Early Impressions of Google+: Be Scared Facebook, Very Scared
Last year, I wrote a blog post about the Next, Big Social Network. I shared my thoughts on why I thought Facebook would soon be declining in popularity and what I thought the Social Network of the Future would have. Well, I think it’s finally here, and to no one’s surprise Google has created it. After all, they botched 4 earlier attempts at it – remember Google Wave or Buzz? As you’ve probably already discovered in your email box – it’s called Google+ and my early impressions are good. Here are a reasons why Google+ could become an invaluable tool for Project Managers.
- via Flickr by cambodia4kidsorg
- It Is More Professional. The UI/UX is clean with lots of whitespace, and clear navigation/actions. It’s the kind of tool you won’t be afraid to bring into the work place which is what I think they are hoping for – the natural extension to GMail.
- It Can Control the Conversation. My biggest gripe about Facebook at the beginning was the inability to control who sees what you post. I won’t use the big P word (Privacy) because I think the problem was more web pollution vs. an invasion in privacy. While Facebook now has Groups making some conversations private, Google’s has Circles. It has an advantage Facebook will never have – you will setup your network by relationship type from the start (Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Following, Custom Type). You’ll be able to control who sees what you say by the circle you put them into. You can post something job or career related and not bore your family or friends.
- It Can Start the Conversation. I still post comments on Facebook, but find the large majority of my friends do not. They simply consume updates and occasionally might stick their conservative necks out and hit the Like button. Google+ is trying to solve this problem. Sparks is a feature designed for you to find web content that is most interesting for you. The more interested you are in content, the more likely you are to share it and even comment about it. It’s like a web clipping service or a reader embedded inside your social network.
- It Can Make the Conversation Real. Google+ allows you to ‘Start a hangout’ in which you can have a live webcam conversation with someone. If you are looking for a way to engage your project stakeholders more, I think you’ve found your tool. You can videoconference with up to 10 people simultaneously. Hello Skype users! It even has a feature that must have come straight out of a “follow-me-home” research: a YouTube button that lets you show YouTube videos during a videoconference.
If I were Facebook, I’d be scared. And, so should Twitter, Skype, and Digg. It’s still in private Beta, but I think Google+ is very promising. The only thing that bugs me is that I’m Facebook friends with about 20 people who still aren’t old enough to vote, and not one of them is on Google+. They are probably too busy with Facebook to bother.
Google+ is up to 18 million users already. http://mashable.com/2011/07/20/google-plus-users/
Yes, another example of an oversight in stakeholder analysis that impacts business results negatively. Remember when Motorola lost most of their market share in the cell phone market to Nokia during the switch from analog to digital? Motorola didn’t want to make the switch to digital until digital sounded as good as analog. While focusing on their users as stakeholders they forgot about the carriers, far more important to their bottom line, and the carriers wanted bandwidth more than sound quality. Sometimes it’s possible to delight most/all stakeholders with the same offering, but often tough trade offs must be made. Making those trade offs consciously is one thing – sacrificing the delight of some over others in often inevitable – but doing it because we overlooked an important stakeholder is a pity. (That’s the subject of one of the chapters in my Scrappy Project Management book “Customer? We Forgot About the Customer!” . . . a predictable and avoidable pitfall of every project.)
Thanks again for your insights!
Let’s fail for new and more exciting reasons, shall we?!! – Scrappy Kimberly
Hi Kimberly – Yes, I feel the same way about Facebook. My company does a lot of work on Facebook fan pages for companies and they don’t communicate when they will be making changes to their policies, pages, etc. We have to guess at it and are often left guessing/scrambling to fix things. It makes you wonder if they realize that businesses are going to be an important partner in their ecosystem. I’m sure they realize that, but maybe are too arrogant to care. Having a 2nd player in the game will undoubtedly help.
I’m with you on this, Ken. Although I was hesitant to invest in yet another social media tool, I couldn’t resist the Google+ interface, and quickly began inviting my friends, colleagues and associates. In particular I am using this in place of the soon-to-disappear Google Groups that I have been using.
And I feel about Facebook like I feel about Microsoft . . . I have a mild dislike about the brand. It’s nothing I can quite put my finger on, but it’s just enough of a bad vibe that I’d rather use a Google tool than a Facebook tool. Perhaps you have some thoughts about that?