There are lots of choices with social media these days.
Facebook has the lion’s share of active users and activity. I’ve had a few techno-geek friends suggest that Google+ is up and coming and even better than Facebook.
I’ve been on G+ for quite a while now, and I just don’t see it. I find the G+ interface cumbersome and SLOW. And, it’s basically a ghost town.
To wit…
I just read a news story (published today) on a major online news source. At the bottom, was the now-common set of buttons by which readers can share the article. I couldn’t help noticing a glaring difference among them. I think the tally for each pretty much says it all when comparing the activity of the big players in social media:
Google+ has 0.3% (zero-point-three!) of the activity that Facebook has.
So, how should you allocate your time and efforts when it comes to promoting your practice in social media? The numbers are on the wall.
So far, G+ = big yawn. I’ll keep trying it. But, so far, no good.
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Just to be contrary, Mike, I did NOT Share/Like this to FB but DID give it a +1 on G+. LOL
Let’s not forget a few points, though, just for argument’s sake (and I love arguing with you about things – keeps me honest and makes me think, so that’s a compliment):
1) G00gle+ is still a baby compared to Facebook – literally! It turns a year old at the end of June, I think. How many people were using Facebook after just 1 year? I know that it took me a long time to embrace FB; in fact, I resisted firmly until it seemed a necessity to integrate social media for my practice, and my personal involvement grew from there. Just because G+ only gets a small fraction of the traffic now doesn’t (necessarily) mean anything for 1-2 years from now, and given that we’re still talking about the 800 lb gorilla that is Google, I’m not prepared to bet against them quite yet.
2) The integration that we’re seeing in G+ Business/Brand Pages and Places looks to me like a major play on Google’s part to make social and search seamless; and aren’t you the guy who always says that Google is the only search engine that counts? Since it seems the new G+ Business Pages will show up in the SERPs (already are), people will be exposed to them on a regular basis over time, and over time, I think they’ll slowly add G+ into the social media routine. Again…..just because they haven’t yet, doesn’t mean they won’t, right? How long did it take Twitter to become almost indispensable…..but honestly, I haven’t looked at my Twitter account more than a couple times in the last year.
3) As we’ve discussed, how much activity you see in your G+ Stream really depends on what people you circle. I’ve circled more than 2000 people, and my Stream moves so fast, I have decided to cut back somewhat to make it more manageable. True, they’re photographers and not dental people, but hey…..from our perspective, G+ is so preferable that FB is a laughingstock. Ask any photographer who’s on both which they prefer using…….
4) If you find the G+ interface slow and cumbersome, I’ll argue that is nothing more than preference and habit. Quite frankly, I find it a lot cleaner and more esthetically pleasing that FB, and there are more abilities to customize text, edit photos (not that I use those, but they’re there and not on FB), and I don’t have to deal with any of the crap games/invitations like on FB.
My personal feeling is that you’re trying to compare the mature Facebook that has developed over the past 8 years to the fledgling Google+, and that’s not a good comparison. Who knows if G+ will survive and flourish as FB has, but remember what people said about FB as it was competing with MySpace? And where are each of those now?
Google still has a huge amount of talent, and a heck of a lot more money that FB – at the moment, I’m still betting G+ will become (not is now, but will become) a major and necessary social media platform, ESPECIALLY in SEO terms.
Your thoughts?
Haha… I posted this with the expectation that you would chime in to the contrary! 😀
I agree and understand that G+ is a relative newborn. And, no doubt, Google has some SERIOUS brainiacs working on this. Combined with Google’s nearly TOTAL domination of the search engine market and the merged Places / G+ thingy… and I don’t think G+ is going bye-bye any time soon.
But, I just happened to be reading that article and couldn’t help notice what I put in the image above. Wow. BIG difference. Actually, it was a much bigger disparity than I would have expected, even this early in the game for G+.
Of course you expected me to disagree, Mike – that’s why you sent me a message to make sure I didn’t miss it! LOL And of course, I didn’t want to disappoint. 😉
For the present, you are of course 100% correct that FB is the 800lb gorilla in the social media room. We can look forward to seeing how the landscape changes over the next couple years.
Mike – have you gotten to play around with your new G+ Business Page? Last night, I learned that Google has finished merging mine, and with the social aspects now integrated, my bet is that adding content to our G+ page, and linking posts to-and-from our websites, is about to become a powerful way to improve our SERPs. I’ve started sharing posts/pages from my website to G+; last night I even got a short conversation going with a photographer/artist lady about dental implants. Sadly, she already has them, plus she lives in California, but hey – its’ a start! LOL
Do you happen to know if you can specifically track a G+ Business Page with Analytics? That would be a very interesting thing to watch….