Google+ and artists

I've been using Google+ for a couple of weeks now and would like to share my thoughts on this new channel and how it can be used for artists.

I've been a fan of twitter for ages, and had an account there long before I joined facebook. My experience of Twitter is that it's a great channel for artists to show latest work, discuss and be inspired. One of the most powerful aspects of twitter is the retweet. Getting a post retweeted exposes the artist to new people who can then in turn retweet to their followers, potentially reaching thousands of people. One of the weakest aspects of twitter is that it's text-only: asking people to look at a piece of work is asking them to leave their twitter stream, via a risky short url to another website.

My facebook 'fans' have shown a lot of interest but the weakness of facebook is the lack of re-sharing. My experience is that people tend to comment or like a post, but rarely forward the post to their friends. It's a dead-end communication channel. I also think there is too high a threshold for people to 'like' a non-friend.

Google+ is inbetween these channels, filling the weaknesses of both: posts can be shared and re-shared indefinitely (if you want), pictures show up in your stream large enough to be appreciated and re-shared without leaving the stream, and following someone isn't such a big deal - there's no expectation that you'll be followed back and you won't know what they think their relation is to you (more like the real world)

One drawback with Google+ is that it's maybe too late, that most people have only the energy for one social network, which is a pity but understandable. Another drawback for me personally is that it's yet another aspect of my life in the hands of the same huge company.

My posts on Google plus