Google Social Media Incentive Scheme May be to Reassure Investors
Google CEO Larry Page recently started an incentive scheme which will reward Google’s employees based on the company’s performance in the social media market. While many see this as an attempt to ensure the company’s employees place focus on the burgeoning social media market, some also believe that the move may have had an alterior motive.
Some, such as Greenlight Research COO Andreas Pouros, noted that Google employees are generally not directly employed in the social media division and thus won’t have a direct say in how the bonuses are handed out. He speculates instead that the company simply made the announcement to reassure investors that they were doing all they could to take advantage of the market.
Pouros states that “Perhaps the reason for the bonus [announcement] is not necessarily to directly incentivize staff, but more to reassure investors that Google is serious about social media and, at the same time, create social momentum behind Page’s ‘re-ignition’ of its business.”
However Adeel Najam, who is the senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific’s ICT practice, believes that even if the move was more for investors than employees, it should still ensure that those working under the Google banner will focus on their social media output.
He believes that “Employees will work together in making [social media] a priority and improve the company’s offering.”
