Reconsidering Google+

Shortly after Google+ was launched I jumped into setting up my account, but I must recognize that shortly after I lost my interest and nowadays I use it only by accident and curiosity twice the year. Not without regrets, though, as I am one of the biggest fans of Google and its products. But somehow, for me it seems that Google+ was not one of the best ideas. 

However, looking around in Germany, I discovered that many journalists are using it regularly and I still belive in the lucky star of G+ for advertising and communications. Maybe I thought that Facebook and Twitter are already enough and I better try to focus my time and energies for better offline causes.

Guy Kawasaki's systematic book about Google+ restored my hope in the creativity of this service. And the goals of the book - 'My goals are to help you derive as much joy and value from Google+ as I do (...)' - are reached, at least in my case. For a commercial and social media cause, this service offers a lot of incomparable opportunities compared with Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. For instance, you can use more pictures from profile, the limit of posts is of 100,000 characters, you can set up - for the moment, but the situation will probably improve in the next months - video conerencing for 10, there are chances for a high post visibility, the pics can be displayed in the posts. A service mentioned as an advantage - the possibility of editing - was introduced by Facebook as well lately. 

With such good character treats, why is Google+ so much criticized, when not ignored completely? It started later, says Kawasaki, but for a good professional the advantages are obvious. Take for example the possibility of being included on the list of integrated search results, the extensive use of hashtags - without the limit of 140-character as in the case of Twitter - the possibility to share various information and your passion only with those interested in such information and passions. Your posts can be shared further by those with the same interests, or you can prevent it by setting the status to 'lock'. Compared with other social media profiles, you can set up an interesting profile that will tell everything should be said about your interests. 

Guy Kawasaki explains step by step how to set up the account, what the 'circles' are, how to edit the pictures, the rules of comments and sharing posts, achieving trustworthiness and optimization of the social search. 

One may think that everyone can write such a book. Maybe. But Kawasaki offered all you need to know for understanding Google+ and he did it with the passion of a daily user of Google+.