Life after Facebook

As a Google Apps user I was keen to try out Google Plus (G+ from here on) and felt frustrated that I as a paying customer had been left behind.


So a little over a week ago when Vic Gundotra threw the switch that opened the doors to another 40 million G+ users I was on it like a tramp on chips and am pleased to say it has been a great pleasure to use it. Every day.


Of course there is still that 'new social media' smell, and the number of photos I've uploaded barely number and dozen; but i really think this is where its at, at least for me.


One of the oft spoken about gripes of G+ is that 'none of my friends are on it' and 'it's not Facebook! Really, should we be surprised that Google have done something different?


The fact that just a few of my friends were on G+ was actually refreshing as I had gotten tired of their incessant whining  could really start from scratch and ask myself what I wanted from G+. It turned out what I wanted was:


Less meh and more WOW! 
Less Farmville and more conversation
Less about what people ate for lunch and more interesting stuff about the world. 
Less 'Likes' and more curiosity


After 10 days I have added approx 500 new contacts in G+ circles who regularly update me on things that interest me. I basically followed this G+ post and pretty soon my stream was alive with great posts. I added a number of shared circles that conform to my interests. These circles contained about 500 people in total. Approx 80 of them now have me in their circles. You can see my profile here

This is not a 1 to 1 relationship like Facebook and all the better for it..

My 'Stream' of G+ updates is now so active that I can't read all of it, but all that I read is informative, funny, insightful and usually conversation based, rather than comment based. That to me is the largest difference - circles, sharing and functions aside - the quality of the interaction is much higher (for my needs anyway).


Highlights for me are the wonderful sharing and commenting tools. The ability to post length messages - not limited to 255 chars, automatic uploading of any pictures taken on my android phone without sharing them to the world and of course the great integration with youtube, Google apps and my photo albums on Picassa.


I will return to Facebook; after all, I have family and friends who still use it regularly and aren't posting pictures of their cats every day..but I think my new home is Google plus for the foreseeable.


Edit: So today Google have also made G+ pages available to some businesses with more to follow soon. I will certainly have a Credible Systems G+ page, but am unsure how these pages may affect the ecosystem at G+ in the long run. I want to communicate about our business, but without getting in peoples faces. Small steps I think.


...and here we are