I have been a fan of Google+ since it came out as I like the clean interface. I have not been a fan of Facebook or as I lovingly call it Spambook. Both serve a purpose for me and I consider them both as tools. While everyone and their grandmother in the tech industry likes pitting one against the other I just don't care who will win the battle of the social networks. I already consider that game to be over but it is not what you think.
Facebook has a gazillion users I get that and Google+ has only just begun to get started but as I see it Google+ is the winner. Maybe this is the geek side of me talking but I am finding the level of interaction on Google+ to be way higher than that on Facebook. Most people use Facebook to play games and talk to the people they didn't like in High School but for me it is just a marketing tool.
For each website I run I have a Facebook fan page. Most of the fan pages are failures as I didn't exactly set them up to have interaction, I set them up mostly as placeholders and see what works and what doesn't. Since Facebook has a huge audience it only seems right to get people from Facebook to the website of my choice. From there it is up to me to market to them. My goal with Facebook traffic is to get that person on to my newsletter list. That is also the same with Twitter since Google+ opened. Once the person is on my email newsletter list I can market to them over and over.

I have met more people over at Google+ that are sharing what they are doing that even I am amazed. I have set up a few business pages and they are still too new to talk about but I am encouraged by them. Most of my post in the future will probably contain some sort of Google+ tips that I have picked up. Last week I was at Ad Tech and the Google+ team had a booth there and I showed them something they didn't know about Google+. Needless to say it was a lot of fun.
The Battle of Social Networks Has No Winner!
Facebook can be the big winner in the social networking space because Google+ is not a social network. Yes I said Facebook is the winner because Google+ is a destination network. I can hear you saying “Vinny, what is a destination network?” Let me explain.
A few weeks ago I set up a second computer and didn't realize how much I really used Google. Even though they forced me to sign up for a new Gmail account because I am an apps customer, that pissed me off but I still gave Google+ a chance. My second computer sits with Google+ open and since I did that I started using Google+ for my calender, and then I started using the YouTube button for watching educational videos. When I need to search for something I am using the Google+ search engine. I find searching using Goggle+ so much cleaner and I can't exactly figure out why I like it better than Google search. Maybe it is because there is no adwords on it and it tells me stuff I want to actually know about. This week they added Trends to the side of the search engine which gives me breaking news as I search.

Google Photos is one of my favorite things. Not only does my droid phone upload to it automatically the pictures just look better. I have been following some of the best photographers in the world on Google+ and have learned so much my brain hurts at times. This past week I started following a group of people that use the same DSLR camera as me.
Since I am in the market for a new tripod I asked them what they use and learned that the expensive model I was looking at was a waste of money and 8 out of 10 use a certain model. Guess what I am going to be buying? If I asked this same question on Facebook people would be telling me they know Radio Shack sells tripods. Not exactly the best information.
Google Hangouts
Like I said above I am following some great photographers on Google+. Most photographers noticed the great job Google is doing and jumped on board early. A couple that I follow do Google+ hangouts and when they do you are lucky to get in. They share tips and how they got some of their award winning shots. Trey Ratcliff has one of the better hangouts and it is always full of other pro photographers. He also records them and puts them on YouTube so these tips are shared forever.
I have been using Google docs to help write the book I am working on. I can play a song or two on YouTube while I open Google docs and write a chapter of the book. I am also using Google docs to track the maps and data in my getting healthier effort. The My Tracks app on the droid allows me to send the data from my rides to a doc. More and more that I use Google+ I realize there is no battle for social media network, it all comes down to how you use them. If I feel like playing mafia wars I will use Facebook, if I want to actually get work done I will use Google+. Come follow me!
I am trying to get my blog going and just listened to a podcast from Blogging ABC’s (episode #17 on using social media for blogging). I thought I would come over and check out your blog, and I’m very glad that I did! I am not very fond of Facebook, but was considering it a necessary evil for my blog. Thank you for your review on Google +! Very helpful, and I will be looking into how to set one up. Thank you again.
Thanks for the nice comment!
I have never been a fan of Facebook and you should still be there and Google+ if you can. If you need any help setting up Google+ let me know I would be glad to help you.
I have fan pages on Facebook and without them I would lose a lot of traffic to my sites. I also setup a couple of “fan” pages on Google+ and a personal page. The problem many people are going to have is understand it versus Facebook. Personally I don’t understand the different circles, what hangouts are and then how to get people to join your business page on Google+. I have people following me on Google+ but no one is following me on the pages over there even though I have been advertising it on my site.
So, do we wait until Google+ gets really growing to see if it will be good to promote our blog or just use it for personal use.
Great review for both big social network sites. I too love to use Google plus because it is cleaner and faster. I know users of that site is not really that big compares to Facebook but for some reason there are advantage of this Google + tool.
Sounds good.. you can also follow my Google + Eyewebmaster