Google_ for Business_ How Google's Social Network Changes Everything - Chris Brogan [60]
I asked Mark Horvath what he thought about Google+ as a channel. His response might be something you feel when thinking about whether Google+ is the place for you.
“Google+ started. I had not yet jumped into the pond because they had yet to make it available for people with Google Apps accounts (as an NPO, Google allows me to use its Apps service free). My primary email address runs on its servers. That’s the account I want to use, but it has not yet invited Google Apps users to Google+ yet, and I just didn’t want to have a new place that ‘sucks’ my time away. As someone with AAADHD (I have a triple A personality), anything ‘new’ is a distraction. I saw the obvious potential but was scared that once I stuck my toe in the water, I’d have to jump into the pond.
About a month ago I logged in and noticed someone had posted one of the InvisiblePeople.tv videos, and it had 48 comments. That’s huge! For what I do, the conversation is gold. The videos are only the catalyst to start the conversations.
It’s only through interactive communication that InvisiblePeople.tv is able to shift paradigms to help save lives by ending homelessness. Really the end goal of InvisiblePeople.tv is to fix a broken system by empowering homeless people to tell their own stories. Homeless services rarely listen to the people we serve. Brands would be out of business if they didn’t listen to their customers. In contrast, not one homeless person has suggested, ‘Throw me in a room with 100 other men, giving us mats to sleep on the floor and one bathroom to share. Then, kick me out every day at 5 a.m., even in the winter. That will heal my mental illness and drug addiction!’ Yet, that’s exactly what we have done for the last 100 years. We have warehoused homeless people.
Anyway, without going into all that, InvisiblePeople.tv’s main purpose is to change the system to save lives and taxpayer dollars. It works. Housing programs have started. Countries, state governments, cities, and NPOs have even invited me to travel and help them find solutions.
So, I did start adding new videos to Google+, but I wasn’t spending much time there. Now, thanks to you giving me a kick in the butt, I have to just jump right into a new media channel. But we make time for what’s important, and the conversation on Google+ is very important.”
Mark’s point, that this is yet another technology channel, that this is yet another place to have to distribute media and then respond, is valid. We are all overtaxed. There are too many things on our lists already. And yet, people are taking action and spending time learning how these tools can help them.
Robert Scoble and Rackspace
Robert Scoble is a long-time tech visionary and media maker, with a lengthy career as someone always out there looking for game-changing, bleeding-edge items of note. He’s thoroughly passionate about finding out how interesting technology can change people’s worlds for the better. He currently works with Rackspace, a technology company out of Texas.
Following are Robert’s thoughts about what’s going on to change the game inside of Google+:
“Social enterprises move and respond to customers and partners in real time. Google+ enables that. How? You can see a customer request coming through your feed. You can start a video hangout with that customer, or team of customers. Then you can get your co-workers in another circle where they can help you answer questions in real time and you can go at it.
What are Rackspace’s Google+ power moves?
• Building circles of industry thought leaders that can inform my daily conversation. I have 5,000 people inbound separated into circles of investors, journalists, analysts, other social media representatives, executives,