It happens only in India. That is, an Internet company taking the print media/offline route to market its online property. Today, Google has done a full-page ad in newspapers (Times of India, others?) promoting the ‘3 PM Hangout’ with SRK.
The Challenge
Few years back when BigAdda was at its spending best, they partnered with Rock-on movie and ‘tried’ getting the crew to share/talk about the movie on BigAdda. You know what happened? The entire RockOn team was conversing on Facebook and not on BigAdda, even though they had an official partnership with the desi social network (which is now an ecommerce site).
Conversation happens naturally to places and networks which we are used to.
Now coming back to Google Plus, I see the same challenge. SRK is still tweeting more and plussing less.
Need proof? Here is it:
SRK’s last plus was (as of 9:35 AM, October 20th):
SRK’s last 4 tweets
That is, SRK is tweeting more and Plussing less. Importantly, if his Twitter updates show up on Google Plus (after 7-8 hours), I’d assume that it’s SRK’s social media agency which is updating his status (?).
QED.
You cannot buy conversation.
In short, if you want to follow SRK as-he-shares, Twitter is still the place to be. For SRK (and many other lesser known souls like us), tweeting and Facebook(ing) comes naturally and is still the first mode of sharing ‘what am I doing’ (even though he is paid by Google to promote Google+).
So why so critical of Google Plus?
Well, Google is getting desperate to promote Google Plus. And so desperate that they have forgotten a basic fundamental rule of social networking – i.e. it grows organically (like many other things in life!). Networks like Facebook, LinkedIn never advertised – they just grew organically. If Google has to make plus more relevant, it should be integrated in the Google network of sites.
That is, Google has a huge network/reach and it should be leveraging the inside-network before advertising in other medium/networks. Maybe the Google Buzz (which is deadpooled now) team needs to share some lessons internally.
What’s your take?
Recommended Read: Of Google+ Rant (By Google Engineer) And Premature Scaling Of Products [Lessons]
