Facebook still running circles around Google+ #punintended
I’ve always been of the opinion that Google+ didn’t have anything compelling enough to offer to get people to leave Facebook. Doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to offer. I mean, what was the big draw, that they had circles (not a fan) and video chat (I can only name a dozen other ways to do video chat today? But some people seemed to like those features. And by some people, I mean Google employees, Robert Scoble, and Joe Koufman.
The problem was and always will be that in order to unseat Facebook, you have to bring something incredible to the party. Or five incredible things. And Google+ never did that.
Instead, they just tried to be a better Facebook. Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily nailed it when she said:
We simply don’t need another social network, no matter how great your circles are or how badly Larry Page wants to have one.
So I wasn’t surprised when I read recently an article yesterday from Business Insider entitled, “More Hints That Google+ is a Deserted Wasteland”. Turns out, nobody is using Google+, with the average time spent being 3 minutes a month.
3 minutes! People spend 20 times that much time on Tumblr in a month.
I mainly don’t use Google+ because nobody is using it. You know the old saying, if you post a photo in the woods and no one is there to hear it fall…
Ironically, I’m also not using Facebook as much because everybody is on it and the noise level is too high. It’s why I think the smaller, interest-focused networks are making a huge run right now (Path, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.).
Perhaps if Google+ pivoted* and decided to be the best at one thing, they’d have more success. Maybe they should be the best social video chat tool. Or THE technology-based social network. Anything other than “another Facebook”, which is what they are and why they are failing.
* Pivoting is a classic startup term that basically means you assess your business and realize that if you adjust your vision you’ll be more successful. Maybe you start off thinking you are building a chat service and you end up building a photo service (that’s how Flickr started). I’m not sure a massive company like Google will either be able to pivot or be able to swallow their pride and make Google+ a smaller entity. But they should.
I was able to connect my mom (in NC) and brother (in OR) live with my family here in GA last night. Thank you for the free video chat, Google+! Also I love that photos and video from my Android phone automatically upload into Google+ to a private folder and then I can decide which of my friends/family can see them (or I can leave them totally private). I agree it is a desert for now, but I can only see it growing as more people catch on to the great features. Also, they WILL likely pivot to find the white space between Facebook, Twitter, Path, Pinterest, etc.
If hardly anyone is using Google+, could that make it a niche network?
My wife and my youngest sister both got invites to Google+ that i sent to them and they never took action on it. Whereas my wife is Pinning like crazy before I even realized it.