Have you seen that dark yellow status bar in your Google+ profile? Saying that your Google+ page and other Google+ pages managed by you will be deleted on 2 April 2019?
Do you even have a Google+ profile? No? I admit, you have not really missed something. However, if you do have a Google+ profile, then, well … you will for sure not miss it. Your life and online reputation (for some people the same, unfortunately) will not be dismantled - your Google ranking won’t be neither.
The official statement reads like this. Google+ will be discontinued from 2 April 2019.
My first reaction was: Yessss, one platform less I have to care about.
And how do you feel about this information?
Experience has shown that a social media tiredness is spreading. I’m not talking about myself alone, but in general. When I talk about social networks with other agencies, entrepreneurs or other people from my private background, I have been hearing more or less the same thing: "It’s okay, but it takes a lot of time which I prefer to invest in other, more useful things." Even young people ("twens") prefer to be on platforms like Snapchat or Instagram, where everything is more fast-paced, picture-heavy and less "rigid" compared to let’s say Facebook for instance.
I always found Google+ a bit complicated, thinking about the different circles and groups. I decided to ignore that quite quickly - for time reasons (I’m honest here). The +1’s were nice, but nothing different than a "Like" on Facebook.
THE GOOGLE+ PERFORMANCE COMPARED TO FACEBOOK & CO.
The thing with social networks is this: It only works well if "everybody" is engaging with it regularly. And if "everybody" is engaging in "every" social platform, you might end up in some kind of social media burnout. "Social media detoxing" is becoming a trend (yes, it is - google it!). All the likes, shares and so on are becoming more and more inflationary and thus lose value.
One question comes up considering the amount of social media platforms: Where do I focus on as a user? On something that offers me additional value. For most businesses it is a big time killer that can indeed pay off in the B2C sector; but in the B2B sector, the extra income does not pay for the extra resources needed.
Reason being: a Like or +1 (or however you want to call it) is nice, but does not directly bring you profit. If (!) done well, it can for sure contribute to increase revenue in the middle and long run as the brand and the image are supported. But Google+ hardly played a role in this respect. Every beginning is difficult, sure. But - after several years - not being in the digital homo sapiens’ subjective awareness like where Facebook is (or used to be), might be hard to take for the internet giant Google.
WAS GOOGLE+ OF ADVANTAGE TO ME?
I’m quite active on social networks - mostly to spread my content, keep my followers and network posted about latest projects and news and to share interesting articles from other people and companies. This works quite well - for my image, my reach and thus for my own brand reputation in the middle and long run.
However, after several years of experience, I can say: Google+ has only contributed to a tiny fraction of all of my interactions on my social profiles; with the same amount of effort and postings. Google+ was stagnating from the start and never experienced a positive trend upwards in all those years.
Was Google+ of advantage to me? Not really. So I won’t miss Google+ at all.
WHICH SOCIAL PLATFORM WORKS BEST FOR ME
What works best for me, is Youtube. Every year, it costs me a four-figure amount of money for professional video productions, a lot of time and energy. But it massively contributes to transforming leads into fans.
Can Youtube be considered a social network? Rather yes than no, as you can comment, subscribe to channels, click on "thumb up" or "thumb down". The additional value is clear: streaming video material independently from place and time. And you must not forget about another - very important - fact: Youtube belongs to Google and is the second largest search engine on the internet, right after Google.