What could be more fun than a new social media platform?

Google+ network has arrived and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

We wanted to know if it would benefit our clients and their brand popularity in any way.

At first glance, we were not highly impressed with its features, however, after a few days of tinkering with it, we are happy to report that this new social media platform is not only a good way to promote your brand, it is a good and practical business alternative to Facebook.

Did we mention, it is extremely fun to use?

It is becoming a matter of fact that people are being increasingly frustrated by Facebook’s recent attempts to fill every available nook and cranny with paid advertising. This advertising is often misplaced, misguided and socially irresponsible.

Facebook has become the proverbial social media marketing dumping ground.

What happens when you put garbage in? You usually get garbage out. When this happens, people begin to seek newer and cleaner places to hang out in- Google is going to be the coolest place for professionals to “hang.”

Less personal than Facebook, Google+ has a highly professional feel to it.

I will be honest, I was never very comfortable adding potential contacts to my Facebook account. As a social media manager, that is a hard pill to swallow. If you want to promote your brands and fan pages, adding contacts is the best strategy. I did not feel as though I had a choice in the matter.

It just seemed like strangers had way too much access to my personal information. I did not want work acquaintances to be able to access pictures and information of my family or friends families for obvious security purposes. I certainly did not want them to associate me with some of the stupid antics that my friends are capable of.  A guilty by association kind of thing.  In the end, I had to give in, even though I never really felt it was a wise decision or something I was completely comfortable with.  In a sense, I just went along with the crowd.

This is not the case here in Google+ land. From a business standpoint, this is a more effective tool. In fact, you can easily separate friends, family and contacts from ever seeing information about one another.

As a result, I have personally increased my network by more than 100 people in less than two days because I am no longer worried about adding potential contacts.  I am growing my networking at a steady pace.

Attached to more professional social media platforms like LinkedIn, you begin to see the valuable of Google+ from a social media marketing standpoint.  You can easily gain authority for your personal or company brand within its framework.  It just makes a whole lot of sense to separate your life into separate circles of people.

Some things were never meant to connect and one of them is business and pleasure.  Move over Facebook, there is a new kid in town and he is a bit more fun to be around.