Effectively marketing a company, website, or service online forces you to keep up with current search trends which inevitably includes the use of social media networks as internet marketing tools. Whether actively engaging in social media networking for personal or business purposes, you’ve probably read about the Google Plus Project.
Have a Google+ Account? What do you think about Google+?
Talk about Google+ has dominated Twitter, blogs, and social media news outlets for some time. Since it’s launch the majority of excitement and discussions have centered around Google+ being a social network to rival or replace Facebook. A quick search of article titles over the past few weeks covering Google+ will produce endless results illustrating this:
- Google’s Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives – SearchLand.com
- Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook– NYTimes.com
Opinions vary from article to article. Here is a link to one of the more interesting articles on the subject I discovered:
- “How Google+ ends social networking fatigue” -Mike Elgan ComputerWorld.com
After reading the article, I set out to get other people’s opinions of Google+. A lot of the feedback discussed how clean, simple, and even elegant Google+ is. This reminded me of what everyone was saying years ago, shortly after I finally set up a MySpace account. All the sudden my friends said I had to join Facebook. Are you kidding me? I just figured out this MySpace thing. It seems like yesterday people were talking about how refreshing, simple, and easy Facebook was both in design and ability to follow / communicate. They were right. After joining Facebook it did not take long to leave the glitter filled landscape of MySpace behind. Make no mistake, I do not think Facebook is going anywhere (quite the contrary). Nevertheless the fact that a lot of current Google+ vs Facebook feedback mimics past MySpace vs Facebook dialogue gives one reason to pause.
Just as thought provoking was a simple post within Google+ by Richard Ord, owner of the iEntry Network & WebProNews.com, asking the question “Is Google+ a Twitter replacement? Just wondering.” I found this particularly interesting considering Google’s recent move to drop it’s real time feed and contract with Twitter.
Which led to the question at hand…Is Google+ a sexy Twitter or a clean Facebook?
The book is out and opinions will vary. Google always had all the individual pieces that make a network like Facebook popular and powerful; they had just never successfully put them all together. Google+ certainly appears to do that. Furthermore, Google did a masterful job of looking at the social media market space and listening to people’s tweets, likes, & dislikes in order to produce what appears to be a sustainable and powerful communication tool that has tremendous potential. Google+ could replace any number of social media networks for individuals, or simply be an additional internet communication tool…time will tell…for now I’ll follow Mike Elgan’s advice and refrain from calling Google+ a Social Media Network. (Just as Google does)
Here at Rent It Today we have always been early adopters of new social media networks. Social media is integrated, in a variety of ways, throughout our website and advertising platform. – Matthew Stephenson Google+ – @MattRentItToday – RentItToday.com Facebook
Howdy! Thanks for posting your take on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. I enjoyed the resource links and personal views.
This really is a really excellent report! Many thanks so much for the facts.
That is very attention-grabbing title. I’ve joined your rss feed and am looking forward to future posts.