A Psuedo-Brick-Wall: Add Another Social Network?

I'm flattered that I've had people asking my thoughts on this…so, Google+.  It’s here to stay, and here’s why (in my humble opinion).

Few of us (as in, those reading this post) were around when the first tv channel was on the air, but there was a time when there was only a channel or two, and if you had a television set, that’s all you had the option to watch.  At that time, if you had said that one day there will be hundreds of channels available and that each channel would be profitable in its own way, I’m sure you would have had some people laughing at you.  Actually, a lot of people laughing at you.  But that’s what we have today, hundreds of channels, because we have options.  (I have to admit that I first heard a Twitter contact allude to this analogy, so it’s not my original concept, but I have expanded on it for explanation purposes.)

I believe there will one day be many social networks, and that they will eventually all serve a specific niche.  Take Myspace for example.  Once it was THE social network, and now its niche is music.  It’s not that Myspace has disappeared completely.  It just has a different niche.  Now, whether or not they intended to that, that’s a whole different topic. 

Amongst my contacts, Facebook is no longer looked at as the unbelievable startup it once was.  I’ve heard people say that it’s now become more “big brother” than ever, and Google picked the perfect time to introduce G+ to capitalize on all of the unhappy users.    I don’t think Facebook is going anywhere, but I do think that people will start to figure out which social network fits their niche.  So far, on G+, I see people in these areas: tech, social media, marketing and media.

Social networks should be about connections and convenience.  Right now, the majority of my connections are on Facebook, but on G+ I’m seeing features that make things much more convenient.  It also helps that I have an Android phone.  What’s different?  The stream, circles, photos, and of course the hangouts.  There’s also a lot more commenting and conversing going on.  I’m dying to see what they offer for businesses and brands. 

In my profession, I have no choice but to be on all of the social networks.  It’s a good thing that I kind of geek out on this stuff and enjoy it!  We tend to forget that G+ is still in beta.  Geeks like me can’t wait to see where it goes from here! http://glus.to/jennyweigle

*By the way, Google has announced that they’re going to be making changes to Blogger (the platform this blog is on).  I’ve been interesting in changing my look here…would anyone be willing to exchange some design work for social media consulting?*