Advice I Can't Pass Up... Good Words About Google+

When I saw Patrick's post, Like Me! No, Really, Like Me!, I had to write about it. And here is the answer I got on 8 September...

"Like Me. No, Really, Like Me!" http://www.patrickkphillips.com/2011/09/07/like-me-no-really-like-me/

patricksplace said

@AislíngeKelloggdeGómez I'll admit it: it IS extra work staying active (and being useful) on multiple social media networks. In terms of referrals, of the three, Twitter brings me the most traffic. Then Facebook. Then Google+. I avoided Twitter because I saw far too much of the "having eggs for breakfast" tweets that made me wonder who could possibly care. But posting links to useful information (on my blog or elsewhere) and the occasional amusing quote can help you build a following and can, as a bonus, bring people to your site. I like Facebook a lot, and have a lot of contacts there. Many of them are people from school who wouldn't have given me the time of day when we were classmates. I have a lot of co-workers and industry colleagues there, and most of my closest friends are there, too. So I can share news, post photos, and keep up with people I want to keep up with. As for Google+, I have to fess up: I really, REALLY wanted to hate it. Not because I have anything against Google: I like Google. I think it's an incredible company that more companies should look like from an operational and employee relations standpoint. But my eagerness to find fault with Google+ was akin to the switch from VHS to DVD. I had a sizable collection of VHS tapes. Then DVDs came along and I felt the need to start buying everything over again. (I didn't buy everything over again, but there's that feeling that you should replace as much as you can as quickly as you can.) When it came to social networks, I have hundreds of "friends" on Facebook. I didn't want to start over building up that network on another service. But I really like G+. It makes it a lot easier (and faster) to organize your friends or acquaintances into circles. You can place people into more than one circle, like "Co-Workers" or "Friends," for example. Like Twitter (and unlike Facebook), you can place them in your circle whether they place you in theirs or not. And you can adjust your news feed with the click of a mouse to see what everyone in all of your circles has recently posted, or what only those in a specific circle have recently posted. And when you go to post something, you can easily select which circles see it or just select "public" and then everyone sees it. The idea is so good and makes so much sense that Facebook is now offering a similar "sharing" option on its service, which says a lot. Still, I think G+ has the edge on that kind of thing at the moment. For me, there are lot more people I know on Facebook than on G+. So I'm using G+ to network with interesting people, media, blogging and pastor types until more people I actually know show up. At the moment, I'm most active on Twitter and least active on G+. At least, for now. :)" I still cannot buy into the idea that Twitter has much (if any) value at 140 characters. But Google+ sounds like something to try. Something that will be good. I guess after cogitating on this for the last three weeks, I might as well take the plunge... tomorrow, though. At 23:19, it is too late to start this now!