It’s that time again. Google Plus Ghost Town from the media and reporters. This round is brought to you because Vic Gundotra (the guy behind the Google plus project) announced today that he would be leaving Google. Vic is a great guy and I’m sure has many reasons for leaving Google. Family time, additional opportunities and projects come to my mind. But immediately the media once again, has resorted to posting nothing but articles talking about how his leave can only lead to graveyards, walking dead, and ghost town.
Vic Gundotra head of Google+ (Click Image To Enlarge)
Know what the common theme is between all these “ghost town posts”? No interviews. No named sources. Lots of reporters who never used it. A quick search usually shows that the reporter has not used Google+ themselves. Sadly, to not even post the article they just wrote about the platform, to the platform. In fact most have less than 20 people circled and more often than not… have never even posted, ever. Awesome. Good reporters generally go out and interview people who are involved with something before they write a story, if they themselves do not happen to have first hand experience. This is fringe opinion piece media. Yet tons of these garbage articles keep getting posted on major tech publications presenting like it’s the facts.
I figured it was time I wrote a letter to these reporters. Please media… realize that I have tried to reach out and talk to many of you, do interviews, and help you get these points, but too many times you tell me “your company doesn’t care about writing about the positive sides of Google+” or that “other stories are more important than G+ success”. Yet whenever anything could possibly be seen as negative about G+, all of your websites light up with a million ghost town posts. It’s time the users of G+ spoke out… I’ll start. Here are my thoughts for you.
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I know this is going to be hard for some of you. You have been a good tech writer, involved in social media probably for awhile, and spent time building up your Facebook account and Twitter profile. When Google+ came along, many of your company Tech websites had already done things like integrate Facebook comments or sometimes heck, even invest in Facebook themselves! You certainly didn’t have time to get involved in another social network, and come on.. “Google has never got social”. Your mom isn’t there. Google+ is obviously a ghost town. Right?
Wrong.
Google Plus Has Never Been A Ghost Town
Google plus is still a baby on the social media scene. But since day one, there have been active, engaged users… and LOTS of them.
Statistics of the Top Six Social Networks - December 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
SOME FACTS:
Facebook was launched in 2004. Early adopters got access to Facebook in 2006/2007, your mom probably did not get involved until sometime in 2009 or 2010. 2010 is also the year that the Facebook like button was launched. A full 6 years after Facebook officially launched. 1
Google+ is not even 3 years old yet. 2
(See those tiny numbers Reporters? Those are footnotes. They are used to add credibility to your posts when you make bold Claims and Facts)
Comparing to Facebook life cycle, this is about the time that “mass adoption” will start, and everything points to that exact thing happening right now on plus. Every day companies, celebrities, brands, and regular people around the world are joining and playing around with Google+ when they “didn’t have time” before.
But alas, real fact are not good for the media… Death, DOOM! DESTRUCTION! ANY DAY NOW…Ghost town.
But what about those “Active User” numbers? Just how many people are actually there?
Sure Google has released stats saying there are 300 million users 3 and there are lots of debates about exactly what that means… but here are some real facts. I personally have over 983,000 plusses, 239,000 shares, and 224,000 comments and 172 million views on my posts. 4 I have 4 million people who are circling me, Which media like to tell me is often tell me is full of “ghosts” but several million interactions have happened on my personal posts on google plus in just under 3 years. Compare that to roughly 20,000 @ mentions and 6,000 RT I have received on Twitter, in the 7 years I’ve been using that. People are on G+.and they interact. If you my dear reporters are getting zero interaction, hate to be the bearer of bad news…. Its not Google+, It’s you. Deal with it.
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I know this is confusing reporters… but please try and keep up…
There are 2 products/ideas called Google+…
- Google+ The background account… You use this to log into all Google products. This holds your security info, passwords, apps, location history … you know.. your account. Same as an Apple Id, or Microsoft Live Id. No difference. Including the “forcing” of these companies for you to create and use one when you interact with any of their services or products. Zero difference.
- Google+ the “social stream”.. this is where people post what they are eating for lunch, The latest science news article they found, and their thoughts on the latest movie they watched.
Google Is an Advertising Company…
Google+ your account.. ties all the many many Google products you use every day together, and allows google to share that information between them. 5 This allows better results in their search engine AND allows better ads to appear when you are using google products. (because they know you live in LA, California for example and can show local results). This… dear readers, makes Google Money. In fact 97% of Google’s revenue 5 … comes from advertising. And that advertising is tied to the most valuable thing Google has besides their insane index of the Interwebs… Information about the Users who Use Google via… Google+.
Yet I've read at least 5 articles today talking about how Google might be shutting G+ down. One even got an official Google PR’s response on the possible shut down.
“Today’s announcement has no impact on our Google Plus strategy—We have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google plus, hangouts and photos”.
But facts and real quotes? Naw. You as a Reporter obviously know whats up from unnamed sources. You don’t realize how uneducated it makes you sound when you state G+ is closing down? Let me spell it out nice and clear… Is Apple going to cancel their Apple ID because Steve Jobs passed away? Are Microsoft Live accounts being terminated and called failed because Steve Balmer left the company? That… IS.. how ridiculous you reporters sound with these posts today to that vast majority of the world that gets this concept Google has been saying for 3 years.
Here’s another one that might be a shocker to some of you reporters….
Google+ Is NOT Made to Be a “Facebook Killer”
As one of G+ largest and most popular users, In my very humble opinion, Google does not care if you post cats on Saturday on G+ the social stream or not. They still know what city you now live in, that you are male or female and maybe even what school or where you work. Their advertising has become way more useful than it was 5 years ago. If you post cats on the social stream, Google also knows you like cats in some way. Rock on. Better advertising for me. I personally don’t mind trading that small amount of personal data to Google so that I can have free email, look at every single street in the entire world, and have an amazing customizable android phone. Many do, so Google allows you to turn all that off and be anonymous after you create the account. And its not crazy insane rocket science like Facebook privacy settings are. Who also by the way,actually are selling your soul and everything you ever post there to every company that walks by. If you are mad at Google for using your info to advertise better, you better be just as mad at Facebook, Twitter and oh pretty much most other websites today, who are doing it too. 8 In fact you should probably log off the internet right now forever.
COMMENTARY: According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google was too late entering the social media market. Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004, while Google+ was founded in late June 2011. This has given Facebook a seven-year head start, and to its credit Facebook has capitalized on this start to grow its membership and active user base.
In spite of its late start, Google+ now has 1 billion registered users, 359 million active users, grow in users is 33% per annum and 45-54 year olds are the fastest growing segment (growing by 56% since 2012). These are numbers that cannot be ignored. What is important is not the sheer number of members or active users, but the how Google+ is utilized in the overall scheme of things. It serves as a platform where users can engage with each other, but more importantly, serves as a transit point of origin to Google's other platforms.
The real value to the user is Google+'s ability to improve search results. If you are an active Google+ user, your posts appear in search results especially if you include prominent keywords in your post headings and hashtags (similar to Twitter) within the text. It used to be that Twitter was able to improve the search results for its users, but Google no longer includes Twitter updates in search results like in the past. Therefore, any brand that wants to multiply its reach outside its ecosystem, must incorporate keywords in its update headings and hashtags within the text.
It is Google+'s ability to create earned advertising for a brand where its strength lies. For example, if you post videos on YouTube or make comments there, they will bounce back to Google+ and appear in your news stream. It's a one-two punch that many brands may not even be aware of.
If Google+ has a weakness is user engagement is even lower than Twitter -- about 3% of users engage. But, young users between 17 and 29 are joining Google+ at a faster rate than Facebook. New users tend to lean toward the techy side and they appreciate its value in knowledge discovery especially when it pertains to technology. This is the principal reason why I have reamined a loyal Google+ users and will continue to use Google+ to increase my blog traffic.
Courtesy of an article dated April 24, 2014 appearing in Amanda Blain Blog
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