¶ Twitter, Not Facebook, Should Fear the Google+ Beard

This was cross-posted on Google+

A lot of the hoopla over Google+ has been whether it’s a threat to Facebook. However, it’s Twitter who should fear the Google+ beard. Here’s why…

Social media networks have typically have one of two lineages - not both. They either first catch on with teens and twenty-somethings or they catch on with nerds (of which I count myself as one). Eventually there’s overlap.

Group A Graduates (Youth) Friendster, MySpace, Facebook and now Tumblr I would argue

Group B Graduates (Geeks) Blogs, Twitter, Friendfeed (RIP) and now Google+ I would say

I am seeing a lot of the same patterns here as when Twitter took off at SxSW several years ago. Except this time it’s much faster! Media, brands and celebs are jumping in. And, by it’s nature, Google+ can be a much more public network than Facebook will ever be.

In the end we only have two eyes and one brain. That means there’s not enough time for all the screens and services in our lives. Twitter has a huge share of it now, but in one week, I have already seen that it is losing share of my mind and that of all my nerdy friends… to Google+. Shiny object syndrome? Maybe. But it’s the first inning.

My read: Twitter should be scared, very scared. Lose the small core who create most of the compelling content and you lose it all.