During the past week Google has been hosting their annual Google I/O event. Apple Events attract diehards from all over the world and in the past we have seen almost evangelical like scenes at these events. The annual Apple events always feature new products or updates to current offerings. Google I/O in the past have mainly focussed on what’s coming and some of that has never actually appeared.
There has been quite a few new innovations at this years conference, however the one I think will have the most impact for real estate agents is Google+ Events. There is no API for this yet, but once there is, I can see a world of possibilities.
[hr]
Creating an Event in Google+
You simply login to your Google+ Profile and you will notice a New Events Tab on left side. Once you click on this you can create an Event. The first thing you will notice is to pick a theme (could be a property photo) or you can choose from a set of themes!
[hr]
Events automatically added to Google Calendar
All events created by you will appear in your Google Calendar and you can also add photography to these events. Not only can you add photos in realtime (from an Android Phone), but others can too (that you invite to event) either in real time or after the event.
Google+ Circles Importance
If Google+ Circles were not important before, well they are now. You can build your list now and add circles for Past Buyers, Prospective Buyers, Friends, Family etc. Google+ Circles are going to become increasingly important.
Google Events API
Once the API hits the market I am sure you will also be able to add events shortcode to your websites or develop systems for events to automatically appear next to respective properties.
Google Hangouts
This is the sleeping giant and if you are not using Hangouts – you should. You can have discussions, experts and reviews right from a Hangout with up to 10 people. You can now even stream them live via Youtube and your own website via an embed code. With Google Events you can also schedule Hangouts right from the Google+ Event creation tool!
http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/events/
4 Comments
Greg Vincent
Peter, up until Google’s LIVE Hangouts & now Google Events it felt like Google+ was only really worth being a part of for improved search. But now I see some great opportunities emerging for agents via Google+.
It’s great that the collaboration of photos from an event can all be brought together in one place.
The engagement & reach of any small or large scale event is now set to go to a whole new level via Google’s Live Hangouts & their Events product.
It will be interesting to see what Facebook comes up with (or a 3rd party developer integrates with Facebook via their Open Graph).
The battle is heating up & the winner is = Us (the end user).
Peter Ricci
Hi Greg yes! I am sure Google knowing that numbers are not enough will continue to build the strength and have a pretty solid focus on business and productivity with Google+.
Facebook are a little hamstrung as it is a closed network, but I am sure this competition is going to be good for businesses going forward.
Greg Vincent
It will also be interesting to see what Lars Rassmussen (ex Google) & his team do with Facebook Search. Could make for an interesting change to Social Search. & SMO strategies.
Peter Ricci
Yes, Facebook have a little more contraints over how they do things, but definitely they need to boost their Pages and Groups offerings.