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Thoughts on Google+
Google+ is something that I have been doing a lot of thinking about recently. It is something that I am so excited about because I truly believe that Google have been watching and listening to the social media scene and have come up with something that is really going to help social media evolve into something new and exciting. I personally really love what they have done to make privacy more of a priority and also what they have done with circles in recognizing that you don’t want to share everything with everyone! But even though I am running a Google+ Tutorialsblog with fellow ChurchMag author, Dustin Stout, I am still feeling a bit bummed about Google+ at the moment.
My Problem
You see, it’s not to do with the features or anything like that. In fact I have been really impressed with the features that Google have been coming out with thus far. That being said, I think that things will get really exciting when Google+ open up to third party developers! My problem is simply that I am feeling a bit sad that a lot of my “real life” friends have not even tried Google+. I really want to try to persuade a lot of my friends who mainly lurk on Facebook to at least try Google+. I know that it will happen over time, I am convinced that Google+ will become big, it just will take time for people to realise that it is worth using. I guess it is the job of us early adopters to really see the value in the service and keep pushing for more people to join up and get involved. I really want to use Google+ more, I want it to be my main social network, and I am sure that it will become that in time, however, let’s be realistic, right now unfortunately I don’t get to use it as often as I would like. So. There is my sob story about Google+, but what I am really interested in is how everyone else here in the ChurchMag community is getting on with it.
Over To You
Here are a few questions that I would love for people to answer in the comments below to start a bit of a discussion about Google+:
- How are you enjoying using Google+?
- Are you using it more and more as time goes on?
- Are you finding that more of your friends are signing up?
- What do you think about the new features that Google have been releasing recently?
April says
I love the premise behind Google+ and the look and feel of it is great also, however, I am currently just feeling overwhelmed with social media that Google+ has fallen to the back burner.
James Brooks says
Yeh. I can totally relate, but as I said in the post, I really feel the pressure as an early adopter to leverage my influence to make Google+ a better place. What do you think about that?
@austinklee says
I’m with April, I think it is a hard sell to get a group of people to abandon a platform that they have spent a significant amount of time developing and curating to jump over to Google+.
The reaction is similar to what happened with Google Buzz. Early excitement and then the realization that it really isn’t all that different than Twitter.
James Brooks says
Austin, I can see how you can see things like that, but I will have to disagree in that I think that Google have made significant improvements on the status quo when it comes to social media!
Dustin W. Stout says
People said that same thing about Myspace when Facebook came along. Though valid, it isn’t the root of the issue i think.
James Brooks says
word!
Matthew Snider says
I used to like it but since no one really uses it except to mimic what they have on Twitter and Facebook, eh nothing really too exciting. I deleted the iOS version of it and rarely am on the web version any more.
James Brooks says
Matthew, I am super sad to hear that.
What are your personal thoughts: Do you think it will die a death or do you just think that it will take time to grow and when it grows more you will jump back on?
Matthew Snider says
I honestly think I am done with it. I feel it’s the same as Facebook and deleted that account months ago. Just not feeling it all that much anymore.
I like to try and maintain the relationships locally over the internet. There are a few folks online that I speak with but Twitter is fine for that.
just another late to the game (Android) in my mind.
James Brooks says
Hrmm….interesting – so the only social network that you use is Twitter?
@austinklee says
Now that Facebook has added a feature similar to Circles in their platform I don’t really see a significant difference. Google+ seems like one more thing to check.
It seems to me that Google should spend less time trying to figure out how to be Twitter and Facebook and get back to being Google.
Tychicus says
Google+ needs as they say in the music world, “a hook”. Once they find that, I believe more will join. I think most don’t realize the value in Google+ privacy part. I invite but on average, the only ones to join are those who are tech minded and realize the value of privacy. When Gmail came out, I was the first to join because I was able to keep all my emails if I wanted plus sort and catalogue them. With the other cool storage stuff I find the others (ex. hotmail) are just copying Google now for storage.
James Brooks says
I hear you Tychicus! You are making some really good points there! 🙂
Dustin W. Stout says
Well James, I am bias. 😉
To answer your questions:
1. Like Justin Timberlake in the McDonalds commercial, “I’m lovin’ it!”
2. Yes, I’m using it more and more!
3. I’m finding that more of my friends are getting curious the more I talk about it.
4. New features = more and more awesome!
I think the problem is most people don’t like change. Most people are still confused about using Facebook, and those who finally figured it out don’t want to invest more time learning something new. The same people said the same things about Facebook when they were busy customizing their Myspace with all the junk that ended up killing it. “I don’t need a new social network, I already have one that all my friends are on.” And that’s fair– I get that.
I think that if people really understood why Google+ is better than Facebook, they would never be able to go back.
James Brooks says
I think you are right. Plus, if you care about privacy then Google+ is MUCH less of a learning curve than facebook. Am I right or am I right?
Michael Walden says
I’m using it more and more ( I even made a facebook photo using the I moved to Google thing you wrote about). I think it outshines Facebook in many areas and I nitpick at my friends until they finally give in and say ok ok send me the damn invitation. Once they see it, they say wow this is cool. 🙂
James Brooks says
Michael, you need to share with me some of your tactics for getting people to move across! 😉
Michael Walden says
Welllllll, I’ve found that behaving sort of ignorant (which I truly am anyway so it’s not really lying LOL ) and saying things like “It has the really cool circle thing, you dont have to throw all your friends in one bucket. You know, you could talk about John or Dustin (just as examples) they wouldn’t even know about it unless they are a part of the circle you posted to.
That kind of thing seems to work fairly well for most of the people I know on Facebook…hmmm what does that say about my “Friends” 😉 Anyhow most of my “Friends” aren’t really friends in the strict sens of the word which makes G+ just that much better. Although I have heard that FB now has something similar?
James Brooks says
Yeh, I did hear that too. Haven’t seen it yet though, I think that they may be in the process of rolling it out.
Douglas Porter says
I think the biggest problem is most people are not using it. They are using Facebook, they Twitter. If the only people updating their Google+ are 10% of my tweeps then why check Google+ too?