So I joined Google+. My second reaction (first one being “Interesting…”) after having had a look at it is “Yet another social network to build up”, trawling through and adding people who I’ve already added and organised on other networks. Do I really have to do it again?
Then there is the small sigh of yet another service to check and stay up to date with. D will be super pleased with that. Soon my morning routine, which used to consist of eating breakfast and reading the newspaper, will have another addition to the number of social networks I check for “What’s happened whilst I’ve been asleep?“. Might have to subtract another 5mins sleep. Make that coffee a bit stronger…
Fragmentation, duplication and my divide of networks
The problem with yet another service is even more fragmentation, and duplication of information. I’m occasionally guilty of posting the same update, or a variation of the same update both to Twitter and to Facebook (reason for that below). People who follow me on Instagram probably don’t want to check my Flickr photos as right now the only new additions posted there are – yep, you guessed it – my Instagram shots.
I can see how Google+, at least initially until average Joe joins, if they do, will be full of the same updates that I get from Twitter and now lately also LinkedIn. To be honest, I don’t want any more updates or places to get updates from, or places where I “have to” post updates to. I’ve got a nice and somewhat manageable system going at the moment. It looks like this:
…is for staying up to date primarily with friends back home, but also with non-work related aspects of my colleagues’ and old school friends’ lives.
…is my industry news channel and primary networking tool. Short, concise and unpretentious as people can’t start a thread of comments in its normal sense. I love Twitter for this.
…is my bit of fun with photography. Currently only colleagues, some UX and design peeps and two of my brothers on it that I follow. I quite like it like that. Small and approachable.
…is my feel good fix. There is so much beauty in this world and I love looking at other people’s pins and boards. It’s both for my own benefit and personal life inspiration and for work related inspiration, but I use it for me. Not as a social network. I believe that’s part of why I love it so much. There is no pressure, no comparison of other people’s lives or knowledge. Just beauty.
…is my online CV and a channel for managing work contacts. My usage of it varies as expected based on if I’m looking for work or not.
I quite like this set up. Most of my old friends – and by that I mean people who aren’t colleagues or former colleagues, or people I know in the UX and design community – well they aren’t on Twitter or Instagram. Flickr? Not so much. They are on Facebook and Facebook only.
First thoughts on Google+
Google+ is on the right track with circles. Where it would have been even more on the right track is if it had allowed me to automatically connect with people in the other social networks that I am on and specify who and what from each of them that I want to add into my different circles. That way I could collate and organise my different feeds in one place and specify that tweets from my old colleague John goes into my ‘UX & design peeps’ circle and Facebook updates from him goes into my ‘London friends’ circle. That is the kind of service that I’m after, a service that lets me distill and organise updates from my friends different personas (e.g. updates from John that are work related. Updates from John that are non-work related.
Though, having said that, I am looking forward to seeing how Google+ will develop and what the uptake will be. I don’t however, expect it to replace Facebook as there isn’t a strong enough incentive for my friends back home to join or move over. But, perphaps I’m wrong. The number of “I can’t be bothered with Facebook” comments I hear are increasing. Somehow though I don’t think another social network is the solution. The next game changer will need an innovative approach that is a real value differentiator amongst today’s service and I’m not sure we’re seeing that with Google+.
