Future Recommendations for Pedal Forwards Google Campaign - Essay Example

Basic networking can go a long way toward reaching out to potential followers. By being actively engaged with other communities of bike enthusiasts, Pedal Forward assures itself that it has a shot at staying relevant, and at gaining fans in the long term. An extension of this is co-branding, which is networking in a way, but with brands and organizations that share the values of Pedal Forward, and which can propel Pedal Forward's own brand awareness too. For instance, Pedal Forward can co-brand with an organic food company that has national traction, or a cosmetics brand that focuses on natural ingredients such as The Body Shop, to raise awareness about Pedal Forward's own campaign on Google+. The idea here is to align the co-branding strategy with what Pedal Forward wants to achieve, and what it stands for (Leap, 2012).

Another recommendation is for Pedal Forward to utilize Google+ Hangouts to connect with its fan base in real-time, and then capture that real-time interaction and post it on the Google+ page of Pedal Forward so that a larger population of fans can keep viewing that Hangout session after the event, for their benefit. A Google+ Hangout allows for Pedal Forward to interact via text and via video with a group of followers about a specific topic, say bamboo bike trails, and then capture that interaction for later posting. This is a great idea to do on a regular basis, as a way to stay relevant and connect meaningfully with the audience The idea is for Pedal Forward to try and stay fresh and relevant while reaching out to other pages and communities to increase visibility and to engage existing and new fans. Related recommendations along this line of thinking include setting up hooks from Google+ and from Pedal Forward's website to other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, Instagram Pinterest, and Kickstarter, to broaden the social media reach of the campaign (Leap 2012).

II. Future Recommendations for Google+

The idea of being able to broadcast Google+ Hangout sessions is great, and something that can differentiate the platform from other platforms such as Facebook. One way Google+ can further improve on this is to hook up these Hangout sessions to Google's other properties, and chiefly with YouTube, and provide tools to make YouTube campaigns more visible to the audience of Pedal Forward for example. YouTube can provide social media campaign tools that Google+ campaigns can use. Read More