Who Wants A Google+ Invite?

A few weeks ago I wrangled an invite to Google+ and now have some invites of my own to share. I thought I’d also offer a few thoughts for those of you who haven’t had a chance to get inside yet.

If you’d like an invite

  • Leave a comment below
  • when filling out the comment use the email you want the invite to be sent to
  • Your email doesn’t need to be a Gmail address
  • You will need to have or set up a Google account for the email address

I’ll send out invites to the first 50 people who ask for one, assuming there are 50 of you out there that want one.

Here’s my profile for those of you with an account who’d like to connect.

Screenshot of Steven Bradley's Google+ profile

Thoughts on Google+

I’ll spare you talk about what Google+ is or how it’s similar and different to other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. There’s plenty of information out there already that’s easy to find.

Instead I’ll offer some observations from my own use of Google+ these last few weeks.

  • I find myself checking in to Google+ more than I am other social networks
  • I find it easier to navigate and set up than Facebook
  • I like how circles makes it easy for me to send posts to different groups of people though Facebook is now adding similar controls
  • I like being able to follow people without them having to follow me back
  • Despite it’s quick growth there are far less people posting than joining

I’m following a little more than 100 people and about 40 people are following me. My network isn’t particularly large which could account for why I don’t see many people posting. Of the 100 I follow only 20 or so seem to post regularly.

On the bright side the number of people posting seems to be increasing and less people currently active means more opportunity to have a conversation and get to know others.

When I’ve sought out people to add to circles they tend to fall into one of several camps.

  • Internet celebrities
  • Internet marketers
  • Designers and developers
  • The generally tech and web savvy

Perhaps that’s more to do with my own interests than who’s really there, but understand that for now your mom isn’t there. Neither is mine.

While Google+ is growing it’s not mainstream yet. That may or may not be an issue depending on who you want to connect with.

I also find myself drawn more to the design of Google+ which makes better use of space and color than Facebook. That helps contribute to the easier navigation for me.

Why Google+

If you’re already on Facebook or Twitter you may be wondering why you should sign up for Google+

I’ll leave it to you to decide if Google+ makes sense for your personal life. It’ll probably depend on whether or not your friends are there or can be convinced to join you.

On the business side Google+ is still small so there’s opportunity to build up an influential account before the masses arrive, assuming the masses do arrive at some point. My guess is Google finally got social networking right enough that the masses will arrive in time.

Google has said a few times they look to social signals as a way to determine rankings. SEOmoz posted a few months back about how they were seeing a strong correlation between ranking and social signals. Correlation is not causation, but given how Google has said they do look at social signals it seems likely that what happens on social networks influences where web pages rank.

It also makes sense that Google will use data from their own network over data they might get from another network as they’ll have more and cleaner data from their own network.

Even without changes in ranking Google+ might already be influencing click through as results now show when your Google+ friends have +1d one of the results. You might even see the recommended content ranking better for you.

Google+ still hasn’t introduced business pages but they should be coming and again being an early adopter will probably put you in a better position once the mainstream arrives.

Closeup of an invitation

Who Wants an Invite?

Again I have invites to give out if you want in.. Just leave a comment below and use the email address you want me to send the invite to. It doesn’t need to be a Gmail account, but you will need to either have or create a Google account with a public profile in order to use Google+ with your preferred email address.

I’m guessing we won’t reach that 50 invite limit, but if there’s a large demand I’ll offer more in the near future. I want to hold some in reserve and also don’t want to overwhelm myself having to send them out so quickly.

Naturally if I do invite you I’d be happy to have you add me to a circle. Like I said there’s not a ton of conversation going on at the moment so we can easily connect.

93 comments

  23. Note that if you do use a Google+ account with your existing gmail account:

    * Google+ requires you use your legal name, with no nicknames

    * Google will disclose your profile name to all of your email contacts who also have Google+ because the profile is the same.

    If you use your gmail account for services for which you wish to remain anonymous, then don’t use your Google+ account with that gmail account. Google wants to link the two – your email to your social networking.

    Personally, I find this abhorrent. I don’t want my email linked to my social networking, and I use my email in places where I don’t want to expose my name. (The rest of the profile you can keep private, but you can’t make your NAME private apparently.)

    I had to cancel my google+ account because of this, and more importantly, Google failed to disclose that they were going to share my name with everyone who had my email address! ugh. Still, it’s in beta, so… maybe they just didn’t know the implications?

    Anyway. That’s one huge advantage facebook has as far as I can tell.

    I can’t WAIT for Diaspora!

    Reply

    • All good points and I agree with you about having to use your real name. I think Facebook wants you to use your real name too so I’m not sure there’s going to be a significant difference between the two down the line.

      I also use an email that’s not my gmail address for most Google services. I keep the gmail account completely separate.

      I do understand though why you would delete your Google+ account. I think their stance on the name/username is wrong and hope they change this.

      Diaspora will be interesting. The hard part is going to be getting enough people to know about it.

      Reply

  27. I am an Authorised Google Apps reseller in Aust, yet i haven’t managed to get an invite yet! Unfortunately, they don’t allow Google Apps accounts to use Google+ as yet, but i am keen to get on and have a good look around. levonau@gmail.com

    Thanks

    Reply

  31. Hi Steve, this is a great idea. I’m already in Google+, and I too, have invitations to give away. When you use yours up, feel free to send folks to my webpage. They can email me via the order page. (No, they don’t have to order anything.)

    I’ll definitely circle you. I also like your work, and your helpful, informative newsletter (when I have time to read it!).

    Reply

    • Thanks Carol. I figured I had the invites so why not use them and might as well give them to people who read here. It’s another way we can all connect.

      Oddly I don’t seem to be running out of invites. My account still shows the same 150 it started with. Maybe Google isn’t limiting them right now.

      By the way I did find you on Google+ and added you to a circle.

      Reply

  43. I don’t need an invite, but just would like to encourage more people to use Google Plus. It really is a great attempt at social networking by Google – light years ahead of Google Buzz, their last attempt at this sort of thing. I’ve been on for a while and love it. I find myself checking out my Google Plus a lot more than I do Facebook.

    Reply

    • Thanks Alex. Part of the reason for this post was to get people inside so they could use Google+ more. I hadn’t realized you were there, though not that I do I did a quick search and added you to a circle.

      Reply

  46. I have been searching high and low for an invite to google+, so if u do have any left over i would be eternally grateful and thank you for such a gesture i will add you to my contacts on there here is my email address spraytec@gmail.com thanks again in advance…

    Reply

  51. I would like an invite too please and I’d love to read a post of your thoughts for social networks future and their SEO impact on websites now that Google+ seems to become the new trend.
    Thanks

    Reply

    • Interesting idea for a post. I’ve answered the question on several forums already so maybe a blog post would be a good idea. I’ll make a note.

      I see you got the invitation and are inside Google+ too.

      Reply

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