Can Google (yes, Google) save social media in 2020?

Laugh all you want. Google's new arroyo to social might be the way forward for brands.

Contributing Columnist, |

Is in that location a "skilful" social network? If so, which ane?

If not, what's the style forward in 2020 for companies and brands to leverage the social net to connect with and serve customers?

The social media-using public (which numbers somewhere between ii and iv billion people, depending on whom you lot ask) is divided up into dozens or even hundreds of bulletproof walled gardens. Users who use Twitter exclusively are bullheaded to what'southward happening on Facebook. Facebook-merely users have no idea what's going on with TikTok. And and then on with dozens of social sites.

Brands seeking to connect with consumers are stymied by sites similar Facebook, which sever that connection through algorithmic control of News Feeds. Pay through the olfactory organ, and yous might reach a low two-digit percent of the customers who followed your Folio to stay in touch on. Fail to pay, and you could exist looking at a less-than-two-percent access rate.

Maintaining a productive social presence is getting increasingly problematic.

The trouble with Facebook and Twitter

Facebook'due south growth appears to accept plateaued or declined in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Twitter reported even bigger declines this year. Bots, many of which are country-sponsored and exist for using disinformation for causing social partition, go on to plague social sites similar Twitter, despite huge endeavor past the company to eliminate them. Facebook recently removed 583 meg false accounts that, until the removal, were engaging equally and with existent users.

Social media is partly blamed for growing political partition and social strife, and the problem is getting so bad that brands need to increasingly wonder if social sites are a "bad neighborhood" they don't really desire to be associated with.

The one "bright spot" for social user growth is TikTok, which (after spending a billion dollars on mostly Facebook and Instagram advertizing) is lone in marking meteoric user growth. The social network, chosen the second coming of Vine, involves 15-second algorithmically sorted videos with user comments at the lesser. TikTok algorithms favor memes, music-related videos and frivolous-but-addictive videos that emphasize body-language communication and humor.

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The Chinese visitor that owns TikTok, called ByteDance, is now valued at over $75 billion. Simply the service has been embroiled in controversy. Every bit a Chinese company, it's subject to theoretical censorship and user tracking by the Chinese authorities — the same government that actively bans all of TikTok's foreign competitors. TikTok is being investigated past the Usa government, and it's not clear what the result of that investigation will exist.

TikTok avoids much of the social and political sectionalisation of other social sites by making no pretense of supporting free speech and simply banning but nearly all substantive content. The app'south terms of service prohibit word of independence movements, national leaders, politics, protests and lots of other things. It doesn't ban trolling per se — in fact, most TikTok videos seem vaguely trollish past design.

TikTok every bit a tendency, in fact, may represent total victory past trolls on social networks over the now-quaint idea of social media as a "public square" where citizens engaged constructively over interesting and important matters. Instead, the "foam" that rises to the top of TikTok and dominates the service are more likely to include videos of people eating chicken, Gummy Bears singing Adele songs, head-banging dogs and the TikTok standard of teenagers dancing and lip-syncing to profanity-laced hip-hop lyrics.

The TikTok response to my characterization, of course, would be "OK, boomer." But the point is that for a variety of reasons — while the old-and-busted social sites abound ever more problematic for make conversations — the new hotness isn't so hot, either. Where do you go if you want to engage customers on social?

Does Google have the answer to social appointment?

Google killed its Google+ social network platform for consumers in April, and claimed to retain it for business customers. The business organisation version is less similar a social network and more like a cloud intranet, and very few companies apply it.

Google concluded Plus considering of "depression usage" and considering of two data leaks, which were probably not exploited by hackers. Since then, Google has made some strange moves in the social space.

Google runs an incubator called Area 120, which created a social networking app called Shoelace. The app, which is express to New York City for now, is designed to enable people to collaborate based on local activities and events, which users can create and organize. The app theoretically competes with Facebook's "Events" feature and is reminiscent of the Google+ Events characteristic and Google Schemer, which was launched in 2011 for organizing activities.

Google as well caused a TikTok-like social video sharing app called Firework. Different TikTok'south shorter videos, Firework enables 30-second videos, which can be viewed in both portrait and mural modes past only turning the phone during the video. The feature is called "Reveal." (Facebook too launched a TikTok-competing app final twelvemonth chosen Lasso.)

These ii social networking moves are obviously also little, too late. Some say, for case, that Firework is "better" than TikTok. Simply it doesn't thing. Google+ was "improve" than Facebook. And Google's reputation for killing products and services (which makes the public hesitant to embrace whatever new Google thing, especially in the social space) is far worse now than it was when Google+ was a matter.

Shoelace and Firework have zero chance of succeeding.

Merely other social initiatives by Google might be alee of the curve. No, really!

Is 'openness' the solution to social?

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey unveiled plans recently to create a decentralized standard for social media called Bluesky and that Twitter would support it. Dorsey says that the initiative could apply Web3 foundations like blockchain to tackle the biggest issues with social media, including the prevalence of faux news and divisive, vitriolic content.

Facebook also said it's opening upwardly a flake. The company recently announced an option to transfer photos and videos (protected by encryption) from Facebook to Google Photos, with other services to be supported later. The characteristic is expected to be globally available by the middle of next year.

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, is also trying to fix social. His unlikely solution is an ad-free social network called WT.Social. The social network is invitation-only, but you can invite yourself past paying. He intends for WT.Social to avoid the whole fake-news, fake-users, troll-axial trap that Facebook and Twitter autumn into by employing user moderation, as with Wikipedia. Volunteer moderators will have the power to delete content and users will be banned for trolling and other anti-social behavior.

The success of any of these initiatives seems unlikely. But is the general idea of more openness, universality and user control the best way forrard?

As the power and value of social media declines, the original Google social strategy might terminate upwards being the right one.

Information technology'south difficult to call up now, but before Google+ (i.e. before 2011), Google's stated strategy was to bake social features into services that were non social networks, rather than creating a walled garden.

The most successful implementation of this idea was YouTube, which is a video sharing site with social features that's so social it'due south commonly counted among social network and, equally such, is considered the world's second largest social network after Facebook. Google is considered a loser in social. But the company either has the 2d virtually successful social network or — more than likely — information technology's ability to bake social into services that aren't primarily social networks is a winner.

Consider: Many of the improvements that Google has made to its popular Maps product are social additions that assistance businesses inform or serve customers. The about recently appear such feature enables users to follow "Local Guides," which are active reviewers and posters of photos on Maps. For instance, a user who frequently reviews and posts photos of restaurants might exist designated by Google every bit a Local Guide. (Google rewards Local Guides with perks like starting time admission to new Maps features, free and discounted Google services, and too local meetups.) The follow feature is currently being piloted in a few major cities around the world, and should roll out globally adjacent twelvemonth. There are currently some 120 1000000 Local Guides around the world.

The capability to follow Local Guides follows some other follow feature introduced last year with which users tin can follow a business organisation, and go updates on products and events, which direct competes with Google Pages for businesses.

Google Photos, which has more than a billion users, is getting more social networking features. About a week ago, Google announced the capability to share a photograph or video with a notation on the Google Photos network. The feature enables back-and-forth chat like Instagram, Snapchat or whatever number of social networks — except Photos has far more users than those services. The Photos service has long offered the ability to share and converse over albums of photos, and the app has a "Sharing" tab that gives you a stream of social and photo-posting action amongst the people you follow.

Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok have shown that social sharing is increasingly centered on pictures and videos. Even Facebook is testing a feature called Pop Photos, which gives a feed of photos from friends inside Facebook (without so many words).

Twitter announced this calendar week that it has rolled out a system that compresses and degrades the quality of photos on the site far less than before. Announced by Twitter engineer Nolan O'Brien, the new arroyo keeps photos at 97 percent quality. The new system enables companies to maintain more than command over the visual quality of their brand equally it's presented on Twitter. The company as well appear that it will support Apple's Alive Photo's, which are three-second videos that accompany nonetheless photos when taken with an iPhone. The animation will loop and repeat infinitely.

Enter Google Photos

There'due south no question that social is getting more visual. Google Photos might have an advantage in visual social networking.

As with then many Google backdrop, and in keeping with the original social strategy of Google, Photos is not a social network, but a photo site with social baked in.

And finally, expert one-time-fashioned search is getting more than social. Search for whatever brand on Google Search, and yous'll go the website, the YouTube videos, recent social posts on several networks and directly links to contact. Search reaches over the walls of the walled gardens.

Equally every new social affair further divides and alienates the globe, Google's core properties — YouTube, Maps, Search, Gmail — continue to serve as the common denominator — the platforms everyone uses.

As social networking grows increasingly sour, mayhap the all-time and most popular social network won't exist a social network, only simply the internet with social features built in. In other words, possibly the only "adept" social network is no social network.

If that's the time to come, Google may stop up dominating social engagement afterward all.

Maybe the best way in 2020 to engage with customers is via Maps, Search, Gmail and even Photos, instead of participating in the ugly mess that is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.