July 13, 2011 87 Comments

Google Plus is Not Your Blog

Roger Smith Hotel Marquee, NYC Night

When I visit New York City, I stay at the Roger Smith Hotel. They make me feel like it’s my home. They’re very inviting. They smile a lot. They treat me like I matter. I love it there.

But it’s not my home.

Google+ Is NOT Your Blog

There’s been some stink (again) about whether Google+ will serve as a replacement for one’s blog. Kevin Rose (once famous for Digg), redirected KevinRose.com to point to his Google+ account, citing that sharing and participation there has been better than it ever was on his site. Perfectly good response for Kevin to have, but I’m going to beg to differ with how MOST people intend to use their blogs and how building it on a third party platform is rarely going to be a good idea for you.

Your blog, especially if you pay to have it hosted and with its own shiny URL is YOUR real estate. There are still some things you can do to violate your terms of service with your hosting company, but otherwise, it’s yours to do with as you wish, kind of like when you own a home or a building. You can change the design of your blog. You can store all the data you want to house. You can add and subtract things. You can customize the look and the feel. You can drive people where you want them to go. You can incentivize them to take an action you’d like them to take.

Google+ is an Outpost

No matter what, no matter how much more engagement you get on a place like Google+, it is not your “home base.” It’s your “outpost.” That means, it’s a place where you can go to have interactions with people, on “neutral ground,” and that in the course of those interactions, should someone want to know more about you, learn more about what you do, understand how you might interact further, that’s when they will move from your outpost property on Google+ over to your home base on your website or blog.

The Quick Strategy

Put the most VALUE at your home base (blog) and spend the most TIME at the outposts (networks like Google+).

Easy as that.

And Also

Jake Luddington and I had similar reactions, it seems. He beat me to it, so it’s worth reading Jake’s post, too. Well, besides the fact he’s a great blogger.

Related posts:

  1. How to Blog With Google Plus
  2. Using Google Plus to Source Ideas
  3. Conversations Matter in Google+
  4. Getting Started With Google Plus
  5. Google Buzz Messes With Your Google Profile

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  • http://www.expertsmarketingcoach.com Trish Jones

    Here here … well said Chris. The trouble with this industry is that there are too many followers and not enough leaders.  If well intentioned, well known bloggers like Kevin Rose give out such information about neglecting your blog for third party party platforms, most people will follow. Thank goodness we have leaders like yourself to reign them back in again.

  • http://www.therealman.ro TheRealMan

    good advice. thanks

  • http://www.emoscenestyle.com BlinKinGhost

    Thanks for sharing Chris. You’ve just gained a new reader!

  • http://cashwithatrueconscience.com/rbblog Ryan Biddulph

    Hi Chris,

    Like any new, bright and shiny thing, we are sure to see some over exuberance with Google Plus.

    Your blog is content central. It’s one stop shopping for your readers: articles, reviews, videos, podcasts, interviews, you can post them all on your blog, AND your blog has your url. 

    The foundation of your brand isn’t going to be built on Plus, Facebook or twitter. The meat and potatoes of the deal is your blog, and it will always be your blog. Outposts are nice, we should spend some time there. But the substance behind the conversation is your blog, and it always will be.

    When the next new bright and shiny thing comes out, we’ll see similar behavior. Over-excitedness in one camp, skepticism in another camp, and a crowd in between. Humans either resist change or go bananas over a form of change they feel will revolutionize some niche. 

    Ultimately it’s up to the human using the tool how successful they are in conveying their message, not the tool itself.

    Thanks for sharing your insight Chris.

    Ryan

    • Jack Lynady

      Could it be that google + will actually increase the value of my “blog real-estate”? As the noise gets turned up, I believe more people will pay for personalization. Like vacationing at the four seasons. I plan on giving my guests premium content. And at some point I will charge for it. So go ahead google + accelerate the process for me.

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  • http://www.mysocialagency.com/blog MySocialAgency

    Hi Chris,

    I agree with the post entirely. I cant see how anyone would look at Google+ as an alternative to a blog. 

    I use my personal Facebook for friends, but only friends. Business associates I engage with through Linked-In and Twitter. I see Google+ as being a combination of all three with my friends and business associates ‘circled off’ from each other via a very cool Twitter style list building function.

    I am sure the site will be huge success and it fills the gap between the 3 main networks nicely, but it is in no way a substitute for a blog.

    Mark @mark_3000 @mysocialagency:twitter 

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  • http://www.aabuk.com Abayas

    I also agree G+ cannot replace blogs many people are saying it will compete facebook and i agree it will but the reason of facebook success was simplicity and privacy and facebook is much better than G+.

  • Arkadiusz Dymalski

    Google+, WordPress, Genesis Framework or whatever else are just software tools to achieve goals which require communication. And as in case of all tools – your choice is resultant of the goals specifics (like your audience habits for example) and your personal preferences. That’s why I don’t agree with a bold statement in this post. If G+ suits you as a communication platform – choose it. If you prefer Twitter – go for it. If you believe that self-hosted blog is perfect solution for you – build it. Just don’t think that there’s one, golden answer.

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  • http://www.rocwu.com Roc

    Google has plan to change blogger into google blog. I would like to see how they combine these two together.

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  • http://cruisesurfingz.com roy m. | cruisesurfingz.com

    Very true. Kevin Rose must have had a shitty blog if he gave it up so easily!

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  • Chris

    It will be interesting to see how the “real estate industry” adopts Google+. In general, I see an industry that has struggled to combine “old school concepts” in terms of building a community of followers, with the fantastic tools that have emerged over the past few years. Google+ could be the tool that finally crosses over to mainstream realtors, mortgage brokers, escrow companies, etc.

    • http://www.HomeTips4Women.com tinagleisner

      The real estate industry has Active Rain, an online community with almost a quarter million members and pretty good SERP traffic. I don’t think those most active on the web are going to leave this social community

  • http://rbravo.tumblr.com/ rbravo

    I agree totally with this article. Your blog is where your biggest investment has been in terms of time and money. On a legal perspective it’s the place where you own everything you write and photos you place on there. 

    Googleplus might be a good place to be now just as myspace urls were back in 2005 but what lasts the test of time is your own domain. It’s something you can print onto your business card and will remain relevant 10 years from now. 

    Facebook, twitter and google+ all suffer from the same risks. Perhaps in 5 yeras time you will close some of these accounts or most of your clients won’t be on there but two services will remain: the email address you communicate with; and your website/blog.

    You may over time change from using wordpress to using drupal or joomla, you might change blog themes or what content you put up or take off it but it will always reside at the same address.

    As Chris Brogan has quoted before: “blogging is like my house”.

  • http://ideaapps2cash.com App Developers

    I agree.  The issue I am having is the different type of interaction.  I am slower at getting conversations started than I am on Twitter or eve Facebook. Growing pains.

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  • http://www.techmug.com/social-bookmarking-sites/ Social Bookmarking Sites

    I enjoyed reading because of the example of Roger Smith Hotel.This is the first time i understand how to interact people on articleGood luck mate

  • http://www.gowebbaby.com/ Hire Web Designer

     Nice post about Google plus and thanks for define it as a stranded. Grate post !!!!!!…..

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