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Google Plus has allowed me realize the moderate dreams I had of using Path. I credit the redesigned app for this. Do a bunch of random people I vaguely met once comment on my posts? Nope. Is there a strange core group that keeps it an interesting place to take in content and opinions? Yep.

Yet, Google Plus has proved more interesting than Path. I follow many brands and news sites in a Twitter-like fashion. I push a chunk of my posts to the public at large. I can also, however, drill down and only see interesting posts filtered by relation or topic. 

Is Google+ a ghost town in comparison to Facebook or Twitter? Yep. Have they managed to continually drive me to interact with people on this site because of the much better signal to noise ratio? Hell yes. 

I will admit that this is probably not how Google envisioned G+. They probably thought it was going to go head-to-head with Facebook. It ended up being a strange mix that resembles a media-rich early version of Twitter. The geeks are there. A small cohort of interesting people interact with me there. I like it there.

Some G+ Follow Picks

Here’s a nice group of relatively active, quality Google Plussers to follow. Add them to a circle and enjoy the flowing content.

*A contributor to the very blog you are reading.

A post by Parker recently inspired me to create an action-items list for my social media accounts if I were to become suddenly incapacitated for an extended period of time. So, internet friends, here is what I want to happen if I am incapacitated and my name is printed somewhere that would inspire Google searches.

  1. Lock down my twitter account.
    Make it private. No need to delete my inane posts about stupid things like Smash drinking games, GOP debate drinking games, and awkward party drinking games—just, make them a little less easy to find.
  2. Delete my main Tumblog and redirect that URL to some charity site.
    There are enough links back to my blog to do some good—just not any good for my comatose ass’s reputation.Side note: the #1 post on my blog is a copy and pate job I did in 2008 from the Facebook list of birthdays. Thanks vanity searches!
  3. Point journalists to my LinkedIn and G+ accounts. Those are leastembarrassing.
    Or, point them to my Path account. Basically, I get in trouble when I interact with people. Human interaction brings out the worst in me. These internet waste-lands are either blather about music I listen to and overly filtered photos or blather about the news/TV and comments from Nicki and Ahmaud*.
  4. Go nuclear with my Facebook account. 
    I recently reset my Facebook account and it’s already an embarrassing cesspool of Youtube videos and awkward exchanges I thought would be funny at the time.** We would all be better off without Facebook—I just need it to plan trips and events.

*Whenever I read his full name, I get that Mr. Templeton song from 30 Rock stuck in my head.

**Note to self: it’s never funny a week later.

This is the social pattern of our generation.

The one thing that no one can critique Lady Gaga for is that she is a marketing genius. Her ability to bend the will of her adoring “monsters” has lead to some of the most ground-breaking accomplishments in social marketing.

The 25-year-old is no stranger to success on the web. She remains a heavyweight on major social networks: In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.

The promotional juggernaut further ramped up her all-encompassing web presence, fostering partnerships with Zynga for the FarmVille-inspired GagaVille, Starbucks for a massive scavenger hunt, VEVO for exclusive premieres, HBO for a concert special, Rdio for free lifetime subscriptions, iTunes for a promotional countdown, Best Buy and Livestream for an album signing and Gilt Groupe and Amazon Cloud Player for deals.

You can read the rest of the article on Mashable.