Ray speaking at Social Media Breakfast Montreal July, 2012
…WHY?
My fellow Montrealer, Frédéric Harper, who is the Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Canada, asked me that question during my talk at Social Media Breakfast Montreal this week.
To be fair, I had prodded it out of him since he had presented it to me before I had made my way to the microphone.
While there were a few “how to” questions about Google+, this one is by far the most asked.
As consultants and small business owners, we have a hard time keeping up with the platforms we already have. It’s challenging to come up with a compelling reason for investing time in yet another one.
I don’t think that I convinced Frédéric, but I do look forward to the next opportunity to try
As this event was billed as an open forum and not the usual power point presentation, I’m including a Slide Share of talking points I created to ignite conversation.
Jeff Taylor, who began the Montreal SMB in 2009 was the host and interviewer. His passion for social media is infectious which is why I’ve enjoyed going to Social Media Breakfast since the fall of 2010. (It inspired me to do a video about it a year ago)
Because I have spent many years as an arts administrator, the “conversation” started with a discussion of social media and the arts
I presented a couple examples of artists who have increased their reach through Google+ Hangouts such as Daria Musk who was an early adopter and now has over a million and a half people who follow her. Many participate in her regular “performance” hangouts.
She is one of the featured people in this Google+ Voice video:
I also referred to my personal experience as a General Manger to illustrated how Google+ circles would have been a great resource for managing communications with sponsors, donors and project teams.
Establishing quorums for Board of Director meetings would have been easier had we been able to hold them via Google+ Hangouts.
All in all, we had a very engaging chat over breakfast. The informality and relaxed ambience facilitates conversation and interaction.
And isn’t that what social is all about?
Sample Interview Question Plus SlideShare of Talking Points:
Q – You use several different SM platforms. Are there any topics that you discuss that you don’t share on particular platforms? Or, do you push everything you produce out via all platforms?
A – What I decide to publish on each platform depends on the nature of the platform and who I’m interacting with.
For example, LinkedIn is a professional platform, so I share links and engage in groups that are relevant to social business: ie. freelance tips, social media tools, recent business news.
I wouldn’t share business posts on my personal Facebook page as that is my space for chillin’ with family & friends.
The reason I opened a Facebook Page was to spare them my social media obsession
Twitter is a bit of a free for all, but I use it mostly to share links to articles that I think my followers will find interesting. I also interact with many peers there.
Approximately 85% of my posts on Google+ are public which means they are indexed by Google and show up in searches.
I post to my circles when I want to communicate directly with people about a specific subject. These posts are not indexed; think of them as email.
Ray Hiltz is a Social Media Strategist with management roots in restaurant, hotel and performing arts.
A strong proponent for the power of collaborative communication and "humanized" digital networking, Ray writes about social media, social business and Google Plus.
His clients include hotels, restaurants, consulting firms, entrepreneurs, writers and individuals just trying to make sense of "social".
Ray is a popular speaker on Social Media, Social Business and Google+.
This entry was posted by Ray on July 5, 2012 at 18:43, and is filed under social media. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
G+ is certainly coming into its own. Hangouts are just getting better and better as they add new functionality.
I'm a big Google fan but even if I wasn't my opinion would be the same. Hangouts are amazing, the technology is great. From a quality, cost and software perspective it is becoming a much better option than say Skype. Skype id becoming so bloated - it is far from the great product it used to be. Microsoft beware ;)
I agree. Hangouts have a lot of potential and it's clear that Google is investing a lot into making it a viable contender to not only Skype but other webinar software with the general release of Hangouts on Air.
