5 Insights from Google's Chief Evangelist for Social Brands

  

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Yesterday, I had the pleasure to hear Gopi Kallayil, Chief Evangelist, Google Social for Brands, speak at FutureM in Boston.

First, a few stats that he shared.

- Cellphones have become a part of our human body. He labeled it the 79th organ!

- There are 6 billion mobile devices in the world right now. I didn't realize how apt the page we've created was in this context! How many Android devices in the world? (sorry: works on Chrome and IE only)

- We're 16-digits of separation from any other person in the world. At first, I thought he was talking about IP addresses but quickly realized he was talking about phone numbers.

- There are 1.5 billion people on Planet Social (most of them on Facebook, of course!)

- Google+ had 400 million users and 100 million monthly active users who spend 12 minutes/day

He also outlined Google's social vision as "creating a social layer across all of Google's products". And that includes all google social properties like Google+, Search, YouTube, Hangouts, etc.

Here are the 5 insights he shared. If you are looking for specific examples on how to drive conversations and engagement, read the stories that appear below this list.

1. Face-to-face Conversations

2. Human Connections

3. Connect with your Fans

4. Deepen Engagement

5. Know your Brand Influencers

Google+ enabled President Obama to connect with ordinary citizens at his State of the Union address. Every person who wanted to ask a question had to record the question and upload it to YouTube. They received 250,000 questions from all across the US!

President Obama fielding questions via a live Google+ Hangout

Google+ enabled Jaxa, the Japanese equivalent of NASA, organize a hangout between a Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide and the citizens of Japan to engage and educate the audience about Japan's space program (forward to 40 minutes)

Google searches now feature "Social Extensions" that let you see if a hotel or airline that you are considering has been "+1"d by a friend or a colleague. Since recommendations from friends are a source of high-quality information, these extensions are improving clickthrough rates (CTR) by 10-15 percent.

Google+ Hangouts is taking people around the world through Virtual Photo Walks and how it was deepening engagement. Virtual Photo Walk page on Google+.

And, Google+ is letting you drive and measure engagement by connecting with your fans who share your content via Google+ by displaying profiles of people who've +1'd your content or have shared it amongst their circles. If you are a brand influencer for a company it is important to know and engage with these influencers.

More stats on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in case you are interested.