Do you ever wonder who started the juicy gossip you catch up on from day to day? Well now you can find out who were the top contributors to those stories and much more through Google+ Ripples. A few weeks ago Google announced this “Ripple” feature that seemed to almost be overlooked, when in reality it should be of much consideration to us marketers, and here’s why:
The ripple effect allows us to:
- Find a influencer (Dalai Lama)
- Make a connection to that influencer
- Repeat to find who the influencer is sharing with (Vic Gundotra) to virally spread your content even more
The above example was a public post shared by Dalai Lama which illustrates the spread of the post (you can find the Ripple of any public post using the dropdown arrow menu at the top right of the post). If you watch the spread, you will see the content being shared to more and more users over about a months’ time frame. Also, at the bottom of the page you will see the influencers (people with many public reshares), Statistics (how this post publicly spread), and Languages (of public shares of this post). As seen below:
So How Will This Help Us?
If we’re able to locate the influencer that is sharing content of our interest, then we’ll be able to connect to that influencer through Google+. Usually many other social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) are linked with their Google+ account which allows you to tack action with your preferred method of making a connection.
Once you’ve made the connection, put out something of value to them or possibly share their post so they know you’re interested in what they’re sharing. Hopefully at that point, they will see you sharing their posts and return the favor by sharing your content to their huge circle of followers. It’s important to not bombard the top contributor with too much content; rather research into who they’re sharing posts with (the influencers of the influencer) and reach out to them as well.
It’s all about finding that niche target market, and now thanks to Google, it’s easy (and fun!) to watch content go viral with the use of Ripples.