This is Part 1 – What is Google+ Anyway? Links to the entire series are at the bottom of this post.
Have you heard about Google+? It’s the latest offering from Google and is causing quite a stir. Many people love it, many don’t, and a whole lot of people don’t understand it at all. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert by any means. I’m a newbie too. But I’ve read more than a few articles by both social media and tech bloggers and I’m slowly trying to make sense of them. Nothing against tech bloggers, of course.
Outside of the social media and tech circles, however, there seem to be three recurring questions about Google+, particularly amongst the creative bloggers -
- What is Google+ anyway?
- I’m already on Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest – I don’t have time for anything else! Why do I need to be on Google+?
- Google Buzz didn’t last. Why will Google Plus be any different?
I’ll make an attempt at addressing the first question today, and then I’ll delve into more detail on the other questions and offer some how-to’s in future posts.
What is Google+
Basically, it’s a social network. This is not Google’s first foray into social networks either. Something creative bloggers may find interesting is that Google Friend Connect – the badge of followers in nearly every blogger’s sidebar – was originally intended as a social network and is scheduled to be retired from nonBlogger blogs in March of this year.
Ding. Ding. Ding! This announcement is precisely what got me interested in Google+ and is also what has fired up all sorts of commotion in the creative blog circles I frequent.
To be fair, I’ve never used Google Friend Connect as a networking tool. Other than the representation of status of blogs in their sidebars, I personally don’t see an issue here. But then, I don’t have thousands of Google followers either. Of course, the number of GFC followers does not necessarily equate to a large readership. At least on my blog. I get more readers from email subscriptions, StumbleUpon, Facebook and Pinterest. But that’s just me. For those blogs with over 1000 Google followers, there’s a lot of concern and doubt swirling.
Is that concern justified? I can’t answer that. What I can say is things in the Google+ world are changing fast. Like nearly every week, fast. Another thing I can tell you is Google+ had an estimated user base of 62 million as of December 27, 2011. With an estimate of 625,000 new users each day, predictions for 400 million users have been stated by an independent consulting firm. 1 By the way, Facebook has over 800 million users.
For me and my blog, those numbers are pretty impressive. So are a lot of the features on Google+. Not all of them, but quite a few. Tomorrow I’ll share my personal pros and cons of this new social network and address the I’m already on Twitter and Facebook so why Google+ issue.
In the meantime I’ve got a few questions for you –
Do you look at blogs’ Google Friend Connect boxes?
Does the number of followers on any blog make a difference to you?
For instance, do you pay closer attention when a blog’s GFC numbers are over 3 or 4 thousand?
The series continues with these posts:
Part 2 – Pros & Cons of Google+
Part 3 – Setting Up Your Profile
Part 4 – The Basics of Circles
I am finally getting around to reading your post G+ posts Colleen. 5 flights in a weekend has freed up some time for me to get caught up ;-)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for researching and posting about tis topic!!!
Brittany aka Pretty Handy Girl
I see your name on all things Craftermind but I just now found this awesome series via Angie @countrychiccottage.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the questions asked, I do look at the GFC numbers but I've noticed that some blogs can have over 5,000 but I don't see their name anywhere outside their blog. Then there are people like the Crafty Chica who I heard speak at BlogHer Handmade/TCC, she's a published author, and (I just checked) her number is 1567. That one number is very reassuring to a blogger who feels like she's running a rat race while stuck in a hamster wheel.
That's very true. A lot of established bloggers don't choose to 'brand' themselves outside of their blog. Some do, like those speaking at SNAP this year ;)
ReplyDeleteGFC numbers only show part of the whole picture too. RSS feed and email subscribers are another component. And there's no way to know those #s.
All of that being said, I totally understand how you feel. Having a small niche blog is the main reason I started exploring Google+. Now I really like it and I'm so glad I did.
I hope you enjoy this series (so far) and feel free to ask any questions. I'll do my best to find the answers, if I can.
I read all my blogs through GFC. Well the blogger dashboard (even though I switched to wordpress) gives blog posts in chronological order. All the blogs I follow via GFC automatically go there and I don't have to enter them by hand. I like this form of reading blogs because I get a snippet of the blog with a thumbnail so I can decide if I want to read it. It comes in chrono order so I don't miss things. I have to click over to the blog so they get credit for me reading it. All of my feeds still come through there even though GFC has been retired. I also would like to add that yes, I would see the GFC and I would feel like they were established and had their stuff together. Thousands of people didn't start following them, because they are no good. A low GFC doesn't mean bad though. It could just mean new or it could be someone who doesn't "promote" their blog. Cannot wait to learn more!
ReplyDelete