2014, Google+ was free to individuals and businesses and linked with other Google services. A single login covered services including Gmail and Hangouts, content found through Google searches could be shared, and hashtag searches displayed relevant Google+ posts beside search results. Appearing in Google searches could potentially improve the visibility of a writer's posts or blog. A search-industry commentator also suggested that sharing might affect personalised search rankings, while Google's ranking algorithms were not fully disclosed.
Content and audience control
Google+'s 2014 circles grouped contacts, such as friends, family or professional colleagues, so a user could choose who saw a post and filter the updates received from each group.
The Financial Times reported that Google+ gave it its highest engagement and worked well for videos, images and infographics. By August 2014, it had attracted almost three million followers there through an emphasis on original reporting and visual content.
Privacy and maintenance
The proliferation of platforms made decisions about time spent learning, building relationships and contributing content increasingly difficult by 2014. Google+ added another platform to learn and another network, following and body of content to develop.
Its 2014 privacy settings allowed users to control profile sharing with the public, extended circles or particular circles, search-engine indexing, and the display of photographs, reviews and +1 tabs. Profile names, profile and cover images, and links to connected YouTube channels nevertheless remained public. Medical communicators should read a platform's legal disclaimers when deciding whether it suits them, their employer or their business.
Experiments and forecasts
A forecast for 2014 anticipated that users would experiment with several networks before finding suitable ones: new channels created more ways to reach an audience but required more experimentation and time. Social media predictions can fail to materialise, although awareness of possible trends can help refine marketing strategies and tactics.