Thing 8 Social Media Management Tools

Having accounts with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, I decided to try Google+ to see whether it offers anything compelling enough to add it to my list or to replace any of the other tools--which admittedly have not been all that active lately, especially in the case of Twitter, which I prefer to follow rather than to post my own information or ideas. From what I understand, Facebook is becoming boring to its teenage users, and it has always been boring to me: Looking at people's selfies or their kids or their pets or their parties or their latest vacation (especially since I haven't been on one for a while) does lose its charm after a few views. (Perhaps politically incorrect, I've often thought that a lot of social networking sites were little more than exercises in narcissism, and with the chronic displays of narcissism in sports (think Superbowl), entertainment, etc., more opportunities for narcissism may create an epidemic of ME! ME! ME!) LinkedIn, as a networking source, doesn't seem relevant to me in education, where there are already MEMO--I mean ITEM--and EdPost, and other listservs. So onward to Google+ . . .

Google+: Before exploring the app, I read three reviews that were all glowing, which is a good sign, but, depending upon who wrote them (i.e. Google employees), I remained somewhat skeptical. After all, while it received a 4+ rating, so did Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

My review: Let me express a bias. Generally, I've been impressed by most things Google: Gmail, the Chrome browser, Google Maps, Google Alerts, (not so much Google Scholar) and Google Earth. So I go into this exploration of Google+ with relatively high expectations. After signing up, I read a notice that Google+ would back up all the photos in my iPad camera and privately archive them, which is a nice service in case I ever need to refer back to them. When I first entered the homepage, I experienced a Pinterest-like deja vu with an overwhelming array of photos and sidebars and wasn't quite sure what to do next. The menu at the bottom of the page provided some guidance; it listed Photo, Location, Link, and Write. They were easy and useful to use. The menu on the left also helped the user navigate around the site. Beyond that the site contained communities and trending topics and a lot of things that looked similar to other popular homepages. Again, as with several other apps, Google+ creates opportunities using Following, Acquaintances, Friends, and Family for sharing in a Facebook-like fashion. The user can even create an event to see whether others are available to attend. Perhaps my favorite part: Animal videos with people texting captions. Funny, cute, edgy. Google+ lives up to its rating of 4+. In the school setting, Google+ could be useful for collaborating and gathering information for group work, reference, and studying purposes. I'd be curious to know how many teachers incorporate it into their courses and how the students respond to it. I could imagine that Google+ could be used as a content manager in a class that studies trends or current events or updates on the latest changes in such topics as science, technology, or engineering. I could even imagine that a media specialist could use it to track trends in reading--hot new books, and the like. Clearly, there are productive possibilities.