posted by Search
Every once in a great while, something comes along that fundamentally alters the way we use the Internet. In recent history, there has been an unseen hand driving us closer to the concept of social integration and collaboration. Gone are the days when you had to be face-to-face or phone-to-phone with someone you were working with. Facebook and Twitter went a long way to normalize all social websites so that they are simply part of everyday life. But Google+ takes things one step further. To even compare one to the other is akin to comparing the horse and buggy to a Nissan GTR.
We previously touched upon the finer points of Google+, more or less outlining the services it is offering. Now it’s time for a closer look at what you should be doing with them. You can also learn more about Google+ and its uses in our latest episode of Good Morning Marketers.
The Horse and Buggy
Most social sites are predicated on the notion that you have fun information you want to share. With Twitter, people share massive quantities of information to whoever may be following them. It’s a veritable carpet bombing of Internet links. There is little that can be done to stop the ever-flowing stream. There is one function and one speed: Move forward and move forward at a fast pace. Anything older than two hours is considered ancient. While we marketers love Twitter for its simplicity and ease of sharing items we find relevant, when you take a step back and look at the situation, it’s more like you’re shouting in a crowd than actually marketing.
With Facebook, we get a little more refinement, but it’s more about the sharing of information and getting people to “like” it. Again, it’s a deluge of information and posts from an overly saturated marketplace. Once again though, we’re sharing information with all the people who choose to follow us, regardless of their interests. We are still shouting in a crowd.
While these mainstays still get you from Point A to Point B, they don’t do so with elegance, efficiency or comfort. After playing with Google+ for the past month and a half, they just seem old, clunky and outdated.
The Sports Car
Google+’s primary focus is on collaboration with one another. This is most evident when you look at Huddle and Hangouts. These are real-time live chat and video sessions that are simply focused on functioning the same way you would if you were in the same room as someone. With Google Hangouts, there is even a very closely tied functionality to YouTube where you can add a video to a Hangout and up to 10 people can watch it at one time and discuss it, joke about it or pretty much do whatever is their hearts’ desire.
What makes things interesting is what they plan on doing with future updates. The Google+ team is looking to integrate numerous Google services into the Google+ website. Currently on the docket are Google Docs, Google Reader and Google Calendar, which seem like easy no-brainers. Quick-sharing and collaboration while working on Google+ through seamless Google Docs integration could make a Hangout a much more powerful tool to use to get important business accomplished.
However, their level of current and planned collaborative efforts is not their only asset. What makes them truly remarkable is the ease of Circles. The customization of not only what you see but what you say to whom is what gives Google+ its power. You are no longer targeting EVERYONE. You are instead focused on specific niches, groups, targets and interests. You are delivering information to the people who are interested in it and not inundating those who are not with information they do not care about.
But it doesn’t just end with your information. While I always tell people that if they have an opinion, they should write it down and get credit for it with Google+, this isn’t going to always be the case. I have personally become a big fan of Sparks. This allows me to stay current with a very wide range of topics and news that interests me. I have my Sparks set up and saved for things like the Cleveland Browns, search engine optimization and a few other tidbits of news that spark my interest. It’s very easy and efficient to find this news on Sparks, share it with a circle that finds it most interesting and spark a conversation that will ultimately lead to better content creation for my websites. It’s very easy to shift gears from content sharing, to content creation, and then back to content sharing.
This is ultimately what Google+ hopes to achieve: A wonderfully seamless integration into your personal and professional life that keeps you engaged and active with a very easy interface. Google+ is the car that is sleek, fast, able to make it fun to get from Point A to Point B and makes you want to do so by way of points C to Z if you have the time.
About the author of this post:
Joshua Mathe leads thunder::tech’s Search team and has worked in the SEO
and pay-per-click industry for more than five years. He is lifelong
Clevelander with a love of all things
#CLE.
TAGS:
thundertech, Google Plus, Google+, how to use Google+, Google Huddle, google hangout, circles, sparks, Google Docs, collaboration, collaboration tools, information sharing
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