As someone who tries really hard to go with the flow, I’ve gone ahead and signed up on Google+ (Google’s foray into Facebook-style social media.) I’m Elizabeth S Craig there.
I know…we’ve all got social media fatigue. At first it just exhausted me even thinking about building up a brand on another platform. And I wondered how well I could keep up with it. And I wondered if I was getting overexposed.
The good news is that Google+ is a good application for those of us who are tired of doing this. It’s fairly intuitive. Friends are easy to find and make and group together. It’s a friendly place. There seem to be a lot of publishing professionals there. If you’ve ever been on Facebook, this will seem like a piece of cake.
It’s easy to start there, because half of us already have a Google profile, anyway. I have one from Blogger and my Gmail account. All I had to do was brush up my profile and I was set to go.
So far, I also haven’t seen the gotcha mentality that has frustrated me with Facebook. I felt Facebook was run by little kids who were determined to make me interact in ways that didn’t make me comfortable. In the past, Facebook has—to me, personally—shared my cell phone number on my info page when I’d hidden it, turned on chat when I’d disabled it, changed all my privacy settings several times when they automatically updated my account…the list goes on. I haven’t yet seen these types of shenanigans at Google+. So far, it seems like Facebook for grownups.
One thing I like about Google+ is the way that I can share updates with certain types of people. As y’all know, I share writing links to help connect writers with resources. Writers love this! My readers and librarian friends aren’t so enthused. On Google+, I have my friends divided into different groups (or circles)—I have one for writers, one for readers, one for librarians. When I have a writing link to share, I can easily choose to only share it to writers. That makes me feel like I’m not getting on everyone’s nerves.
Google will make sure that our Google+ page ranks pretty high in their search engine for searches of our name….another reason I jumped onboard.
If you’re new to Google+, feel free to go to my profile and raid my friend list. It’s mostly writers. And check out Debbie Ohi’s list of literary types on Google +. Fill out your profile and make an update of some kind, or comment on someone else’s. It’s easy to start out…and, actually, it’s new to everybody. Still a couple of bugs for Google to work out (I think their mobile app is a little clumsy), but the community there seems solid. Here are some how-to links for Google+: How to Use Google Plus , Google Plus for Writers, and Debbie Ohi’s great post on Google Plus.
Have you gotten on Google+? If you like, share your profile link and we can be friends there. :) If you’re on it, what do you think?
Hope you’ll come back tomorrow when I host my mystery writing friend Dorte Jakobsen. She’ll be answering the question, “Do I still want an agent?”
I signed up, though I haven’t been using it yet.
The only negative I’ve seen so far is that it is incompatible with Firefox 3.x — which is the last stable version of Firefox. And as Google is wont to do: it upgrades your “user settings” for EVERYTHING in your user account to Google+, making access to various dashboards nearly impossible via the wrong browser. (You can access blogger, feedburner and gmail if you have a direct link to those features — you just can’t get at them any more via your central Google account.)
Chrome has no problem with it, of course — but I don’t like being forced to change browsers, without warning and without ANY option to undo the action.
So at the moment, I’m not using Google+ much, but I assume all the incompatibilities will be worked out, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of it.
(I too feel like Facebook is run by an obnoxious child.)
“So far, it seems like Facebook for grownups.”
This sums it up for me. I much prefer it to Facebook.
I love G+ so far. It’s so lovely to use and I honestly wish I could just jump over to it and forget about FB altogether. I’m considering keeping my Facebook Page for the professional stuff and keep G+ for private things (although the circles do make combining professional and private a lot easier). I’m still trying to figure out what to do and specifically, when to do it. Right now, the reach on FB is much bigger, I think. Plus, my family only recently got the hang of FB, which is the main reason I stick around there.
I feel that Facebook is overrun with spam and distracting nothings, like all those game invites and what not. I love that G+, hopefully forever but at least for the time being, is so clean.
Elizabeth – You really outline quite well the advantages of Google+. What I also like about it is that it’s much “cleaner,” by which I mean less cluttered. It’s incredibly easy to post and edit, and although there are one or two things I wish were different about it, overall I like it very much. For now, I have a presence at Facebook and on Google+, and I’m glad I got a Google+ account.
I’m considering to get a g+, but not sure if I have the time for another social-media application. I could of course compensate by deleting my FB profile, which is sometimes very tempting >:)
Cold As Heaven
The Daring Novelist–Hmm! I’m a Firefox user, using 5.0. Haven’t had a problem with it. But occasionally I do have a problem with Firefox (I know what you mean about stable updates.) When I have a problem, I cuss profusely and fluently and hand the laptop to my poor husband, who is a computer engineer. He does something to iron it out. :)
Facebook *is* run by an obnoxious child, I believe. :)
Christine–So do I.
Cold As Heaven–Tempting to me, too!
Manon–I’ve currently got 3 Facebook accounts, which makes me unhappy! I’m definitely keeping my personal one because family and old college friends keep up with me that way. But I’m just not sure about keeping the others. Facebook has done their darnedest to trip me up on numerous occasions and I just kept playing ball. Not sure I want to do that anymore.
Oh my word…games. Yes, I wish I had time to play games. I don’t even think I see that stuff on Facebook anymore–I just block it out in my head.
Margot–I know what you mean–I think some of the clunky stuff that I don’t like will be ironed out by the time it’s not in beta anymore. My first impression of the app is very good.
I haven’t jumped on board yet, but I must already have a profile, because I’m getting notifications from the site.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about google+, but I must admit the thought of wading into another social media pool is really daunting! Do I really have to?
I’m on Google+, but haven’t explored it as much as you have. I have folks divided into circles, but haven’t sent out a message yet. Sigh. I gotta get with it.
I’m still on the fence. I don’t like that Google wants to link absolutely everything to a Google account. I have a “secret” g-mail account and there were a lot of hassles trying to keep that out of the system.
Facebook seemed very ‘high school’ when it first came out, and I avoided it, but now I have figured out how to keep things from cluttering my profile/wall, and how to block all the games.
I just wish it would have an automatic feed for my blog (which seems basic, since my blog is a Google “product” as well.
While I like being able to control who I send things to, I haven’t figured out how I can avoid seeing posts from individuals who stick something up every two minutes. They’ll fill my home page.
But — I’m there and happy to add new people to circles. I’m Terry Odell.
Oh, and I tried Chrome yesterday on my laptop because the “new improved” Yahoo mail that I use for my business account wouldn’t work on that computer with Firefox, although my PC is fine with it. Customer service said, “yeah, that sucks, and we don’t know how to fix it yet, so change browsers.” Pain!
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Right now, it’s not a good idea to have a Google+ account under your pen name or a character’s name. They’ve been canceling accounts because of a zero-tolerance for “anonymous” accounts although they promise they’ll stop being so high-handed about it. (They close down ALL your Google accounts, not just G+ so that can really screw you.)
Alex–You’re on Blogger, too? You’ve definitely got a profile with them.
Helen–At least go share your blog post…that’ll be easy and a good way to cross-promote. :)
Marilynn–I’ve heard that! I’m trying to brand under my own name, so I’ve avoided having a Riley account there (fortunately! Considering what’s going on with pen name accounts on Google…)
You’ve convinced me, I’ll have to check it out! I’m not a fan of FB at all because it has done many of the same things to me. It’s nice to hear that Google+ is different.
Marian – I know, but somehow “blocking” seems rude and permanent. It’s not that I don’t want anything to do with that person, it’s just that I wish their posts didn’t fill my home page. I should probably start a circle called “talks too much” or something of the sort! Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
I finally started a G+ thing, but I haven’t done much with it yet. I mainly got on it because a couple friends were trying it out, and Juliette Wade has been testing out the hangout aspect for live worldbuilding discussions. I missed the first couple, but I’m hoping to catch the next one.
Guess it’s just as well that I started with my own name (I have 3 different gmail accounts for different purposes) considering the blockages Google is doing. Kinda rude to cancel everything when they could contact you to verify who you are instead.
I still have to learn a lot more about G+; it’s not intuitive to me or some of my other friends. I like directions, not messing around to figure it out. But that’s why I haven’t done some of what I want with my blog either. (Blogger)
I never did join Facebook so I can’t compare the 2. I don’t use it a lot, but I love the circle idea and sharing specific info with specific groups – it makes such sense :)
I’m on G+ and I love it, so far. I wish people who add you to their circles had to say why. I get added to the circles of people I don’t know, and I have to track down who–if anyone–we have in common in order to see if he or she really might want to communicate or if it’s a scattershot thing.
Terry, if somebody is being a posting pest, you can click on the almost-invisible down-pointing triangle on the upper right corner of the pest’s post. One of the selections on the menu that drops down is Block This Person.
Marian Allen
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes
Elspeth–I have a little bit of a fatalistic approach to it, myself–I think we’ll all END UP there, because it’s Google! And they’re huge. So I’m going with the flow.
Heather–It does really seem different. It’s in beta, so there are a few issues…but not bad ones so far.
Terry–Oh yeah, they’re wanting to link us ALL UP! YouTube, Gmail, blog…I forget what all else they’ve got their finger in. I’ll do it for the SEO rankings though.
Yes, I wish it had an RSS feed TO the site (they have them OUT of the site.) I’d also like a way to automatically schedule updates (will probably have to wait for a 3rd party to come up with that.) I just can’t be on Google+ all day, much as I’d like to be.
Now there IS a plug-in for Firefox where you can open a link in an IE tab…my husband installed that for me so that I can open a site in IE if I’m having a problem with Firefox. Chrome seemed too slow for me when I tried it…but that’s probably because I always have 20 windows open at once.
Jaleh–I’ll have to check out Juliette’s hangout…she always does great posts on worldbuilding.
I think Google *should* know that there are people who have more than 1 name and they aren’t necessarily spammers. :) Until they do know that, I’m leaving my pen name behind.
There is something to be said for directions, isn’t there? I think I came across a YouTube video with a decent how-to…
Marian–I’ve noticed that a LOT of people haven’t filled out their profile. I do have a circle called “random people.” :) Because I hate sending stuff out to someone’s stream if they aren’t interested in writing!
Thanks for the tip for hiding obnoxious posters, Marian!
Terry–I *think* if you block them, then that just means you’re blocking their posts from your stream. I think.
I was on there but deleted my account today. It was just another way for people to push their blog posts and market their books to anyone who will listen. I will stick to twitter for my social media needs.
I’ve really liked Google+ so far. I’ve had better conversations with writers, artists, and photographers there than I’ve had on Facebook and Twitter combined.
I like that Google assumes users want a certain level of privacy, to the point one has to opt in to things the Facebook makes you dig through privacy settings to set up.
And I like that Google seems to be responding to what users actually want. So far, it’s becoming my preferred social network. I look forward to seeing what else they do.
Yes, I finally signed up for G+ after avoiding Facebook all these years – for exactly the privacy concerns you listed, Elizabeth.
I have two issues with it so far… one is that I am very satisfied with my Twitter interactions and my WordPress blog. I’m not sure how much I need another social network… what’s in it for me, relative to the time I invest. I get a lot out of Twitter and my blog. There is a learning curve for me with G+ (especially since I never learned Facebook) – and I am not clear what I might get out of it that I am not already getting via Twitter and my website/blog.
And the other thing is issues of ownership of my work. Where Facebook has the privacy issues, G+ has the ownership issues. This is a HUGE issue for creators. Google basically gets perpetual and irrevocable rights to anything we post on G+ and they can edit or rework it as they please, and give it or sell it to anyone as they please. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out http://www.jackmyers.com/mailings/3783883.html). So if we are only posting chatty updates on our lives, that’s not a big deal. But if we are posting samples of our work – e.g. for people like Debbie Ohi who is also a cartoonist, or myself as photographer, or any writers who post their work, I think this is an issue.
I am in the process of setting up a Writers Discussion website, and this will be the first topic (aiming for August 15 launch). If you’d like to participate in this or future discussions, please follow me on Twitter (@jwindh) or find me on Google+ – I think my username is just my full name, Jacqueline Windh (but I am not actually sure!)
Excellent post and comments. I set up my account and posted a bit, but for now I am just playing around with it. I can see where it will be very competitive with FB, not so much with Twitter which is like its own universe. I love Twitter the best. And blogging. Not sure what G+ will do that Twitter, FB and blogging don’t already do.
Thanks so much for this. I didn’t have a chance to read the article and check Debbie Ohi’s post until today. I learned how to do something I’d been wondering about :)