This blog title is a little long… but Google+, iPad 2 and Casey Anthony all have one thing in common – do you want to know?
I’m going to make you read this before I tell you (haha)
This past 4th of July weekend we saw a lot of interesting social media stories hit the headlines. Between barbecues and fireworks these three topics came up a lot.
Friday —–
At the start of the weekend there was Google+, Google’s newest and hopefully last-ditch effort at social media. For the past four years Google has been trying everything it could to lure users away from Facebook and Twitter and back to Google. Simply put, users just were not using Google anymore. A lot of this had to do with the average time users were spending on both Facebook and Twitter. What seemed like a fun diversion to the world was not so fun for Google. So, Google created a number of social networking site failures. I don’t really feel like naming all of them but for the record the last one was Google Wave. What went wrong with these sites? There are tons of conflicting opinions – one of the best ones that I heard was that Google was just to engineering instead of social. Internet engineers don’t get social.
Well.. the purpose of this post isn’t to judge, Google+ is here and it made a splash at the start of the 4th weekend. Tons of buzz and some interesting features (a full feature set is here).
One of the most interesting things I think it has to offer is ‘Hangouts’ – with Google+ Hangouts a user will be able to join a group of people who are talking about a certain subject using their video camera (of course on their computer). So say a conversation comes up about ‘taxes’ – 3 or 4 people can jump in and start talking about it.
It’s a very interesting concept especially when it comes to social – and it’s something that Facebook or Twitter doesn’t have yet. For a detailed look at Google+ Hangouts, checkout this review in the SF Gate by Matt Rosoff.
Saturday —–
iPad 2 and not that there was an announcement around the iPad 2, more or less it was how much more I am using the iPad 2 (how much are you using it? – vote here). I already read every newspaper on this device. I tweet from it, I shop from it and this past weekend I watched all three of my kids use it. The iPad 2 is opening up computing to everyone making the traditional high-priced laptop a relic of the past. With the dawn of the new ios 5 on its way (all features for ios 5 listed here) the iPad 2 is starting to become ‘THE’ device. I really think that the killer feature in the new ios 5 is going to be text messaging from the iPad 2. There are so many times that I want to text or say something to someone but without texting I’m stuck.
With this missing link on the iPad 2 who knows how much time people will spend on it.
Sunday & Monday ——
Casey Anthony took to the Broadway stage. Her murder trial was crazy.. so much that I found myself watching closing arguments over the Men’s Wimbledon Final. Crazy but true. The Casey Anthony murder trial was blazing on Facebook, Twitter and through almost any social outlet you could imagine. So why was the American public so crazy over this Orlando murder case? You could say media (traditional media coverage) or you could chalk it up to the fact that every tweet and turn was caught not only in traditional media but social media. People want to react to a murder trial when famous people like Kim Kardashian are tweeting about it.
Conclusion —–
Which finally leads us to my question: What does Google+, iPad 2 and Casey Anthony all have in common?
The answer: social media reach. You might be saying, huh?
Just what is social media reach? Basically it’s the ability to:
- attract
- communicate
- entertain
Social media reach is this gigantic arm of social power, it’s a new technology like Google+ that encourages new users to USE IT, to take a shot and participate. it’s also an old way of communicating with friends about topics using simple text messaging on a device like the iPad 2. And finally, its pure entertainment around a social event like the Casey Anthony murder trial. Social reach combines new, old and current into a formula that can only be likened to a wave of social awareness.
So what do you think? Do you agree? Let me know and Happy belated 4th of July!
Tagged: Casey Anthony, celebs, conversation, Facebook, Google, ios 5, iPad 2, July 4th, Kim Kardashian, Michael J Lis, people, Social Media, Social Media reach, twitter, users
