I am probably a typical heavy web user. I use eBay to search for those gadgets I really can’t do without, I download my music from iTunes and books from either Amazon or iBooks for my iPad. I set up a twitter account ages ago but have less than 10 tweets. I use Linked in for my work networking and Facebook for my Social networking and draw a very firm line between the two.
Of course, we include all of the Social channels when developing digital strategies for our clients and we are big fans of Facebook as a means of finding and developing relationships with brand advocates.
All of the above are easy and straight forward to use, so straight forward that even my mother has managed to join the online Social crowd (and I used to have to reset the clock on her VHS every time we went from summer to winter!)
Google +1 isn’t. When they announced +1 I was interested. I followed the links and opted in to the trial for +1 on Googles experimental page. Then I discovered I had to have a Google profile so I created one and joined the experiment again. Nada.
I’ve just conducted a straw pole of the agency and most hadn’t heard about it (a bit worrying) and those that had have had the same experience as me. Explanations such as ‘maybe it’s not available in the UK yet’ are all well and good but nobody’s telling us that.
My point is this. If this is Googles big grab for a slice of the Social pie they’ve made it far too difficult. I don’t want to have to be logged in to Google as I search the web. I am more than happy to be on Facebook and login to this when I want to. If I find something I like on a site I am browsing and I think my friends might be interested I have no problem clicking the Like button to broadcast the fact to my friends on Facebook.
Facebook is an environment for me to share things with friends and family around the world. That’s why I am on it and that’s why I created a profile and added friends over the last 5 years.
Google is a search tool. I don’t log onto it to share things with my friends or colleagues nor will I considering how complicated they are making it to even join the experiment. Google are going to have to entice me with a lot better reason to join than the fact I might be able to see a recipe that my mother +1’d as she won’t have.
