Dear Google,
The reason why nobody is using Google Plus is because there's nobody else using Google Plus. And the reason why nobody is using Google Plus is because there's no content in Google Plus. And the reason why there's no content in Google Plus is because A) there's no audience for directly-created content and B) there's no easy way to add other content creation feeds that people are creating anyways.
Take Facebook. I don't use Facebook. I don't like Facebook. But there are a couple of people out there who do use Facebook, but don't use Twitter. For whatever reason. However, I can add my Twitter content to my Facebook content. Now, I'm generating Facebook content, which encourages people to interact with me, which encourages me to check Facebook periodically. Now I'm technically a Facebook user. All because I'm able to send my Twitter content (which is easy for me to generate) to Facebook. I win, the people who only use Facebook win, and Facebook wins.
Who's missing from this discussion? Google Plus.
I'm a Twitter user. That's where I am today. That's where the bulk of my audience is, and where I can arrange things so that the rest of my audience can find things (ie: Facebook integration).
But since I can't even get my Twitter content added to Google Plus, I can't even get my foot in the door. Or you can't get my foot in the door, to mangle the metaphor.
So: if you make it easy for me to add my already-created content to my Google Plus feed, my feed will start having more regularly generated fresh content. Which increases the likelihood that people will read it here. Which increases the likelihood that I'll be back here to interact with them.
Which increases the amount of time I'm back here using it.
Which means: you'd win.
So in conclusion: make it easy for the content I'm generating anyways to get added to the content my Google Plus followers can see. And maybe, just maybe, there'll be people using Google Plus.
But if you don't make it easy for me, I'm not going to do it.
Love,
Me.
(Originally posted on Google Plus.)
