My First Experience with Google Plus!

I have been wanting to write this post for a few days but got distracted by my busy life schedule as a teacher.  Today seems a perfect day to do it.

I first heard about Google Plus from a Facebook friend by the name of Nicola D. who lives in Italy.  He has a post on his wall about how Google was aiming at setting up a social net work site that is very similar to Facebook.  I was totally intrigued by what he said and after that I did a bit of reading on the net about the whole thing and I left it at the point.  The next day when I got up from bed, I found out that Google Plus was there for real and Nicola was sending out invites.  I was too late as his invites were all gone!  I felt a little disappointed because I want to be part of it.  Two days later, I tried signing up on G+ without any invite and wah la--BINGO! I got in!  What followed that was unbelievable!  I played with it and circled all the friends that I know very well and of course, Nicola was one of them.   It didn't look very user friendly at first but then I got the hang of it and  after that, it was a journey of no return from here.  I have to say Google Plus totally rocks! Awesome! Awesome!

The privacy feature of Google Plus is most impressive!  Now I can add my family members without offending anyone.  I can post stuff that I want to whatever circle that I prefer.  I have a school circle which consists of only educators and a close friend circle that I can share all things about my life and they won't mind.  And more, I have a crazy circle that consists of people whom I think are geeks and nerds that I can learn stuff from.

Inorder to pay forward, I have also send out invites to my good friends who want them and this make feel good because this is what social networking is about!  Thank you for coming by, my courteous readers! If anyone need any invites, please leave a comment or follow me on G+.

The photo below shows the cup of coffee that I had on Friday at a cafe in Auckland.  I requested Melissa who made the coffee to put the Google plus sign on it--just for fun.  Melissa was thrilled to do it.  She said in her 5 years of working there, nobody had ever made any personal requests before me.

Seth Godin Speaks on Social Networking and its implication!!

Seth Godin has been described as a person who 'writes the most popular marketing blog in the world'. If you google him, it says that 'he is the author of the bestselling marketing books of the last decade' and that he often 'speaks to large groups on the media about marketing'.

Now what has that to do with me, a primary school teacher who has no intention of going into marketing business ? A friend of mine, Maynas Eric Chua is forever mentioning him in his tweets and I have decided that I have to read and learn about Seth Godin and why Seth has been admired by so many people.

When I was researching about Seth Godin, I came across a video in which Seth Godin speaks frankly about social networking. He was talking about marketing all the time but the important thing is that he mentions how the relationship that we have built while twittering is the most important thing that helps us in our social life. It is this relationship which has been built on the basis of trust that will help us in our career and social life. I had to laugh because he said that now that he has so many friends, he can come to New Zealand and would easily find a place to stay.

Now, I am thinking about my own experiences and how I have some very good twitter friends as well as Facebook friends. I was told by my Singaporean twitter friends if I ever land on Singapore, I will be swamped by them and that they all want to see me.
Now that's really something and something that would not have happened if I have not been on Twitter. At the same time, my New Zealand twitter friends are just as generous. I have invitations waiting for me to have dinner and coffee with them when we go to Christchurch for the Ulearn ICT conference later on in October this year.

I have hereby embedded Seth Godin's video on social networking for you to enjoy.