I often speak on Social Media to business people (generally accountants and suppliers to accountants). But I don’t talk about Google+
[I wrote this post in October 2011. Looking back on it in July 2023, I see my cynicism was well founded as Google+ was closed down a few years later. Over the years I have applied a similar wait and see approach to many new ‘opportunities’ – most recently ‘clubhouse’ that was a fad for a short while during the pandemic in 2020]
Here’s why I don’t talk about Google+:
1 – It is too new: I do not think that my audiences need to be at the forefront of the newest social media fads. IF Google+ becomes an established alternative to LinkedIn for professional business audiences THEN I will discuss it in detail during my talks. Until and unless THEIR target audiences (clients, prospects and referrers) are engaged on Google+ there is no need for them or me to spend time on this new platform.
2 – Walk don’t run: To date very few in my audiences are already engaged to any material extent with social media. Some have registered profiles on Linkedin or twitter but they don’t yet USE them effectively. Anyone who is going to dip their toes into social media is best off starting to experiment with these established tools. Some may try facebook business pages or ecademy. The choice should be determined, as I’ve already noted, by considering where your target audience is and engaging with them there.
3 – Horses for courses: To date, the only people I have encountered who are USING Google+ are IT geeks and those who are promoting social media and/or marketing – in a generic way. These people are not my audience and no one in my audience wants to do more than to use social media for marketing their own business. I know this isn’t the right motivation but I accept it is the reason for their interest. I always explain that Social Media is NOT a new broadcast medium. In any event, the more established social media sites are where my audience should start experimenting, not the newest latest fad.
4 – Damn statistics – I don’t care that over 40 million people registered for Google+. This is very different from the number of people who REALLY use Google+. In fact the stats tell us that only a small proportion of that 40m are using Google+ to any real extent. I guess many are like me. I registered and had a look when it was launched in July 2011. I went back once or twice and then stopped bothering. Much as I did with Google Buzz when that launched. By the way I understand that Buzz has recently been killed off.
5 – It’s not for me – The bottom line is that I think it’s unlikely I’ll be using Google+ for business anytime soon. The only people I know using Google+ are people I am already connected with on other social media platforms. Why do I (or they) need to be connecting and interacting on a new platform as well? Is there a good enough reason to migrate across to a new platform, to learn new techniques and build new habits? I think not. Indeed, even if there were some fantastic new amazing features only available with Google+ I would still not want to be a pioneer. They seem to be lonely.
Listening to a Social Media Podcast recently I found myself agreeing with the expert contributors: It’s unlcear what Google+ is FOR. By comparison, and I appreciate this is simplistic: Facebook is for friends and fun; Twitter is for fast news and insights; and Linkedin is for business and CVs. Until there is a similar simple way to express what Google+ is for and thus a compelling reason to use Google+ I won’t be advocating it to my audiences and I’m comfortable that they won’t be missing out.
What do you think?
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I completely agree with the comments you’ve made and I’m afraid I’m a typical user of Google+ who has registered but never uses the site, although I am a regular user of Facebook. Google+ has a lot of catching up to do and must differentiate itself from Facebook to entice people to switch.
Thanks Mark
At this point in time with Google+ I agree with you despite the fact that we have enabled our website for it and set up both and account and a page.
Time will tell, of course….but Google has an unimpressive track record in this area despite their user base.
Phil
I guess the main point for me is that it’s simply to early to get excited about Google+ Yes Google does have a fantastic track record but this is a completely new direction for Google who is having to compete with another free provider.
Is it not beneficial for a brand to take up Google+ for SEO now? Google loves sites and brands that use its assets (YouTube videos, Google maps Etchells,etc). This is surely the main reason most brands are making efforts to get their heads around Google+
Hi Lisa
You may be right re brands. But my audience are accountants in practice and very few are building brands. I endeavour to help them understand that marketing advice given to other types of business (eg: big brands) isn’t necessarily relevant to them.
Google+ isn’t used regularly used by enough people to make it useful as an active social media platform. If you want to interact with other people, and build relationships that might lead to you getting some work, then you would be much better off using LinkedIn and Twitter.
I’d still recommend having a Google+ page for your business though. It can be used to claim your Google Local listing and give you control over the content people see there. You can encourage clients to review your business on Google+, which shows in the search engine results and builds trust. Finally you can +1 any blog articles you write to get them indexed by Google.
All good stuff. But none of it is due to Google+ being a good social media platform.
Thanks for this and funny that as you say time has not changed your viewpoint. I agree whole heartedly that if people are already engaging on other SM channels then why try to reach them on another, personally every time I use G+ it confuses me as an interface as it is simply is not intuitive, I can’t help but think Google is trying to do too much in one place.
I can only agree with you Mark and especially with the comments by Nicky. Marketing etc is about focus and you have to keep your focus and not pander to the latest fad. Now, if the fad becomes the norm then you respond accordingly. Tony Margaritelli – Chair ICPA