The Media Has Sung This Song Before*
We've read these posts for the last year, had countless stories, opinions, concerns, debates and sometimes out right rude comments towards people over a topic near and dear to many here but I've not seen anyone point out the very obvious… This tune is familiar in the media.
My offer still stands to any media outlet, company, or brand who would like to see how to make this space pop for them: 15 minute Google+ hangout, from my living room to yours.
Is G+ in fact dead, dying, or full of dead bodies?? Not so much a new story idea. We've heard these 'dead social network' arguments before… I remember them well. The media said the same thing about Twitter.
In fact, this beautiful article written by G+'s own in 2009 titled a familiar "Is Twitter Dead?" ( http://bit.ly/KIQoEb ) You could literally replace every instance of "Twitter" with the word "Google+". Take a moment to read it, but for the rest, here are some of my favorite quotes/statistics from these articles, Side by Side with the recent "ghost town" article we all love. (http://bit.ly/JlhbpC)
*New Accounts*
TWITTER • Nielsen Online reported two months ago that most new users (60%) bail on Twitter after creating an account.
GOOGLE+ •Roughly 30% of users who make a public post never make a second one on Google Plus
*Dead Accounts*
TWITTER *• The Internet marketing firm HubSpot says more than half of all people who signed up for an account never posted a tweet (55%), aren't following anyone (56%) and have no followers themselves (53%).
*GOOGLE+ • Even after making five public posts, there is a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again on Google+
*Same Users Making All the Content*
TWITTER • TechCrunch says that the ol' 80-20 rule is in full effect on Twitter: 20% of Twitter users are creating 80% of the activity. Harvard Business School says it's even more extreme than that: 10% of Twitter users post 90% of the Tweets.
GOOGLE+ •According to RJM's report, the average post on Google+ has less than one +1, less than one reply, and less than one re-share. Google+ simply does not show the same level of ravenous user adoption and engagement that we've seen in other social networks.
ಠ_ಠ Say what? The media sure likes to talk about how dead a product is, almost with eerie redundancy. Is twitter is 'dead' today? Elgin's points on "I signed up for Twitter in late 2007, looked around and didn't really understand it, then stopped checking it, " rings very true on Google+ too. How many of you did the same thing on Twitter, sign up, do nothing, return later, only to wish you stuck with it that first go around?
Remember G+ Ghosts… We are all ahead of the curve here… and in a few years will frequently talk of "the good old days." So take heart of the awesome amazing strangers around you and +1, share, and comment till your heart is content and worry not about our beloved product. +Google has things figured out I'm sure. 🙂
TLDR The media tends to often say a new product is dying with lots of stats. They mean nothing. Google+ = Awesome 🙂
#googleplus #ghosttown #twitter
Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party
Party!
Actually, around 4pm EST today I was remarking to a co-worker how intense the update frequency was on g+.
"TWITTER • TechCrunch says that the ol' 80-20 rule is in full effect on Twitter: 20% of Twitter users are creating 80% of the activity. Harvard Business School says it's even more extreme than that: 10% of Twitter users post 90% of the Tweets.
"GOOGLE+ •According to RJM's report, the average post on Google+ has less than one +1, less than one reply, and less than one re-share. Google+ simply does not show the same level of ravenous user adoption and engagement that we've seen in other social networks. "
These figures are actually not at all comparable. G+ could still theoretically have an 80-20 thing going on with those averages.
Party+ town xD
I would be happy to give any media help to show them its not a ghost town also 🙂
The flipside of this is the users of X product saying they don't use/they don't get/they quit Y product.
Here is my response to the Ghost Town debate, which we covered very well with +Nicholas Ong +Euro Maestro +Mike Downes +Enry Esl +James Barraford and many others a few days ago.
Conclusion: There are major issues that we can't ignore, however ghosttown is definitely not it.
goo.gl/8RRcN
+Amanda Blain, i have recently (within the last week) been searching for the authors of these articles in G+ and have been making a circle with them in it. When i get a handful more i am going to start "Notifying" them every time i make a public post.
I just finished an interview with Inc.com telling them these exact same things.. good job +Amanda Blain.
I seen Anderson Cooper promoting a hangout the other day on AC360. +Amanda Blain
You know what would be a great idea, is have a ton of people from the G+ community record themselves sayin, "G+ is no Ghost Town"…time to regulate +Aaron Wood 🙂
I'm going to bet all the usual suspects show up here and plead their case. 😉
and then combine it into a time lapsed video lol..
They want Google to fail but what is happening the exact opposite, more and more people are joining and G+ most likely will hit the 400m mark by end of this year.
These stats between articles do not 1000% match directly up.. but the comparisons between the articles are clearly there.. and thats really the point. All these numbers are "facts" and they mean nothing. Twitter is not dead. Neither is G+.
Ive said this before and keep saying it G+ is only as good as you put into it. If you want to be spoon feed then go some where else. G+ for me is about people exchanging ideas and engaging each other, not being feed the things that some one thinks you want.
GHOST TOWN NC! WEEHAA!
+Mohamed Rafiq, you do realize a lot of people "joining" G+ are forced to do so, right?
GET GOOGLE+ ON YOUR SMART PHONE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
+Aaron Wood not at all, why are you saying so? Unless you think showing join Google+ button is forcing…
Or I'll force you too!
+Mohamed Rafiq so what happens when there are 400m people here? Or 900m, for that matter? What happens?
i'm surprised that so many intelligent plussers are still reacting to these link-bait articles … :-/ …
Naaa Just as you were!
love it!
+Mohamed Rafiq, to make a YouTube account these days, you are automatically signed up for G+. Pretty much when you use any Google features and sign up for them, your G+ account is created.
+Eric Rice Well at that point we'll have pretty much all of our friends, family and other contacts here and we won't have this conversation about ghost town anymore
i dont think anything happens ERIC and the more people the better because it would become more popular
I hoped people would read this and realize its not the same old arguement. Its saying exactly what you said +Jens Graikowski the media just likes to say these things.. but they mean nothing.
Part of me wants my friends to migrate from Facebook over to G+ so that I can finally dump the former.
The rest of me is rather happy that my G+ feed is dominated with insightful posts from passionate technology users and not "AMG did u see the karsashians!!!111".
with the articles i didn't mean this post +Nathaniel Avoures (which is what i reacted to), but those ghost town articles that are still being written by so-called journalists, who are trying to bolster up their otherwise insignificant careers …
Meme time?
Um.
No, I'm not going to take the shot. Let's hurry up and get G+ to 900m people PRONTO, because I want to watch those conversations. /snort
Mark Schweigert, did u name that circle The Ghost Town Circle? Lol
God I don't want my friends and family of other networks here. I really enjoy the (usually) intelligent and open debate that goes on here. My brain just doesn't get a work out on fb. As for twitter. To me its just a news feed
sorry +Amanda Blain … my bad … i didn't explain mself properly … as i said in my comment further up, it wasn't your post i was referring to (or those like it), but the articles about the G+ ghost town that incompetent "journalists" are still plastering all over the internet … i could've phrased that better …
+Aaron Wood Well earlier youtube was a standalone product and now it is one of the google core product which means now you could use your google account to use it.
For new youtube users while signing up it is clearly stating that you need to google account to use youtube and it comes up with other goodies, i don't see anything wrong in it. All of them are google products and it should be easier to signup with just one google account and makes our life easier. I don't see any forcing here.
Full of dead bodies… reminded me of the Rancid song "Dead Bodies". I believe it's a cover of some other band, but I love the Rancid version.
Talk about missing the point and made up metrics! Real people, not robots or paid posters, post about stuff that interests them, not advertisers trying to sell something.
G+ is a personal blog (how many of those get comments but people still write them), personal bookmark store, place to share your interest in photography, coding, whatever you want it to be.
Most people comment, more than they post. Where do the 10s, 100s of +1s and comments for any given post materialise from? The ether, I guess!
Marketing, to date, has been "spray and pray they notice" broadcasting, not engagement. Bi-directional engagement, what is that? That is for real people.
+Joel Campbell, so you want the people on facebook "that don't give your brain a workout" to come over here on G+ and "give your brain a workout."
k.
Just cause it's not as popular as facebook does not mean their isn't anyone on it.
Book face should be put back up on the self!
right jacob and facebook is popular but google+ can be a good workout place for your brain i think so
Why do we want more people in here anyway?. G+ should be a kept secret for us, like a beautiful hidden beach. I like the general level of conversation and friendlier attitude in G+. I like Albert Einstein quotes better than the latest Kardashian (made up) drama crap.
I say DON'T bring in the masses with their lower standards and pollute this beautiful beach with their beer cans and cigarette butts.
Let the masses think this is no place for them and stay in Facebook.
sorry if I DONT MAKE sence
Obviously we are a presence here. The quality of information being promulgated is substantially more cogent than the vapid prattle so constant on FB. We shall prevail.
+Mohamed Rafiq, what I'm saying is it's not organic growth. It's forced growth. The G+ population grows as people sign up for OTHER Google products. The numbers are basically growing but not showing people are actually using THIS product. Understand what I'm saying?
I will not take the road that these stats are not accurate. I can point you to thousands of accounts on here, twitter, facebook or pinterest that match the "sign up and never return" stats. They do exist, but it doesn't mean the site is doomed. 🙂
yep