Now that Google+ pages are open to anyone, I had to create one for us. Find it here.
This blog and my Google Reader shares are the center of my universe, and I use dlvr.it to push content to Twitter (@theappslab) and our Facebook page. The only reason I do this is because unlike years ago, people don’t visit blogs to comment. They discuss stuff on Twitter, Facebook and now G+.
So far, I’ve only dipped my toe into G+, mostly because there’s no way to push content I publish here automatically. It’s actually a bit odd to me that G+ launched with no feed import and no publishing API.
I have found some pretty good conversations on G+ so far, and it looks to be settling into a place between Twitter, where people mostly retweet posts but don’t discuss, and Facebook, where nothing happens. I still think conversation should happen here, but I like to be flexible.
Anyway, I’ll try to include G+ now, so if that’s your choice, enjoy. G+ is the one ring now for Google, given that they just sunset Google Friend Connect. Remember that? So, I’m getting with the new program.
In semi-related news, Google Reader Shares continue to work, even though the feature has been removed from the web app. I have older versions of Reeder on both OS X and iOS from which I’ve been sharing items, even after the redesign. Unfortunately, I think I may lose the thousands of shares I’ve amassed over the years when Google finally shuts off shares. This will be a huge bummer, since I’ve been using shares as a bookmarking tool for years. I hope they provide an export; ahem Louis Gray (@louisgray) are you listening?
Anyway, it’s extra work for me to include G+, but hey, you’re worth it.
Find the comments.
Companies and groups have to have several points of presence on the Internet – where those points should be located varies by industry. (For example, presumably there’s still a need for musicians to have a MySpace presence, but I don’t know if it’s imperative for anyone else to do so.) It makes sense for the AppsLab, or other technology companies/groups, to be on Google+.
Of course, a presence, like a garden, needs to be maintained. I have a few pages on Facebook that are devoted to my blogs, but I rarely visit them. My lack of activity on these pages yields the expected results.
Sure, it’s a chore to keep up w all the presences, but that’s why G+ needs an API to foster the existing community of tool makers who integrate publishing and commenting on the various platforms. It’s become a nice little cottage industry.
I’m actually more interested in observing the conversations and behaviors on each network, if only to get a sense for who’s using them for what. And it’s also good to know how to set up and maintain these things.
I always listen. After all, every post you make hits my Google Reader.
Good to know. While I’m thinking about it, any import from feeds planned for G+?
Are you able to make any generalizations on how participants on different networks respond?
Here’s what I’ve observed: On Twitter, people share links via retweets and sometimes comment via reply, on Facebook nothing happens, on G+ people reshare and sometimes comment.
So, G+ fits somewhere between Twitter and Facebook. Commenting on G+ has been much more frequent and in-depth than on either of the other two.