Google Plus as a content reader

I've been trying out for the last few days - using Google+ as a content reader tool. With its new magazine layout on android devices, and lots of great circles to choose from, it brings content to me from people who are otherwise not available on other aggregators like Google Currents or Zite or Pulse.

I wonder how many others may have tried this. And if Google is able to get good no-nonsense content to Google+, it may attract no-nonsense users. It may not be able to compete with Facebook in terms of quantity of users, but can carve a good niche market for itself.

Social media is not radio

Many convential media folks who are used to the 'radio' mode of one way broadcast seem to miss out on the fact that to be successful in social media (especially twitter) one has to remember that this is a two way medium. Unless one engages the audience in two way conversations success will not be sustainable.

A simple metric to analyse this would be what percentage of your tweets are @replies, or the ratio followers to following. If these ratios are heavily skewed then one can be certain about long term unviability - if you don't listen and only talk you are doomed. There are some media folks who don't follow anyone at all! Need I say more?

Social Media for Marketers – Looking Beyond the Hype [blog at PaulWriter]

My take on the hype surrounding Social Media for B2B marketing at Jessie Paul's B2B Marketing blog