Business Prospects in Google+
This article (http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/17/google-plus-page-for-brands/) discusses why businesses should be developing their brand in Google+.
According to the article, “your brand should be connecting with social consumers where they are today… as well as where they might be tomorrow.” This statement is particularly interesting because it relates to our class discussions about technology adoption. A technology is adopted or not based on it’s usefulness to the potential adopter, and especially with social networking sites, this usefulness depends on the number of users that have already adopting it. Given Google’s high reputation and already established internet savvy, it is highly likely that many people will perceive that it will be heavily adopted and thus, adopt it, creating a self-fulfilling situation. Therefore, it is in a business’s best interest to develop some form of online presence in Google+ to develop their brand, because it is highly likely to be a successful social network.
Another big benefit that comes with Google+ is circles, which could be used to create better-targeted advertising. The point of circles is to have subgroups within a network. Since information and adoption usually cascades through one subgroup, but sometimes cannot move across weak connections, it seems that it is advantageous to acknowledge this and start different types of advertisement/brand development in different circles, rather than a one-size fits all that then may not appeal to everyone.
The article also mentions that succeed or fail, it is a good idea to at least put effort into establishing a presence not only on Google+ but on all the networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc) because even if every site is profoundly successful, not everyone will join every site. If you are part of every social network, then you are not only getting more exposure with users of multiple platforms, but you are increasing your chances of exposure with users of only one platform.