Savvy B2B Marketing

Stephanie

Biding My Time

While Google+ offers interesting ways to share content and connect with others, I must admit to being overwhelmed at the thought of working another social-media channel into my day. Perhaps I'm not the only one. The International Business Times recently wrote about a decline in Google+ usage. As with any channel, I need compelling reasons to spend my time there, namely can I broaden my reach via Google+? In other words, am I able to engage with some portion of my target audience that I'm not able to reach via the other social-media channels where I'm active and/or engage at a deeper level with the folks I'm already connecting with?

Jamie

Early Adoption Isn't My Thing

Although I love reading about new platforms and technologies, I am not someone to jump on the shiny, new bandwagon right away. I feel personally maxed out with my existing social platforms, and - despite the proliferation of +1 icons across the web - I'm not sure whether the activity is creating incremental traffic or merely giving people another platform on which to publish the same content. It feels like Google+ is all about creating a parallel universe that mirrors the relationships I've already created on other channels. Frankly, I don't have the time. Google+ may turn out to be the prodigy some people predict, and then we'll all be forced to join up. Until then, I'm going to hang back and chat about it on Facebook and Twitter. After all, my (very) brief dalliance with Google Wave left me with morning after regrets. No need to repeat that experience.    

Heather

Optimistic For the Long Term

Google has a great track record of coming in late and blowing away the old establishment.  When they entered search, GIS, mobile they were counted out as "too late to enter a crowded field".  For this reason I won't count them out.  They also have another thing going for them.  Users, particularly business users, are wary of Facebook's ever changing privacy policies and usage agreement. 

So Google+ 1.0 might not be perfect but with Google's emerging presence in the tablet and mobile application market I believe they are poised to be where social media lives for a long long time and therefore I wouldn't count them out.  Even if it takes them a while to sample the soup and get the recipe just right.  I suspect they will come out with that one "missing feature" we have all been craving and the conversion will be an avalanche at that point.

Wendy

Please, not another one. 

I’m the one who write about hog-tieing Social Media and Goggle+ was one of the reasons for that post.

God, not another platform.

Like everyone else did, I signed up to secure my spot. And then I let it fall by the wayside. Only my Twitter followers and Facebook friends were following me. If that’s the case then why put effort into duplication? Why not just reach my already established followers on my already established platforms?

That being said, I’ve had discussions with my husband (who is an engineering geek) and although he acknowledges that Google+ is not the “new Facebook” he also says that it seems to be playing a large role for tech-types who are using it to share technical news, articles, and information.

Just as MySpace was originally intended for musicians, perhaps Google+ was intended for (or has been taken over by) techies.

It’s an interesting observation, and if true, means that it’s not the platform for me, I’ll stick with what I currently have, keeping an eye out for what may be coming down the line.