I like Google+. I think they’ve built a nice service, certainly eons ahead of Buzz. But Google+ has a problem. It’s called “173 > 3.” Not enough people are using it. I think competition is healthy (keep Facebook honest), so I sincerely hope G+ gains a stronger usership. Note that I did not say more “users,” which is a metric social platforms often cite. It is irrelevant how many people have signed up for the service. All of those people with Google+ accounts are currently over on Twitter and Facebook. Larry Page recently said Google+ has 90 million users. Have any of you asked the same question I have when using Google+: Where is everybody? (echo, echo…..)

I was talking with Jason Williams at lunch and told him my litmus test for Google+: I want to be able to say something meaningful on Google+ and get some kind of response within 5 minutes. Either a reply comment or a +1 would do. I can get that on Facebook. I can certainly get that on Twitter. I was getting that on Google+ when it debuted, because we were all on Google+ trying it out. Daily social media users are not sufficiently using Google+.

REALLY AWESOME POSTSCRIPT
After completing my blog post, Marc Brooks brought this doozy to my attention (sorry, ignore the repeat of the image above):

@RizzoTees … that’s nothing… how abut 924K > 794 for the VW Star Wars Invite twitter.com/IDisposable/st…

— Marc Brooks (@IDisposable) January 19, 2012

Yes, as of his screen capture, 924,000 people had Facebook liked the VW Star Wars Super Bowl invite, and 794 had +1′ed it. That’s over 116,000% more Facebook likes than +1′s. Google Hangouts are quite amazing, integration of Google+ in search results is neat, but these numbers are surely causing consternation at Google.

The Riverfront Times has released their 2012 Point+Clique Web Awards finalists. I am humbled to have been nominated in the category of “Best Use of Twitter to Promote a Personal Brand.”

I am also chuffed that our Save Pratzel’s campaign was nominated for “Best Use of Social Media for a Civic Campaign.” Falk Harrison won a BMA-TAM award for this work, and we’d be thrilled to be honored again.

Congratulations to all the finalists. We are up against some stiff competition. I am hoping and praying that the winners receive supercool circuit board sculptures like last year!

Several things of note:

1. Sorry for all the background noise. It was loud in City Coffee, and since I was a little self-conscious about doing a video, I didn’t speak loud enough.

2. Sorry for the up close shot. I suppose my forehead IS that big.

I am celebrating two anniversaries today – one traditional, and one less so. I started at Falk Harrison one year ago today. Thank you for keeping me on board for an entire year! I am so happy to be here and hope to get even more done in year two.

And thank you to David Siteman Garland, otherwise known as The Rise To The Top. Two years ago today, I met David for coffee, and he said something to me that changed the direction of my career. We were talking about social media, thought leadership, his career, etc., and I expressed a hesitance to offer my advice and expertise on the subject of social media. I was still a CPA at the time, living in secret at my old CFO job. I told him that I didn’t feel qualified to offer advice, because I had not accomplished anything yet – had not “hit the big time” or whatever. Because of that, I wondered why anyone would listen to me. David said, “Chris, who cares? You know your business, you know about social, so there’s no time like the present. Start sharing now. People will want to hear from you.”

From that moment on, I thought of myself in a different way. He convinced me that there was no perfect point in the future, with “X” amount of success achieved, to begin blogging and giving speeches and offering advice. Since then I’ve done almost 200 blog posts and have not looked back.

David, thank you for the advice. And Falk Harrison, thank you for the job.

P.S. The video below was shot exactly one year ago. I looked a bit different back then!

And yet I still have not read Hsieh’s book! It’s on my shelf, waiting for me. I suppose I shouldn’t say it’s a favorite of mine then.

Amazon affiliate links to each book:

The Art of Client Service: 58 Things Every Advertising & Marketing Professional Should Know, Revised and Updated Edition

The Thank You Economy

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

Benjamin Akande, dean of Webster University’s Walker School of Business and Technology, appeared on 104.9 KMJM‘s Sunday morning show. Near the beginning of this podcast (part 3 of his appearance), he gives me a nice shoutout.

I don’t know what else to say, except thank you Dean Akande! I’m humbled and really appreciate your friendship. Let’s keep trying to do great things for our employers Falk Harrison and Webster University, and for the entire St. Louis area.

Link to KMJM’s page with the podcast

But it is quite funny. Ever met any smooth talkers like this? RUUUUUUNN!

I need to focus on cloudsource integration with SEO keyword rich trend tracking on the mobile to mobile tablet-based client side with user testing from an analytics perspective. I think I’ll call it GizCrunk Media.