Google + for Local Networks

On June 28th, Google cracked the doors to its newest attempt to social networking and began the process of drawing folks into Google +. Since then it's grown like crazy, becoming the fastest such network to hit the 10 and 20 million marks. There's been a lot of talk about what it will become and how long it will take to gain enough users to be relevant, but that's not quite what I'm going to talk about today.

As a quick note on my feelings there, I don't think that Google necessarily is trying to "kill"' Facebook, Twitter or any other social network. At 750 million users Facebook is all but unkillable anyway. I really think that Google's primary goal here is to build a network that will hold enough relevance to become mainstream, hopefully gaining as much usage as Facebook - though more would be nice - and in the end get two things: social relevance in search and of course advertising revenue. We can talk about those another time if it's of interest to you.

Today, I want to talk about local networking. Location-based posting has been available for longer than most of us probably realize. The feature that Four-Square popularized and Facebook offers mainstream has always been an interesting tool to me. However, I'll say that I have never once used it on either of those services. With Google +, however, I see it as a clear-cut advantage. Why? Because with Google + I have an opportunity to post publicly and link that by location. Now every single Google + user in my same geographical location can see my post and determine if they want to connect with me on that topic or others. But isn't that the same?

Why is this better than Four-Square? Because Four-Square really only dominates destinations. It's awesome for those people who are looking for local, popular destinations for just about anything from dining, to drinks, to entertainment, or even to get your hair done. But it lacks a network of people sharing knowledge about non-destination topics.

Facebook misses the boat here because you're only sharing with those people whom you have already mutually-befriended. It's impossible to build your network by only interacting with your existing network, and as a result, many Facebook location tags end up as little more than a destination tag. 

On Google +, users can add hobbies and professions on the top of the list for things they can connect on publicly and locally. These types of connections could lead to training groups for runners or cyclists, business ventures and partnerships, and of course good old local events fit in there too. Other than the reasons above I can't put a finger on why Google's offering makes this so much more obvious than the other two, perhaps it is just presentation. I do feel though, that this could be a very powerful tool for anyone looking to make new relationships for many purposes. 

My word of encouragement... use Google + like crazy, especially with public, geo-tagged posts. Even though the site is set up well to connect this way. There are a lot of bad habits and learning that has to go on before it will be obvious to everyone. It will be important to keep those posts clean of white-noise and to aggressively connect with others when they show interest. Similar to my last post, you never know what kind of seeds those networking efforts will sow for your future.