A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media peeks behind the curtain at Google+ and starts to look at Facebook’s “awesome” announcement.

Google+: Because “Friends” are a Need-To-Know Concept

Google launched Google+ to much fanfare in late June. The platform is the undisputed champ of search’s latest foray into social networking, the one nut of our online lives it hasn’t quite cracked. But Google+ may be different.

First, a quick rundown of the features which all notably have a decidedly mobile focus:

• Sparks: Pretty much a glorified RSS feed, Sparks allows you to flag topics of interest to appear in your stream of updates on the network
• Instant Upload: A “cut out the middle man” approach to sharing photos with your friends. The typical process using Facebook, which Google+ rather transparently targets, involves taking a photo on your phone, finding the photo in a gallery, choosing to share the image, picking a platform you would like to use (a social network vs. mms, etc) and uploading the image. Instant upload automatically sends your pictures to your Google+ account where you can approve them for semi-public consumption.
• Huddle: Think the party line concept on that antiquated landline. Essentially a group chat application using a text-message-like interface. I’ve personally never used the party line thing but I’m pretty sure it was on reruns of Green Acres.
• Hangouts: Continuing the reference, imagine Mother, Eb and the gang on video chat (minus having to climb the telephone pole). Pitched as group video chat for those times you and your friends are bored online and have an amazing amount of bandwidth to spare.

And finally we get to the most intriguing element of Google+. A concept we saw Google Execs toyed with about a year ago, Circles is the concept that differentiates the platform from its competitors. Google has made it extremely easy to share content or comments with only the people you want to see whatever rant on which you are embarking. By literally dragging and dropping people into categories online work and personal lives are immediately segregated and manageable. Circles is the most exciting feature for us B2B folk as it has the potential to lower any barrier of hesitance our audiences may encounter in talking shop within a social media environment.


Soon you will be able to video chat with that high school friend you never talk to anymore.

In an announcement perfectly timed against the aforementioned "Hangouts," Facebook has been planning “something awesome." Speculations that ol’ Zuckerburg would be rolling out in-browser video chat to your Facebook stream have been validated. The new service will be brought to life via a deep integration with Skype, further deepening Facebook’s relationship with the video chat’s now-owner Microsoft. Proof that nothing makes friends faster than a common foe.

What has caught your social-savvy eye this month?