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When you’re number one…everyone guns for you. It’s true in sports, it’s true in business and it’s true on a national level. Number one always makes more money than number two. Number one always gets the bulk of the attention. Who’s the number one female singer in the world right now in terms of sales? Who’s number two?
Every so often, however, the line that separates one from two does so by the smallest of margins.
For every Ali, there’s a Frazier ready and capable of standing toe-to-toe, trading big punches.
Such will be the case with Facebook and Google.
Both companies are giants. Both are capable of launching massive PR campaigns for their respective services. For now, though, let’s put Facebook to one side and take a closer look at Google +1.
Even before the creation of Google+1, much has already been said about the amount of time it takes to be active in ANY social media forum. If you’re tweeting to thousands of Twitter followers a day, where will you find the time to do the same basic activities with Facebook, Google+1, and others? It’s a rhetorical question. You won’t. There aren’t enough hours in the day to be active across the board.
That being said, Google+1 will most likely become a giant in the social media arena very quickly. All you need to get started is a Gmail account. Currently, at the time of this writing, the Google+1 service is not available everywhere. They’re rolling it out slowly to avoid potential technical problems… or so it seems.
With the history of the growth of Facebook clearly documented, Google+ 1 will be able to avoid some of the growing pains and pitfalls Facebook experienced throughout the last few years.
The Google+ 1 interface is very clean and intuitively laid out. Google+ 1 allows you to create circles, which are groups of people you share things in common with (family, friends, coworkers, women’s club, etc). The circle graphic makes it easier to add, even drag and drop people into a group. When you look at the “circles,” it may remind you of the old high school days when people were divided into cliques.
You may have one circle or “clique” for your family, another for co-worker friends, another for business contacts, etc.
You can share posts, pictures, files, etc., with a single group or several groups (Circles) at once. You can have the same individuals in one or several Circles at the same time. You can video conference if you want, exchange Google documents, etc.
In short, the Google+1 can tie all the Google products and services together into a neat, easy to navigate package that will allow you to do practically anything and everything – all starting from a singular launch pad. Simply login to your Google account and you’re ready to go.
Eventually, I see Facebook and Google+1 being similar to Coke and Pepsi. Both do the same thing, but people will ultimately prefer one over the other.
The Google +1 interface is a lot cleaner and less cluttered in many ways than Facebook. Of course, some people may come away feeling the exact opposite.
Social media isn’t about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s about finding the tools to help take you from where you are to where you want to go with your personal life and/or business in the online world. I love it because it’s reconnected me to family and friends all over the world. Keep that in mind when you take Google+1 for a test drive.
In fact, if you have a little time, give them all a try. Keep what you like, keep what works for you and toss the rest.
