The Google+ Equation: Follow Your Audience

This weekend, Google+ will likely hit 20 million users. In three weeks, they’ve caught up with Twitter, though they’re still far behind Facebook’s 750 million users. So what does this mean for nonprofits?

It’s tempting to jump on the newest trend. Grab a Google+ invite from the early adopter in your neighborhood and run with it. But before you do, I want to chuck my two cents into the fountain of blog posts on this right now…

Social networking sites only matter to nonprofits because of the real, socially responsible people using them. In the digital age, it’s easy to get TTV (trend tunnel vision) and forget about the real conversations about you on established social networking sites. The bottom line is, non-profits need to be where their people are; prioritize your presence on social media according to where your supporters are right now…not where they might be next week, or next year, or if they get an invite. Even the newest, shiniest trend may not be the best way for you to connect with the people representing and supporting your cause.

I say this not to discourage early adopters, and by all means if you have the resources to spend some time on Google+, do. But if you’ve got 30 minutes a day for social media, mastering Google+ may not be the best use of your time. Instead, I would track the success of Google+ among your target audience. Is your following talking about it on Twitter? Are your fans begging for invites on Facebook? Maybe you have an audience of early adopters, in which case you should reprioritize your social media presence and move Google+ to the top of the list. But if you have 5,000 fans on Facebook and 6 Google+ adds, I’d keep developing content for the audience that’s already talking about you, and be prepared to follow them (and their conversation about you) wherever they go.

And that’s my two cents for today.

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