xkcd comic

Since opening to the public Google+ has seen its traffic increase from 1.1 million US users a week to 15 million users. Despite its growing numbers, I still see a divide and "uniqueness" to Google+. To me, Facebook is more of a personal tool, a way to catalogue photos and relationships with people you know. This personal connection between people is probably why so many hate the fact that Facebook keeps user information and easily sell it off to companies.

On the other hand, I see Google+ as a social tool for people you don't necessarily want to be intimate with. The majority of Google+ posts focus on articles people like and various Internet memes. Very rarely does someone have a photo album of more than just a few profile photos to cycle through.

When it comes down to it, I see Facebook as a personal scrapbook and Google+ as an Internet scrapbook. Each has pluses and minuses, but Google+'s disconnect from people's personal lives and information may prove to be an advantage in the long run.

McHugh, K. (2011). Google+ Service Continues to Grow Since Opening to Public. Social Times. link.

I believe the article is the best representation of how companies should form their online voices. Instead of being overly proper and business-like, the Internet provides the foundation to loosen up and speak to consumers in a lax voice. The Internet is a casual form of communication and should be treated as such.

In comparison to other forms of communication, the rise of social media provides direct contact between the company and consumer. Traditional Internet communication focused on speaking casually with the consumer, now social media is about speaking one-on-one with the consumer. Speaking overly-professional makes the company come off as uneducated in Internet "etiquette."