Now that I have my iPhone wired for sound, I do a majority of my tweeting and facebooking through the apps that I use. I use Instagram, which connects to my Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, and FourSquare account. I use Hipstamatic and it connects and posts to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Flickr, I use Posterous and it will cross-post to Twitter and Facebook. I use FourSquare and it posts to Twitter and Facebook as well; and I have started using GetGlue recently and I can check in to FourSquare as well as post to Twitter and Facebook. Even my RunKeeper app posts to Twitter and Facebook.
Hey, Google! Your Google Plus app isn’t anywhere to be found in this ecosystem of social media apps. What’s up with that? Is there a grand conspiracy that is keeping you outside the fold? Or are you just not putting the resources into campaigning with full commitment toward getting included in these apps that I use every day?
At first, I would post or check in separately to Google+, using the photos taken on Hipstamatic or Instagram, but recently I don’t really want to go through the trouble. The longer I use my iPhone, the more temperamental the iOS gets and the longer the latency required to actually post something. So, when I am short on time or with people, I will generally take a quick Instagram and get my Instagram family as well as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, and FourSquare in one shot — sorry Google+.
Convenience will always trump loyalty
So, what’s the theory here? I don’t think that “separate but equal” is going to work long-term. If Google intends for people to jump ship and commit 100% to Google+, then they’re pulling yet another Google Answers, Google Wave, Wiki Search, Dodgeball, Jaiku, and Google Buzz — R.I.P.
So, unless this strategy actually has a semblance of a historical track record of success, I really believe that Google needs to task some of their vetted rock stars and send them out and about into the world in a mad attempt to convince all the designers of the abovementioned apps — and more, across not just the Apple iPhone iOS but also to Windows Phone, Blackberry and Android — to integrate Google+ into their apps immediately because when you’re mobile and struggling with carriers, bandwidth, and operating systems, the path of least resistance always wins, and you Google cats are not making it easy (enough) for anyone.
For what it’s worth, this plea is completely selfish: I really want a little icon I can click when I post from my various and sundry location-aware mobile apps myself. But I have a feeling we’d all be way more likely to integrate the G+ capabilities we already have by virtue of having a Gmail account if it weren’t such a pain in the backside to do anything with Google+ when you’re spending the majority of our time doing other things on our phone besides squatting in the Google+ app.
Chris Abraham is a partner in Socialmedia.biz. Contact Chris via email, follow him on Twitter and Google Plus or leave a comment below.
