A Big Fish in a Small Pond

Whether you’re a fan of Google+ or not, it’s hard to deny the fact that the platform could significantly impact the world of social media.  The internet’s most recognized name could take a significant chunk of traffic from Facebook if Team Zuckerberg doesn’t react accordingly.  With the recent partnership with Skype, it appears that they already have.

The buzz that Google+ is receiving shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.  We see new platforms popping up all the time, but every few years, one of them makes a big splash in the social media scene.  When MySpace was king, Facebook stormed in and swept the rug out from underneath them.  In the early days, most people didn’t even get the point of Twitter, but now the President is using it for Town Hall meetings.  The micro-blogging platform, Tumblr, has seen exponential growth over the past year, and now have more blogs hosted than WordPress.

If your goal is to become more influential in your field, it’s important to recognize the opportunity of becoming an early adopter of new platforms.  Up-and-coming brands and individuals may not get much traction from established social media services.  However, new platforms will not be saturated with other brands and people in your field.  You have an opportunity to be heard loud and clear, which makes you a big fish in a small, but growing, pond.

Users are anxious to know who to follow on new social services like Google+.  Sites like SocialStatistics.com have already begun compiling lists of the top users on the site(coincidentally, Mark Zuckerberg tops the list).  As the service grows, these lists will become more categorized.  For instance, if you’re a talented photographer, you have an opportunity to make a name for yourself using Google+.  If you learn how to effectively use the service before a large majority of the population, your profile will be appealing to new users that are hungry for great, fresh content about photography.

Becoming an influential user on a specific platform has many benefits, but one of the greatest is that this allows you to grow your follower base in other services, as well.  You may only have 500 followers on Twitter, but if you’re able to attract 10,000 followers on Google+, many of those users will click links to follow you elsewhere online.  This especially holds true if your content differs slightly from platform to platform.  So, before you brush off Google+ as a fad, think of the opportunities that it could present to your brand.

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