A funny thing happened to my social networking graph at the end of last year. The number of my Google+ followers outgrew my Twitter followers.
This isn’t a #humblebrag. I know my followers pale in comparison to others, such as Jason Calacanis, who has more than 600,000 people following him in a circle. Then there’s Robert Scoble. I’ve seen his Twitter and G+ scroll. It makes me dizzy.
Still, after only a couple of months, whether you like it or love it or don’t really care about another new social networking site, my Google followers have outnumbered those on my Twitter account. I’ve been on Twitter now for more than three years.
But with G+, I’m not convinced there’s a there there. At least not for the VC community. My VC circle is small. It has less than 100 people in it. Scoble has shared his VC circle, and it didn’t do much to expand mine.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The most influential VCs online are uber-bloggers Fred Wilson, Mark Suster and Brad Feld, according to a report issued last month by Boston-based expansion stage VC firm OpenView Venture Partners. The OpenView report, called “Social Media Mavens,” looked at VCs’ use of personal blogs, Twitter and Quora, the three channels it defines as most important for measuring online influence of investors. The study found that Dave McClure, whose 500 Startups is planning to raise a $50 million fund, ranks as the most influential VC on Quora, while Wilson is most influential with blogging and tweeting. Indeed, you can find a certain number of VCs online blogging and tweeting, but you won’t see them adding their +1 comments on G+.
The report didn’t look much at G+ other than to say that Hangouts and other Q&A live platforms are a great way to give investors and other influencers an opportunity to engage with the community who live in different geographies.
What do you think? Maybe it’s too soon to herald G+ as a channel for VCs?
Scott Maxwell, founder of OpenView, pointed out to me that VCs will use the social networks that the startup community uses. He suggests that G+ is perhaps still too new with people, including VCs. “Of course, if G+ comes out with the killer feature, it could dramatically accelerate the adoption. Google is doing a solid job of integrating its properties, including Android, search, YouTube, and G+, and I suspect it is only a matter of time before they find that killer feature.”
For now, I’m still trying it out, experimenting, as I do, with all the social networks that I can manage. If you want, you can follow me on G+ and we’ll try to build a VC circle together.
