Google+ is brand spanking new. It’s not even a month old. If it was a human, it would be weak, feeble, and dependent upon a loving family to take care of it.
However, because this is the tech world, it’s in beta. Apparently 18 million people are using it, so I have no idea how that even counts as a beta anymore. It also means people are already abusing it into a tool of internet marketing to make a quick buck off of chumps and idiots who don’t know better.
The only profiles on Google+ right now are personal profiles so people can connect with other people and share crap they like but are too embarrassed to share anywhere else. There may be a few pets in there too, but that’s it. People only. No businesses or fan pages.
So people who are telling you how to use Google for your business right now are crazy. They aren’t experts. They aren’t geniuses with new ideas. They’re greedy assholes who are looking to make a quick buck on a brand new tool that may not have staying power or an audience that’s even relevant to you. Whatever business you’re conducting on Google+ can be done over Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and you and your audience are probably better suited for those networks anyways because they have established tools for businesses.
Should you ignore Google+? Hell no. It’s free to join. It only takes your precious time. So take the time to play with it. See what others are doing with it. Feel free to spend your money on a class about it if and only if you don’t get it. But trust me when I say that it will change and become more relevant to business later, and it will be more important that you get it then.
You and your business deserve better than internet marketers are trying to sell you on. Figure out where the audience for your business is online, and meet them there. Don’t just hop on every new social network because you can and it looks like it might be cool. You’re just wasting your resources and feeding people who’d sell you meaningless internet snake oil.
At first I thought your cartoon guy said “Googlet,” which is kind of an awesome word. Maybe instead of saying “I circled you,” people could say “I googleted you.” Or “You’re in my googlet.” “Googlet me.” It’s got a rather nice ring to it.
It’s really hard to make Google+ not look like a word using my handwriting.
I got an invite. Added 1600 peeps to one circle. Looked at my old G profile, looked at G+, noticed one new feature, thought of Facebook, thought of Twitter, was like: WTF is this? Then I deleted my G+ user account. Plus(!) the amount of memory used by Firefox with G+ idle in the background brought me back to 1994 in terms of usability.
I’ve found G+ to work best with Chrome. I’ve had major errors using it in Safari 5 on a Mac.
Right on the amount of memory?! Like Jay, I use it in Chrome, but if I do a hangout, my computer crashes. Every time. Grrrr!
I just don’t understand how people can truly believe that there are Google+ experts out there. Anyone can be an expert, considering…there’s really not much to it. How about, instead of paying some schmoe to tell you how to use it, just go investigate it for yourself. Der.
“You and your business deserve better than internet marketers are trying to sell you on. Figure out where the audience for your business is online, and meet them there. Don’t just hop on every new social network because you can and it looks like ti might be cool. You’re just wasting your resources and feeding people who’d sell you meaningless internet snake oil.”
Bravo, sir.
Also: I’m sharing this on Google+.
+1 to that!
When was the last time I told you how much I love you? I love you.
I don’t know, but I love you too Gini.
Well people in the whole world are anxiously waiting for business pages on Google+. Most of the people have already started creating business pages though profile on Google+. Google has recently requested not to use profile pages as company business pages. Watch a video from Google+ product manager on http://www.techowiz.com/2011/07/22/google-for-business-to-be-available-soon/
A lot of great points Jay (love the “Who will save us from bad social media?”) but I would add that Google has NOT added business accounts to G+ yet, so this question is moot and any selling to business at this time is a scam.
I am looking forward to following your blog (and tweets). ^KC