" And what if Google+ makes it a one click option to import all contacts? Nothing would remain a hurdle then."
@ Nasimson
I like your idea how that isnt likely to happen. Consent from contact exporter is also requested. If you are talking about facebook; it wont ever give such a right to Google +. If you are talking about gmail; not every friend of yours has been mailed by you from gmail and it is not likely that you have email addresses of all your friends; so import from gmail might not be that effective though permissible.
As of last week, 62 of the top 100 brands have Google+ pages. That's not very good news; considering Google+'s high profile, that number should be higher.
Worse: Only 1 top brand has created a Google+ page in the past two months.
I don't think this is anything Google should be alarmed about. I think Google is wisely trying to adopt a strategy of getting people signed on first, brands later. But it's something they need to watch.
"If the exact thing had been offered by an entity other than google, it probably wouldn't have faired so well (google has instant brand recognition, and the field is highly competitive)."
@Infinity. I agree. People have high expectations of Google and nothing would click unless it's just way above or different than others.
I disagree with facebook user loyalty. Users are not loyal to any medium but would choose whatever suits them. This trend has been seen lots of times in the past with IRC, Orkut, MySpace, etc. Whenever something more interesting and new came up, the switchover was quick. And what if Google+ makes it a one click option to import all contacts? Nothing would remain a hurdle then.
As for marketing, that comes with userbase, not the other way around. Once there's enough userbase marketeers would be attracted autmatically. As long has they have other alternative media to reach bigger target, of course they'd prefer the option with greater outreach.
I get much more requests on Google+ than facebook or other social media. Whenever I login I see regular user activity. It's so easy to add friends or share stuff on Google+. It's so well integrated with some of the other apps from google, like adding friends to googletalk automatically. Yet I don't find anyone talking about Google+. Google+ is like a service we've accepted (like gmail), use regularly, yet ignore as it's granted for granted.
As far as marketeers are concerned, I feel if google introduces some feature which makes it super easy and cool to connect users and marketeers it'd really tick off. Yes, the traditional methods are there but why would anyone target Google+ when they can reach more crowd through facebook or twitter - unless Google+ overtakes them with ease of use and integration.
@TomFoth - I agree that the lack of an API -- and the third-party apps that go with it -- is a liability.
For me, personally, I find the Google+ experience on the iPad lacking. That's a problem because the iPad is my chief platform for interacting with social media.
@infinity - ... google has instant brand recognition...
Not just that. Google also has Internet marketing abilities like nobody else. They promoted Google+ on their home page, by far the most valuable Internet real estate in the world.
But you're right that Google+ had a big head start. Facebook and Twitter had to overcome the "what the heck is this? why would I want to do THAT" problem. But Google+ started in a world that already had Twitter and Facebook, so people knew what Google+ was for .
Or they _thought_ they knew. Google+ started out looking like a standalone social network, but Google said it wasn't that. Over time Google became clear that they intended Google+ as glue holding all of Google's services together. Whether that vision is fulfilled remains to be seen.
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