The social experiment
By · Aug 03 2011I love social media. And I try to stay up to date with the latest and greatest. So I’ve gone through the ordeal of “circling” all of my friends, most of which are already on Facebook. I like the idea of having circles, especially since some conversations can be more “adult” and I have 15-year-old Facebook friends. So the idea of circling, and only messaging certain people appeals.
However, being social works best when you go to where the people are. I tell this to clients I consult with — figure out where your customers are hanging out already, don’t try to get them to all migrate to a new platform.
When we were leaving for Palm Springs, I tried a little test. I asked for book recommendations on both Google+ and Facebook. My result was overwhelming that most of my friends are hanging out on Facebook. I pasted screen shots below. For this, I got little value from Google+. I mean, I love the people who commented, absolutely.
Where are you hanging out online these days?
Please note, it isn’t that I want to make some sort of crazy declaration that “Google+ is dead” or whatever people like to prematurely, I just don’t get friendship value from it yet. I do enjoy following people on Google+ that are “rockstars” in my profession, people that I wouldn’t normally interact with like Brian Solis or Jeremiah Owyang. It is great to see the links they post. So that is a benefit, and it is worth looking at my stream just for that.
This is the amazing book list I got from Facebook. I have wishlisted half of these, and I plan to wishlist them all.
As for what I ended up with, I downloaded Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
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I hang out more on Facebook, because that’s what I’m used to. I haven’t migrated friends to Google+. I’m kind of letting people find me. But I don’t think I’ve updated that page once. It’s just not that interesting to me yet.
I read somewhere that Google+ right now is like Montana: scenic, but unpopulated. Seemed about right.
I think it has a lot of momentum, though, and I bet in a year things will be pretty different.
I love that comparison! Yes, I see mega value in it at some point. I like the design too. It is very google.
Wow that is crazy what a response you got on Facebook! Very interesting social experiment!! Thanks for sharing!!
Wait a second…circling? Apparently my ex was right: I’m not technical enough. What is this circling and how do I do it?
It’s a way of grouping friends on google+. When you add a friend you can label them, G+ comes with standard ones (friends, family) and then you can add your own (I’ve added a circle for each of the colleges I attended, church, and people I know through my blog). Then when you make a post you can specify who that post is for, so if you select “family”, then only your family will see that post.
I have the same problem with FB v. G+ (I just added you on G+ though, lol). All of my friends are on facebook, people I interact with (online) every day! I have almost 600 friends on facebook, but less than 30 on google+.
I’m having the same struggle with Google+ and Facebook. I want to LOVE Google+ but it just seems so limited without the broad audience that’s already on Facebook. I think it’ll just be a matter of adjusting to a new audience like when Twitter came around and not all my friends were on there. I gathered a new following there and I’m guessing I’ll end up circling up with some new people on Google+ with a little overlap in between.