Why You Should Be Playing with Google+ Now
Google+ reminds me of another social network that started up not so long ago. I remember when I created an account and would talk to people about the service they would shake their head, roll their eyes and then say, "You're such a geek."
And, at the time they were right. There was nobody using the service except a bunch of geeks. Geeks trying to figure out how to use the service, did it have a place in our network? How did it work? What was the best way to use it? What did it replace and what did it enhance?
Us geeks played with this service for four years all by ourselves talking to anyone who would listen about the service and telling people how this was going to change everything. How this service was something new, something cool, and something that everyone should use.
I even went so far as to force participants of the first Learning 2.0 conference to sign up for an account. I still have educators who went to Learning 2.0 in 2007 come up to me and tell me it was at that conference they created their account.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the network I am talking about is Twitter.
It wasn't that long ago that nobody knew what Twitter was how to use it or why you would us it.
Today it is mainstream.
Google+ is where Twitter was in 2007. We the users are trying to figure out its best use. We ended up using Twitter in a way that the founders never thought we would. It took people playing with the site, playing with the features, and in the end, we the users defined how it would be use and once that happend it went mainstream.
The more I use Google+ the more I like it.....a lot. There's something there for sure. Exactly what it is I'm not sure yet but I am excited to help define what it is. I find the pages way better than Facebook Pages and of course hangouts....nothing compares.
So....if you want to be ahead of the curve start playing with Google+. See where it fits, look at how others are using it. What are people sharing? What are the conversations that seem to be growing? Where is it going to fit?
I have a feeling Google+ is the real deal and in 3 to 4 years time it will become mainstream like Twitter did. It will find its niche and thrive. We're just in the early stages and this is when things are exciting.