Google Plus is Google’s recently launched excursion into the world of social media. A question that comes up a lot is: All my friends and family are on Facebook, why should I join up for something where I don’t know anybody? This leads straight to the first reason:
1. That’s exactly what Google Plus is for: making contact and starting conversations with people in your own field who you don’t know. It seems counter-intuitive, but the fact is I’ve encountered more artists, like-minded people, and people willing to comment and engage on Google Plus than I ever thought possible.
2. The search functions within Google Plus are improving all the time, and they make it possible to find other artists, and different types of artists, very quickly. You add them to your Circles, and within hours you can have a vastly expanded audience for yourself and your art.
3. The photo viewer within Google Plus is hugely superior to Facebook’s. Google is also much less cavalier about ‘owning’ and reusing all your material, if this is something that bothers you.
4. Even though the number of people joining G+ is growing exponentially, it still feels new, and like being in at the start of something exciting. People like Samantha Villenave are curating artists they like – a simple idea, but she’s been smart enough to do it first, and she’s doing herself and everyone else a service by promoting the cause of artists.
5. The concept of ‘Circling’ someone on G+ is like ‘Following’ on Twitter, but there’s no limit to the length of what you can post on G+, which means that people who Circle you get to read more than 140 characters at a time.
6. Also, as a general point of usage, the interface is cleaner than Facebook, less cluttered with ads and that horrible FB timeline. There’s also (so far) less of the minute-by-minute triviality that makes FB sometimes feel like a toy for watching your limited time on earth circle down the drain of oblivion.
Are you an artist who is using G+? Have you noticed any other reasons why it’s a good place for artists?
Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader