health: Aaron Hockley

الأربعاء، 29 فبراير 2012

Aaron Hockley

Value in Google+ and Wasting Time with Foursquare

Posted: 28 Feb 2012 02:28 PM PST

Let’s talk about Google+ and Foursquare. I’m all backwards about them.

My Favorite Social Network That Everyone Hates

Google+ is a failure. Nobody Gives a Damn About Google+. The only people using Google+ are Google employees.

As a social photographer, I currently get more photography commentary, critique, and discussion via Google+ than I do from any other social network. I post about one photo a day over there, post a link or two to interesting articles, and engage in commentary and discussions about the photos and articles being shared by other photographers. If we look purely at follower numbers (not a great metric but one that’s probably equally flawed across platforms), I have over three times as many followers on Google+ as I do on Twitter. I enjoy following social photography thought leaders such as Trey Ratcliff, Thomas Hawk, and RC Conception as they engage on Google+.

Despite the active photography discussions, I keep hearing that Google+ is a dead space. I posed a question as to other groups that have flocked to Google+ and I’ve also been told (via @lunarobverse) that some old-school D&D gamers use the Google Hangout feature quite a bit for collaborative gaming – they call it ConstantCon.

If you’re not already connected to me on Google+, here I am.

Foursquare Goes On Without Me

I joined Foursquare relatively early and according to the stats on my account I’ve checked in just over 3,000 times. That’s a lot. I have 50 badges. Whee!

But what’s the point? I’m not gaining anything of value (unless it’s helping to prop up my Klout score, but again… is that of value?). Hardly any businesses have any sort of useful Foursquare loyalty program. The badge thing was clever at first, but the new shiny object attaction is gone. Like any sort of game, I see Foursquare contacts doing absurd things like checking in once per mile on their commute to various venues.

About a month ago I returned from a trip to the midwest. I’d been Foursquare-ing on the trip, and as I got back to my home airport in Portland, Foursquare somehow decided I was in Atlanta. So I checked into the Atlanta airport, and I haven’t used Foursquare since. That was the final straw in this silly waste of time.

I Am A Social Media Oddity

Apparently I find useless things to be useful and little value in the fun service that everyone loves. Are you participating in social media because it provides you with something of value, or because you’re being told where you should be?