Not a social ‘know all’? It doesn’t matter as surely you’ve heard about the Google +1 Button but what is it really all about and what does it mean for social marketing?

Designed to bring more relevant information to users the +1 button is Google’s answer to the Facebook ‘Like’ button.

By clicking the +1 button on a site, blog, article, organic or sponsored listing this will convey to all of that users Google network connections that they recommend the site by displaying ‘Jack +1’d this’.

These social marketing personal recommendations are a way to drive more qualified traffic to websites.

Now completely rolled out the Google +1 button can be added to all aspects of a website, will be displayed automatically on Google AdWords adverts and can be closely monitored in Webmaster Tools to see just what effect it is having on business.

A recent study examining how prevalent social plug-ins, such as the Facebook Like Button and Boxes or Tweet buttons, are on home pages of the top 10,000 ranking sites has found that there Google +1 button has seen an increased presence of more than 28% in the last month alone. Current figures mean that it is now one more homepages than the Tweet button.

And for the future…

Google’s latest offering to the social networking world Google+ is currently in ‘project’ mode and only accessible by invitation. It has been receiving mixed reviews from those lucky enough to have access to the new network but the majority have been very positive and the industry feeling is that this is actually a breath of fresh air.

The concept behind the Google+ network is to make sharing simpler between family and friends. Will it work for businesses and brands? The initial feelings are that it will be a slow burn for businesses as there is currently no active ‘fan’ or ‘follower’ equivalent included in the design.

However, Google have confirmed that there will be a business element added to the service further down the line and this will see the introduction of pages for businesses and, by making updates public there is an assumption that they will eventually be indexed by Google.

Eventure Internet understand how important social marketing is to the success of a website and incorporate all social marketing aspects into the bespoke web design packages on offer.