If you're a brand manager, marketer or business owner using social media to spread the gospel according to your company (and who isn't these days?) then the chances are you've had a dabble with Google Plus. And then, in the UK at least, probably put it down and walked away again.
The problem with Google's latest attempt to break the stranglehold on the social media space held by Facebook is the same as every previous effort (anybody remember Buzz?) - they're too late to the party and often seem to have rushed through a product to get it to market too quickly.
Personally, before it looks like I'm doing too much Google Plus bashing, this platform is actually one of my favourites. I'd happily give up Facebook and Twitter and move my entire online activity to Google+ but the problem is that most people who have looked at it have thought "it's not offering me anything different to Facebook; why change?"
So, from a personal user's perspective, it's a bit of a damp squib; from a business's point of view, however, Google+ could easily be the most powerful brand marketing platform out there, if Google could just tie it up to their massive search database and plethora of location awareness tools more neatly.
For example - my business has a Google Plus business page, in which I can do all the same sorts of editing as I can within my Facebook business page. But my business also has a Place page that shows up in Google Maps. Why can the two not be the same, thus tidying up the number of online presences my site has that I need to update and, at the same time, ensuring that all my updates appear in any Maps or generic Google search? Even the process of verifying your business page uses archaic technology, with Google posting a post card to you with a pin number on it for you to verify you really do own the business.
Furthermore, to update the Place and Business pages you have to be on a full web browser. Frustrating if you've got something to announce but aren't near a PC. As a publican, I'm often looking to announce my latest beer that's on tap, or an upcoming event or an offer we've just launched. Twitter and Facebook allow me to do this quite quickly, even if a thought occurs to me while I'm tapping barrels in the cellar, but not, unfortunately, Google+.
That's all about to change, however, with Google releasing the latest version of the Plus app with the announcement that we can now update business pages from our mobile devices.
You'd not believe the level of childish excitement this gave me as I quickly downloaded the update and set about having a play. Only to find that I didn't appear to have access to my business page via the app...
A quick search revealed that, in order to access this feature, you have to sign out of your account on the phone and back in again. Fair enough if that's a one-off to activate the feature, but this doesn't appear to be the case.
To get to your business page via the mobile app you must sign out and back in again. The app will now ask you to choose which page you'd like to update, personal or business, and will then log you in. Once you've done that, however, if you then want to go back to reading your personal stream or make an update on your personal page, you've got to log back out and back in, making the choice again.
So, Google Plus's latest version of their mobile app does give you the chance to update your business or brand's page whilst on the move, but the mechanism is clumsy.
If you're an ardent Google+ fan and want to see Google's endeavours in social media succeed then you'll struggle along but sadly, I suspect, most brand and business marketers will continue, like water, to find the easiest route to get their message out to their fans, followers and page likers.
Back to the Facebook app for me, then. Back to the drawing board for Google.