Editorial: Google+ is not a social media game changer

editorial

15 Dec

So New York Times bestselling author Chris Brogan has made some pretty bold claims as to the state of Google+ via an interview with Mashable.

Google+ has an obvious advantage in search results, presents unique opportunities for brands and is backed by deep pockets, he argues. And all of these factors make it a social media platform that will stick around in a big way.

In respects, his argument for the social network succeeding make sense. Comparing it to Facebook at such an early stage in development is the equivalent of comparing the aforementioned to Myspace back in 2006: it's still rather early days, and has a lot of changes to undergo. But in it's current state, Brogan pointed out the crucial flaw with Google+ via one of his points deemed as a positive.

Facebook works on a “closed” and insular “who you know” model, whereas Google+ works on a “what you’re into” model. It’s much easier to prospect in B than A.

This is true: Google+ is accessible on a plain of submitting your interests and, through automation, expanding conversation and content discovery through this manner, whereas Facebook is based on generating social connections and recommendations of content, irregardless of tastes or interests. The G+ model doesn't work because it convolutes the rather simple aim of 'being social' with the algorithm of sharing the same interests. Facebook's prospect doesn't work simply because interests aren't even taken into consideration.

One is too open and one is too closed. A and B are incorrect in their interpretation of a digital lifestyle, and a melding in the middle of these two will be what we're looking for. Both the metaphorical I.T. society to geek out over interests, and the bar to socialise with new people.

In the current state, they won't be at the top of the Social Media change; but the first to combine will be.

Alongside this, Brogan has made the connection that since brands have more options on Google+ (which they do, it's a pretty cool system for SEO and the extra tools you can get on a G+ brand page), and made the conclusion that this makes it a game changer.

Regardless of this new platform for businesses improving their statute with Google: a) most companies by this point will have Search engine optimised their site, meaning that the addition of a G+ page maybe risky as to draw audience away from it; but we're not even going to get to that point because b) there isn't the audience there to define use of it yet.

Brands have all this new stuff to play with: cool. But lets be honest, after the whole gold rush for beta accounts earlier this year, since going publicly live, do you really use it anymore?