Google + : Leading us into the Future of Networking?

Google + is the future, or well it may be for job seekers anyway.  I’m sure you’ve all heard the hype about the new social media site.  It was rolled out in limited use a few weeks ago and the only way to get involved is to be invited.  The exclusivity has rubbed some people in the wrong way, but it wasn’t too long ago that Facebook operated on the same principle.

Right now Google + isn’t for everyone, or all job seekers.   Currently it is mostly populated by those in technology, marketing, social media, or internet.  Despite the narrow present narrow market there are already 20 million users on Google + and it is rare to not see it pop up in one news feed or another.

The big question is how will Google compete with the likes of Facebook and Linkedin?  They have the market corner.   Linkedin is your professional online identity and Facebook is your private one. Google+ is capitalizing on being easier navigate and control than its two predecessors.   

You’re probably wondering what I mean by control.  The Google “circles” concept allows you to create numerous different viewing groups such as school, work, family, etc and then chose which content can be view by which groups.  This means that you can post the pictures of your weekend cookout for your friends and family to see and then in the same breath post your updates resume for employers to view.  No more switching between Linkedin and Facebook to post different content, now it’s all in one place.

One of the other perks is that on Facebook a follower must be accepted as a friend while in Google + it is more one sided.  If you want to follow the company of your dreams you can, but they do not have to follow you.  Depending on what circle you place the company in you can control what, if anything, of your content they are able to view.

With all that in mind lets go back to the topic of job searching.  As I mentioned early on Google + is currently populated by mostly techy folks and is only in the trial phases.  It lacks the job listing section that Linkedin has and obviously the population diversity of Facebook.  This means that people in accounting or healthcare for example probably shouldn’t jump on right away expecting to find work, but those in marketing, PR, and tech should definitely get on early and begin building their network. “Google+ invitations are currently scarce, so active users are generally well-connected. In my use of the service, it seems that the vast majority of early adopters are people related to the technology industry and Silicon Valley,” said Jon Burgstone, founding faculty chair, Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, University of California, Berkeley. “I expect job-seekers, at least for now, would find more and higher-quality opportunities on Google+ than LinkedIn.” Eventually, he continued, Google+ will appeal to “a broader population. People who should know, report that Google+ has a very, very large number of people waiting to be invited to user the service. If accurate, Google+ could grow very quickly.” 

Want to get involved? Send me an email at bbert@citypersonnel.net and I’d be happy to send you an invitation.