There’s no getting around it, Richmond likes a new shiny toy. In recent months RVA has been abuzz about Google+. Hatched on June 28, 2011, many Richmonders began taking the nascent social network for a test drive on an invite-only basis. With demand quickly spiking, RVA wasted little time debating how G+ stacks up against its Facebook rival.

Social media enthusiasts and the tech elite have since turned their attention toward new features, like Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Huddles. Within two weeks of its launch, Google reported 10 million users, followed by an announcement that it had reached over 25 million by week four. With figures like this, it’s no wonder that so many business owners and entrepreneurs are now looking at how Google and something like this chad kimball google maps course can help them when it comes to further boosting their online presence and profitability by using services provided by the platform. Due to the high numbers of people who are using Google, it would be a wasted opportunity to not give this a try yourselves. On the day the G+ iPhone app was finally launched it quickly became the most popular free application in the App Store, especially as users have the opportunity to access in app advertisements too, which have been implemented by the app developers.

GRID caught up with a handful of Richmond’s finest to make sense of this new digital landscape.

GRID: Google+ has caused a big ol’ fuss of late, managing to rack up over 25 million users in its first month. Does Google get a thumbs up or thumbs down in your book and why?

Eric Williamson – VP/Digital Strategy Director at The Martin Agency
Anything that is able to rack up 25 million users in a month deserves a thumbs up in my book. They have all of the ‘expected’ elements of a social environment and were able to execute a masterful launch with limited invites to the digirati to build massive buzz quickly. The interface is excellent in my opinion. Clean, fast, and intuitive.

Jonah Holland — PR & Marketing Coordinator at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, and President at Mox-eMedia:
Thumbs up for sure. The trick will be maintaining momentum when the market opens to Google+ Entity Profiles (brand pages) and keeping people interested while they are still figuring out all the cool stuff it can do.

Brad Carr — Technology Specialist at Feedback Agency:
Google+ gets a thumbs up from me because I’m a fan of how simple the posts seem. Everything falls into place on the stream and it’s all fairly uniform, like Twitter. Google has had the active user-count high enough to allow for plenty of evangelizing to go on, and the 25 million sign-ups mark is proof of that. With more input, the service could only get better, but there are some things that Google might not budge on, such as the pseudonym issue, that might tarnish it. But it won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

Copeland Casati — Founder and President of Copeland Casati Media
Thumbs up — there is currently less noise so there is a better opportunity to connect with those I want to reach. Just yesterday I had a great conversation with my favorite architecture writer.

GRID: Should the smarty-pants over at Facebook or Twitter be the most worried?

Eric Williamson
Obviously Google+ is on both of their radar screens at this point, but at this point I think Twitter has the most to worry about. The types and volume of connections that people are making on Google+ more closely resemble Twitter, and in my opinion Google+ offers a richer stream of information than Twitter can so they are at risk. It will be interesting to see how people position Google+ in their minds once the user base starts to expand beyond the early adopters. I suspect that the masses will see Google+ as more like Twitter than Facebook. It will be fascinating to watch Google+ grow from early adopters into the mainstream to see what factors and which groups of people – influencers — are the triggers to start the flood. So, Twitter should be scared…but Facebook should just keep them at bay and they should be fine.

Jonah Holland
Both should be worried. That’s the thing about Google+, it has the best of both worlds. The entertainment value and graphic appeal of Facebook, along with the accessibility of Twitter.

Brad Carr
Twitter shouldn’t be worried-much of its design is an affirmation of what’s been going on over at Twitter over the past two years. Google might’ve got the organization and collaboration done better from the get-go, but Twitter has been there first when it comes to micro blogging and social communication. Facebook should be worried as far as the personal portal is concerned-where Google+ does a great job of organizing and displaying content based on how users associate their friends. They get these separate feeds that-if they can train themselves to look at them individually-could allow the user to consume more content and miss less posts from users they’ve circled.

Copeland Casati
Facebook, but not just for Google+…hello, Anonymous on November 5th. Facebook’s constant privacy issues have eroded user confidence, while Twitter people are comfortable using multiple platforms to connect.

GRID: The ability to organize and target contacts using the Circles feature is pretty slick. How are you using your Circles?

Eric Williamson
The Circles are Google+’s shining jewel and definitely they are ‘slick’ as far as the visual representation of your various networks and the drag-n-drop interaction. They are not really a competitive advantage over Facebook since you can create ‘lists’ there too, but they definitely one-upped Facebook by putting them at the forefront of the experience. I have ten circles currently. Five of them are related to classifications related to my personal network — friends, family, last place of employment, current place of employment, etc — and I have about two hundred connections within them. Two of my circles are much more broad — Thought Leaders and AdGeeks — and have about twelve hundred connections within them. In looking through those two — Thought Leaders and AdGeeks — I noticed that they are closely aligned with who I follow on Twitter. I wrote a blog post about this at www.pixelmaverick.com on this topic.

Jonah Holland
I love that I can share about certain topics with certain Circles, but so far mostly it’s my social media circles who are on Google+. Family and other friends are slowly migrating there.

Brad Carr
I keep the circles pretty simple. I like that the control is there, but I’ve not found a real reason to post things to my circles yet. I like to think that content posted to specific circles isn’t private on Google+, it’s just not common knowledge.

Copeland Casati
I put people in categories like ‘data,’ ‘farming,’ ‘architecture,’ but I’m careful not to create a wall of noise even in my general stream. Similarly, I’m careful not to push too much content, too often, on Google+.

GRID: Business profiles are not currently supported by Google+, but how will life change for you when brand profiles are an option?

Eric Williamson
Google+ has the benefit of launching after ‘social media’ has become a major force in branding and advertising, so as soon as they open it up to brands they are going to flood in and setup shop. I think that brands entering the picture will be an important factor in drawing in the mainstream, and will probably piss off a lot of the purist early adopters at the same time. It will definitely affect my life since most of the brands we work with at The Martin Agency have a significant ‘social media’ effort as part of their overall advertising. Similar to how we have learned as we grow with brands and Facebook/ Twitter, I suspect we will spend the first year just testing things out and seeing what works with Google+. We are going to be busy.

Jonah Holland
When I signed up to be a beta tester of Google+ Entity Profiles one of the questions on the form was, if you are already on Google+ as a business, what is the link to your profile? To me it seemed like an invitation, so even though I knew the profile would be deleted I gave it a whirl. I think I will be better prepared when Google+ Entity Profiles launches, because I’ve already built a profile. In fact, this fall when it launches, I have a hunch they will re-activate my old profile and save my Circles & posts.

Brad Carr
Just as users have come to embrace the service, I fear businesses will do the same thing. On one hand, you can’t blame a business for wanting to get into the fray early when that floodgate is opened, but the implementation of branded pages are going to make or break the service. As with my personal stance on Facebook, if the advertising and the pressure to like things get too great, I’ll either start taking people out of my circles or eventually stop actively using the service.

Copeland Casait
Oh lordy, I don’t want to reintroduce the overwrought term ‘personal brand,’ but, really, who are we kidding? EVERY person on Google+ is already representing a clear larger business objective, with their personal…however, currently access to the person behind a business is magical…ah, Tom Anderson! I never knew The Myspace Guy could be so funny and self-depreciating! However will I be compelled to circle business brands enthusiastically on Google+? For myself, I doubt it. For now. I’ve already done so on Facebook and don’t want to add them here.

GRID: Many initial Google+ users buzzed about the user interface, touting its clean, easy-to-use features. What are your thoughts about its usability and what are your favorite bells and whistles.

Eric Williamson
The UI is excellent. I love the newsfeed and how clean and fast it is. The ability to shift your newsfeed by Circle is a nice touch as well, although I have noticed that I rarely filter down below the mainstream.

Jonah Holland
The photos section is beautiful. I love how large and intense all the photos are — and I like how you can catch the pulse of your Circles when you view the photo stream. I’m buzzed about Google+ instant upload for photos — but I’m still waiting for the iPhone version of that app. Right now it is only available for Android.

Brad Carr
Many Google+ users are touting the interface because it’s relatively not as junky as Facebook has come to be. There might be a bit of joy for the lack of ads being grouped in with the interface affection that users have for Google+, but it just strengthens the position that the service has as the biggest new kid on the block, so to speak.

Copeland Casati
I like Sparks similarly to check on news on subjects that interest me. Huddle, however, is not compelling…honeychile that would mean I’d have to brush mah hair!

I admit I use video calls often. For one biweekly call, our team is here, in France, Chile, and Luxembourg! But public huddles…meh. Value would be created if you could record and then embed on your own domain…workshops, interesting discussions that might occur…but to Huddle with the masses is harder to create, in my mind, good content. Having said that, however, programmers are rocking the huddles! So I see two groups, I guess: overly-social marketing people just kinda hanging out being huddle-y, with zero content, and then programmers huddling to brainstorm. But usually if you’re a programmer and brainstorming you often don’t want what you’re brainstorming on to be public…those are the huddles I’d want to join, ha, but isn’t that what Skype is for?

GRID: Google+ is in its infancy. What do you anticipate – or hope for – in future releases?

Eric Williamson
I anticipate that brands entering the Google+ picture will be a major factor in drawing the mainstream in to see what G+ is all about. I hope that Google+ makes some significant efforts to be different than Facebook rather than just making sure they have all of the FB elements checked off the list. It will be crucial for the viability of Google+ as a true competitor to Facebook that they have some real competitive advantage. Something unique that FB can’t just copy and release a week later. If they can’t do anything unique then I think that Google+ will stall out and never grow to Facebook numbers. The mainstream will need something very compelling to switch from FB to Google+ and I don’t see them switching over for the same offering – they will stay with FB where they have already invested so much time, pictures, memories, and connections.

Jonah Holland
People seem annoyed that if someone adds them to their Circles even if they don’t add them back, Google is encouraging them to read updates from those people under the ‘Incoming’ stream. I think that may need to be tweaked in a future release. Basically, in no time people will be just as comfortable with Google+ as they are with Facebook, but for now there is a learning curve.

Brad Carr
The elimination of the ‘Incoming’ posts being interspersed with my stream is pointing that Google+ might become the service of least convenience when it comes to digesting content which has me being pretty excited for what’s to come. The Hangout function has worked well in the handful of times that I’ve used it, but it’s not replacing Skype for quality yet. My forecast for Google+ is a mix of refinements and new functionality, not the least of which will be a gaming platform. When Google begins to roll out its branded solutions and platform features, it’d be worth giving the service another try if you’ve lost interest already or might lose interest during this phase of deployment. If it decides to feature heavily with the gaming platform then it may wish to delve into the online casino-based area, as this needs social media and gamification to help it become a sociable and connective space. Websites such as Social Barrel go into this with more depth and discuss how this is needed in today’s day and age with everything being digital.

Copeland Casati
More incorporation of Wave features would be really useful for business and collaboration.