Should Focus be worried about Google Plus?

Since I exceeded the 4,000 character limit, here is part 1.

In my view no. But it will be interesting to hear what Scott has to say about your question.

The Focus website (this part of the bigger Focus business strategy) serves a particular purpose and does it well. It brings together a large community of people who are interested in the professional insights and opinions of the other members of the community. Here's things that Focus does well:

- Maintains an atmosphere of professionalism by paying close to and managing "spam" and off-topic content. One might argue that this is censorship. I argue that it's just good business. I come to Focus for business context and content, and if that means Focus needs to filter out noise then I am happy with that.

- Provides a decent (won't give them an A+ yet) framework for organizing business interests and topics. I've given Focus quite a bit of feedback in this area and they are implementing some of my suggestions and as well as those from other community members. But for now it's pretty good and will improve over time.

- Actively engages with its members. I have established strong relationships with many of the Focus community managers and feel comfortable asking their opinions and insights on different topics. In return, they provide good industry exposure for me through their events and social media participation (e.g., Twitter). They are very attentive and it reflects well on the company persona.

- Creates a robust delivery channel for the dissemination of quality industry analysis. The number of weekly round-tables and webinars is pretty impressive. They also do a good job of advertising these events.

- Provides a mechanism to improve and promote your personal and professional brand. Of course, you have to actively participate and commit to contribute to the community, but once you do the opportunities for exposure are very good, and provide a very nice professional context.

- Provides a rich learning environment. The credentials of the advisors, experts and community members at large are pretty impressive. There must be about a trillion "person years" worth of experience inside the Focus community, just waiting to be tapped. So if you want to learn about a topic just ask a question.

Part 2 to follow...

Part 2...

That's not to say that Focus is perfect in every way. They have areas for improvement, especially in the management of community and industry topics. But they're getting there. I've had the opportunity to meet Scott Albro and quickly learned that he is interested in the opinions and feedback of the community members. The whole company listens. Try finding the person inside Google to talk to about improving Google+...

On the competition front, I see Google+ as an open forum for just whatever you want to talk about today. Facebook for the "tech savvy". Nothing wrong with that - we need Google+ to provide a forum for people who want to express opinions about everything. But I think as it grows it will start looking and acting more like Facebook. As you know, they are working on "celebrity" pages now. That's great, but that's not what I am personally looking for when I want insight and opinion on industry topics. And you've heard me mention more than once my views on the "signal to noise ratio" of Google+. I still believe that Twitter may have more to fear from Google+ than a forum like Focus.

Quora. Too open-ended and free-for-all for my tastes. An interesting model, but I really don't care about topics related to baking muffins or how to fix the breaks on a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Just too much noise to filter through to find the topic of interest.

Gerson Lehman Group (GLG) G+ (Not to be confused with Google+ "G+" shortcut). A very nice interface (from which Focus can learn some things - take note Nipun...), but a very small community comprised almost entirely of GLG staff at this point. Lots of good topics, but very little meaningful content at this point. Lacks the tight control that Focus has placed on spam and off-topic posts and comments. But, could be a serious challenger in the future if the community grows.

So, a long answer to a question that simply could be answered by saying "no". But I think Focus deserves some credit for the great platform/forum they provide. Good work!

Except you need to get rid of the 4,000 character limit for windbags like me... :)

Not at all.
Sure Google+ is sucking the oxygen out of some platforms now but once the API is open Focus can take advantage of being able to integrate and take the best from what it has to offer as well as other social platforms.

G+ is not designed to be a resource for Q&A or as a resource for information and there will always be a need for sites such as this one where people can go for focused information.

To answer this question, it's important to understand that Google+ and Focus are two very different things. Google+ is meant to be a social network where people with pre-existing social connections or shared interests can connect or follow each other. In this respect, Google+ is less concerned with the content and media that users share on the platform. Users can share almost anything they want. Focus takes the opposite approach. The site and community are specifically designed to focus on business and technology expertise and the content and media formats that best convey that expertise. Focus does have social attributes and features, but Focus will never try to be a dominant social network a la Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In fact, look for Focus to increasingly leverage integration with those networks.

Having said that, to the extent that Google+ is a network that attracts the attention of business and technology professionals, it is a risk to Focus in that those same professionals will have less time to spend on Focus. We haven't seen that in the data though. That's because media consumption isn't a zero sum game and because of the different purposes the sites serve.

And thanks to everyone for the answers here.

What should Focus be worried about yet to prove Google +.....Focus is unique in many ways and I bet that Google+ is going to add some more people to it.

"Don't Worry Be Happy"

well, yes because Google plus is trying to expand the website. Already Google is the most popular search website, focus isn't that popular so yea, everyone's first thought would be to search Google plus. So yes, focus should most definitely be worried