Social Bunny Tips, Edition #2

Square Peg, Round Hole - Circles, Squares and Bandwagons

Our lead developer, Rich Wright, has been warning people about this for a long time now: “Don’t put all your eggs in the Facebook basket”. While The Book’s rise has been well documented and meteoric to say the least, all good things come to an end. No, this post is not a prediction that Facebook’s end is nigh, but rather, a cheeky heads-up for those who like to make a little noise in the social arena to think outside the square a little, or should that be circle.

Ra ra ra, Gee Plus is coming; Facebook is a goner…I’d suggest that you don’t get involved in these speculations or rumours, but rather sit back and just enjoy the ride. Test the waters…go on, dip your little toe into Google+ and see if it’s worth jumping right in. And once you’ve towelled off, have a good ol’ think about what you actually like (and don’t ‘like’) about the social platform/s you currently use, and whether g+ bridged any of these gaps.

Long story short (not that there is a long story to tell), Google+ gives you more control over what you share and who with – uber-simple privacy control. Whereas trusty ol’ Facey is a bit of a social whore with limited and complicated defence mechanisms in place for those times you’re caught on a walk of shame wearing only gruts and a snorkel. Let’s be honest, no one wants their boss (or Auntie Maude) to see that.

"...it’s pretty simple, you choose what circle/s to share your rants, rambles, gruts and snorkels with."

Facebook has a focus on connecting you to basically anyone you might know (even people you wouldn’t have even said “hey” to if you were standing next to them in tuck shop queue back at high school), but g+ has a focus on social circles: Family, acquaintances, work peeps, people you just find interesting (following them like Twitter), etc etc…it’s pretty simple, you choose what circle/s to share your rants, rambles, gruts and snorkels with.

In closing, it’s important to stress that no one can claim to be a g+ expert yet, so don’t say “oh, I heard it’s good at this and not so much at that” only because someone told you.  Jeepers, it’s only a ruddy infant that hasn’t even reached for the rusk to chew on in a teething phase yet. My guess is that Google, being the well-polished unit they are, will keep the teething problems to a minimum, and before long, g+ will be just another massive social platform like any other.

If this post told you nothing more than you already knew, that’s okay, just take these two simple points with you then…

• There will always be new social platforms entering the market - this is not a bad thing. It keeps the incumbents on their toes – get amongst
• “Don’t put all your eggs in the Facebook basket”, Richard Wright