Two months ago I made the move over to Google+ for good and began sharing my thoughts exclusively at Google’s social network. I strongly believe Google+ will dominate the social media world, but until that’s a proven fact, I find myself discussing about the pros and cons of joining Google Plus. Mostly pros though, as I am heavily biased. You’ve been warned.
One of those discussions took place naturally at Google+. Upon sharing an interesting image of MarketWatch about a comparison between Twitter and Facebook financial data, a friend of mine posed the following questions:
- How much time do we have to wait until Google+ takes off?
- Doesn’t the competition (mainly Facebook I suppose) prepare any countermeasures against Google?
I was so excited to share my thoughts on these two specific issues, that I wrote a pretty thorough comment. I’m pasting a bit of that comment found at the original Google+ post, where of course you are more than welcome to join the conversation:
Why bloggers will convince more people to join Google+
Regarding the first question, you don’t have to wait. Why wait when you can join/act now in the Google+ craziness! Even if it doesn’t take off, your presence in Google+ will still be beneficial for you when everyone else will be able to comment on Youtube and non-Google+ users won’t. And that is just one example. Check out the 5th and 6th point of this post.
In fact, why don’t you read the whole article from the start? Google has made crucial changes as of lately (code named Hummingbird) which already have a big impact on the blogging industry. Obviously people not in the industry could not care less.
I totally understand Facebook and Twitter fans, who don’t see the point of becoming active in yet another social network. But think about it: if every online author, blogger and writer eventually joins Google+ and uses it as their main sharing tool for their posts, wouldn’t their followers and readers mimic that?
Online writers and bloggers will definitely share their posts at Google+ due to better rankings at Google search engine. And sooner or later they will become either addicted to Google+ (myself including) or get tired of sharing and discussing about the same post/subject in other social networks.
Let’s pause that comment for a minute.
How I moved to Google+ and kept my Facebook and Twitter followers happy
As I have turned into writing after 10 years of gambling and investing online, I now have to keep track of the new trends in writing and social media. A year ago I was introduced to authorship markup and began building on my author rank. Nowadays I constantly bump into numerous suggestions that as a blogger and online writer, I have to use Google+ for various reasons. So, if I want my voice to be heard, I simply must become active on Google+. As simple as that.
That doesn’t mean though that I totally abandoned my accounts at other networks. In fact, I prepared my move over to Google+ by converting my personal Facebook profile into a business page. And some time ago I found a great online social networking tool that automatically shares my Google+ posts to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages for each of my blogs! That’s a huge time-saver, that also made me write more new posts, instead of copying the same message over and over again across all social networks.
Let’s go over to the second question, again pasting part of my original comment.
Google+ is bringing all Google products together
You say countermeasures, I say top search engine. Google search rankings are responsible for 70% of my blogs’ traffic. Although not diversifying my traffic’s origin is bad, I am sure the majority of blogs get a huge amount of traffic from Google search.
How can rivals beat that? By creating a new search engine? Now? And expect to dominate? Google is already there. They are just using the popularity of their search engine to bring all Google users to their social network, Google+. And judging by the recent updates and forthcoming ones (like Youtube commenting system), I strongly believe they will succeed.
Recently I talked about the likely impact this new Youtube commenting system will have in combination with YouTube Live product! Imagine watching live TV and commenting on the breaking news or the movie you are watching with other viewers! Or say you watch the NBA final or a FIFA World Cup football game and want to share your predictions with other fans, who are all watching the event at the same time with you!
How awesome would that be?
And let’s not forget their PPC product, Google AdWords and AdSense. Maybe it’s not the best one out there, but have you seen the advertising strategy and revenues of Facebook or Twitter? Even if Facebook make huge steps forward not only in terms of advertising but in terms of user-friendliness and user experience, Google has so many successful products already.
Think about it: When was it the last time you checked your Facebook email? And how about Gmail? Case closed I think.
