It’s only been a couple of weeks but Google Plus, the latest entry into the social media landscape has made quite a splash. While it’s still in its infancy, it managed to get better traction than the ill-fated Buzz product that suffered, in my view, from not being well understood. No-one I spoke to ever really understood Buzz.
On the other hand, Google Plus is very popular and seems to fill a gap between Facebook and Twitter. As my friend Phil puts it
I feel more at home than I have on any other social network. I’ve always struggled with the brevity of Twitter and the blurring of personal and professional lines on Facebook. [Link to full post]
But what’s in it for freelancers?
1. It’s another vehicle for promoting your work
2. You can be selective about who you communicate with. With Twitter, you send a message to the world. With Facebook, it’s to your friends. With Google Plus, you can choose who you share things with in a more natural way.
3. You can ask questions to either everyone or specific groups
Google Plus uses the concept of Circles (as in, circle of friends). If you’re anything like me you have several different groups of people you interact with. There are friends, families, “work friends”, clients, colleagues and other groups. Each of these can be considered a separate circle. One person can be in several circles.
If you want to find me on Google Plus, here my profile.
The big question for me is around where LinkedIn will fit. The neat thing about Facebook and LinkedIn was that I could easily separate my work and personal lives. Google Plus makes that easier and I only need to visit one site.
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July 13th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
I have two problems with Google+.
First, I don’t need any more potential time-sinks in my life. Google+ is slightly more of a time=sink than Facebook because its harder to seek out the wheat among the chaff. This may change with familiarity.
Second, my kids, family and friends from years ago are all on Facebook. My colleagues are all on Twitter. My contacts are all on Linkedin. If I had to drop one social media tool (because of the time problem) I’d pick Google+ first.