This article comes with two caveats:

1. Google+ is still very new and immature. Many people, myself included are trying things out, seeing what works and doesn’t. Therefore my thoughts are based on where we are today. Tomorrow might be different.

2. The importance of Google+ is a whole lot more than just a new CRM system. This article focuses on one little part of Google+.

So..

One of the core concept of Google+ is Circles. A Circle is a method to segment whom I listen to, and who I share with, based on any criteria I give. So in my circles I have a music circle. I use that to share music videos, links and general chat related to music. Some of the people in my circle will also be in another circle for business or other interests.

With lists, Twitter has offered the ability to selectively ‘listen’ to different streams based on your criteria, but that’s where it stopped. If I wanted to share something with a select group of individuals I can’t, unless I reply to multiple individuals.

Facebook Fan Pages are also evolving to selectively message your audience based on certain criteria (e.g. language and location.)

On the face of it, Google+ beats them both by using Circles to segment in both directions, listening and sharing.

When I first saw this I thought it would be a great opportunity for brands to use circles much like they segment an email list, sending different messages to different people based on different criteria. I still think the potential is there but it may not be as clear to the consumer.

If you put me into a circle, Google will tell me. What they won’t tell me is what circle. In a way, that is a good thing for privacy and decency (what if you had me in a circle called ‘plonkers’?) but I may not twig the relevance when you post things relevant to that circle. For example, when I post to my music circle I am sharing with people I know like music. But if I listen to my music circle I get a stream of all their posts. So the relevance is only one way.

Taking this theory back to the brand emails, If I am on a list for a major airline I expect to get either generic emails or route specific offers. I will check the email as I know it is relevant. If I signed up to that same brand in a Circle, how would I know what was relevant for me? OK, I know it was relevant because I signed up to listen, but with the volume of updates coming out, I could rapidly forget.

So there needs to be a middle ground that shows me why I get the update. I simply start my music posts with ‘to my music circle’ so they can all see why they are getting the update. I guess that is much like ‘you are receiving this email because…’ . Maybe that will work.

The issue of relevance, open rates and click rates will still be relevant on Circles, although bounce rates could be replaced by ‘view rates’ (when do people actually see the update.) Brands with a strong background in running email campaigns, and working in other social channels will be able to fast track their understanding of the Google+ potential as a CRM tool.

Is Google+ a threat to email campaigns? Maybe…