By Jimin Lee, Landis Communications
Psychographics are being explored and implemented in today’s marketing world, and Google+ is testing it out with a new redesign. Contrary to previous understanding of segmentation via demographics, Google+ has decided to group user interests through Collections and Communities, which allows people to join groups depending on their areas of interest.
I’m intrigued by the actual rate of success Google+ hopes to achieve through this new design. Up until this point, I’ve not used Google+ that much and it’s my least favorite social network. I don’t think Google has quite hit the mark when it comes to innovation in this area, and although these new features are somewhat interesting, I don’t see it significantly impacting the platform’s usage.
Here are my thoughts following the redesign, beginning with the pros:
- Better, more user friendly interface – clean, cool and colorful
- Less complicated than Facebook
- No ads popping up every time I scroll
- Real sense of community and positivity – I haven’t seen negative or discouraging posts
- Ability to connect internationally
- Great for bloggers
- Crowdsourcing – some may see this as a negative, but I personally like it because the collections and communities are catered to my interests
As far as my less-than-stellar comments:
- I can’t get over the fact that it feels like a combination of Facebook and StumbledUpon
- Google+ seems like a copycat, and the combination of the two platforms isn’t necessarily better
- I feel the need to engage often on the platform so that my blog/page ranks better with Google’s search engine (bullish much?)
- I still find myself questioning why Google+ exists…
- None of my friends use it
I applaud Google+’s redesign because it’s savvy to gear its users toward a connection through psychographics – that’s the new way to target markets. What I’m afraid of is that people don’t check more than a few social media platforms each day, and I’m not holding my breath to add Google+ into my daily routine – even with these new features.
Is Google+ improving? Yes. Will it become successful? I don’t know. To me, it still feels like a fad that will soon be overshadowed by other social media sites. Before I decide it’s worth my time to adopt Google+ into my life, I need an audience of more than a few random friends on there. In addition, I don’t feel completely comfortable sharing my thoughts with total strangers on Google+ communities, either. For that reason alone, Google doesn’t have me hooked into their network just yet.
I don’t have the right answers regarding what Google+ needs to do to get people like me use it, but I’d love to get your thoughts on this.
Share your experiences with Google+ by commenting below or emailing Jimin at [email protected].
Thanks for the great blog Jimin! Fair play to Google for continuing to persevere with this platform, but I certainly agree with your thoughts about where exactly it fits in among the other social networks. I don’t know anyone that uses Google+ (or if they do they haven’t told me), and I don’t see a reason to start using it anytime soon.
Jimin, great blog. I totally agree. The only reason I use Google+ is because it helps SEO – but I, like you, have adopted a “wait and see” approach. Cheers, David
The secret sauce for any social network is having your friends engage with the platform. Jimin, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that none of your friends use it. Google+ doesn’t bring anything necessarily new or different to the social media table. I’m not a huge fan.
Jimin, Thank you for your thoughtful and well written post about Google +. I too find that I only wish to engage in a handful of social media platforms. I now understand better how the new Google + works, and I will be interested to see how this platform plays out!
Jimin, I am with you 100% on questioning why Google+ exists. It seems as though the user base is relatively dead and most people post there because they believe it will help SEO.
Thanks for the great post, Jimin! Your thoughts mirror my previous perception of Google+.