I confess – I’ve been stealing time from the time I should be reading blogs, writing my blog, doing Twitter updates, etc. to mess around with Google +. And judging by the amount of blogs and articles on the network, I’m in good company.
People in the technology industry are easily distracted by the new, new thing – which has been wildly the case with the launch of Google+. That’s why we’re in the technology industry, after all. And that explains some of the hype and hyperbole. (Is this a Facebook killer? Should your business be there? Is it essential that you have a presence there now, as soon as possible?)
But would I recommend that everyone do the same thing? Am I sending out invites to all of my clients? Honestly, at this point, it’s more intellectually interesting than incredibly useful. I don’t think it’s quite time to start rewriting your marketing plans to include Google+.
Beth Kanter wrote an interesting and to-the-point post about the hype cycles around Google+: Are you going to adopt Google+ for professional learning/networking?
Clearly, some people do need to jump onboard, such as the journalists and bloggers who make their living knowing things first or advising us on social media.
But right now, the people who count to me, both personally and professionally, are mostly missing. That makes its usefulness limited, for the moment.
I’d suggest that you spend your time developing a good content plan and editorial calendar and executing consistently across the channels that you are already finding useful (the ones where your customers and prospects participate.) Then sit back and see what happens. The adoption curve seems to be pretty rapid so far, so you may not need to wait for long.
On a personal level, if you want to try Google+, you should. Because speaking as a technical marketing professional – Ooh, sparkly! (Yes, there’s even a feature called “sparks” so it really is sparkly.)
Do you have a different impression? More of a sense of urgency about this? I’d love to hear other perspectives.
Anne Janzer 