Google+ Faces Hurdles on its Ascent

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Google’s direct entry into the social networking arena only exacerbates that.

But beyond the obvious consumer realm, the next biggest thing could be a social networking space for businesses. To date there’s only one social network that has had success in this area, LinkedIn, which saw an $8 billion IPO in May.

Google has already shown its inclination to go into business networking, saying its service would be “amazing” for businesses. They key was it would happen at a later date, so Google deleted profiles of businesses off Google+, causing a mild uproar that Facebook happily milked.

Facebook rolled out “Facebook for Business,” which teaches companies how to use the site’s “powerful marketing tools” to create a Facebook Page, build relationships with members of the Facebook community, and use Facebook Ads and Sponsored Stories.

While not necessarily being new, as businesses already use Facebook, the announcement focused on how businesses could further take advantage of Facebook. The timing, however, perfectly highlighted Google’s stumble.

Broader Challenges

The decline, however small, shows the challenges Google faces as it attempts to break into the already crowded social networking space.

While Google+’s rate of growth is unrivaled, the social network is still small in comparison to mature rivals Facebook and Twitter, which have 750 million and 200 million registered users, respectively.

Google also needs to take steps to ensure that its new offering doesn’t follow the same fate as its predecessors: Google Buzz and Google Wave.

While those sites saw initial interest, participation waned and the projects were eventually pulled.

“[Google+'s] ultimate success will depend on how well it converts this strong trial base into regular users,” ComScore’s Andrew Lipsman warned.

Indeed, while rivals like Facebook and Twitter have become online destinations in themselves, over 50 percent of traffic coming to Google+ originates from Google or Gmail.

Facebook also enjoys stronger user engagement than Google+. In the increasingly competitive digital marketing environment, advertisers are concerned with not only reach and targeting, but also how long users are interacting with the site.

The time users spent on Google+ saw a decrease last week by 10 percent, with users spending an average of 5 minutes 15 seconds on the site.

“The 10 percent drop seems somewhat big, but in reality it is not,” Tatham said, saying he believes that would “continue to grow.”

In comparison, Facebook users on average spend 55 minutes on the site per day, according to Facebook’s self-reported statistics.

And while Google CEO Larry Page told investors the site has already amassed 10 million users, HitWise data indicates that just 10 percent of those registered visit the site.

With strong integration to Google’s ecosystem of products and services and plenty of hype, Google+ will have little problem reaching more people.

The challenge will be converting them from passers-by to dedicated users.

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Planking sweeping through Terrebonne, Lafourche

You’re a part of one of the trendiest phenomenons sweeping the globe — and Terrebonne-Lafourche.

While several south Louisiana residents are catching on to the trend of planking, it might catch some off guard that the trend dates back to the late ’90s.

“Planking is hilarious,” said Brittany Williams on The Courier’s Facebook page. “It’s meant to be fun and harmless. I’ve seen people planking on top of houses, down stairways and other so called ‘dangerous’ places. I think it’s a fun idea to get people to lighten up.”

Planking involves lying face down in a public place and posting photos on social-networking sites.

“I like everything about planking,” said Houma resident Tyler Dupre, a 21-year-old Nicholls State University student who has been planking for more than a month. “It’s a sport.”

Dupre said he was prompted to start planking by seeing other pics posted on his Facebook page.

“It made me want to be the best,” he said.

While Williams, Dupre and others show their passion for planking, others in Terrebonne and Lafourche feel there’s no point to the fad.

“Planking isn’t stupid … it’s stupid planking by stupid people,” said Ashleigh Ledet of Houma, on The Courier’s Facebook page.

Whether you find planking cool or you don’t see the point of it, people across the globe are catching on.

The Planking Australia Facebook page has more than 170,000 followers, and the “official” Planking Facebook page has 618,389 friends.

Requests for interviews from both Facebook sites went unanswered.

“Stuff can happen so quickly,” said Dr. Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

The growth of planking is an example of “meme” — something that goes viral online and becomes a trend globally.

“There also became a global community of plankers” who want to try to out-do one another, Thompson said. “Everybody’s looking for photos to post that are different and unusual.”

And that’s exactly what prompted Dominic Amedee, 25, of Houma. He said he started planking a few weeks ago after finding pictures on his Facebook page of friends planking in unique places throughout Houma.

The retail store inventory supervisor said he didn’t want to be outdone, so he went throughout Houma to take pictures of himself planking in out-of-the-ordinary places.

“There’s no way — fad or no fad — I’m letting this pass me up,” he said. Amedee and his friends like to make planking “an online competition to see who can get the most obscure place or the trickiest one to balance.”

The social-networking trend has even spawned local Facebook pages paying homage to the fad, Planking Lafourche Parish, which has more than 330 friends and features locals planking throughout Lafourche.

Chris Ledet, 42, a Cut Off native who now resides in Lafayette, created the Lafourche page about a week ago to let local residents show off their planking skills.

“It seemed like a harmless way to have fun,” Ledet said after seeing pictures of his friends planking and researching it online.

HOW IT BEGAN

The origin of planking is somewhat of a mystery.

According to several websites, planking originated from Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon when they developed “The Lying Down Game” when traveling through Europe in 2000. The tandem were tired of just having pictures of places they visited, so they asked people to take a picture of them faced down with arms at their sides. It was a way to document their memories from places they traveled. The phenomenon then spread over the Internet to the U.S. and termed “planking” around 2009 in Australia.

Other sites say the game was developed as early as 1997.

In a story that appeared on the BBC News Magazine website, “two groups claim to have invented the prank — either in Somerset in 2000 as the ‘lying down game’ or eight years later in south Australia as planking.”

Other sites lay claim to planking, with reports of origins from London to Australia.

“Until we got to the era of social media, I suppose the idea of taking a picture of yourself in front of something smiling was enough,” said Thompson, a pop culture expert.

The fad took off when Australian rugby league star David “Wolfman” Williams — a renowned planker — planked after scoring a goal on a live television broadcast in March. The scene was uploaded on YouTube, where it has received more than 100,000 page views.

While planking seems harmless, some lay claim that it makes reference to shipping slaves from Africa to the U.S.

When asked about planking on The Courier’s Facebook page, Abby Prosperie Chabert responded that she thinks it’s offensive citing that “planking was used to stack slaves on ships.”

The Black Urban Times cites that planking “has roots in slavery.” Slaves used the planks as beds when transported at the start of the slave trade across the Atlantic. Slaves wore a plank, a wooden collar that held the slaves in place during transport.

However, other sites say the term planking refers to lying down as still as a board, or plank, and news sites like MSNBC and CBS News do not mention the slavery theory in their news stories.

Thompson said it’s hard to draw the conclusion if the trend’s origins date back to the slave transport unless you can ask the question to the trend’s inventor, however, because that too is also a bit sketchy, drawing the parallel to slavery may never be answered.

“I’ve never seen it confirmed,” Thompson said. “Part of the issue is finding out where it really started.”

A message was left with Burnell Tolbert, president of the Lafourche Parish-branch of the NAACP, but went unreturned. Also attempts to seek comment from the head of the Nicholls State University chapter of the NAACP were unsuccessful.

Thompson said he thinks those that are planking may be completely unaware of the slavery theory.

“The same viral speed with which this stuff can spread all over the place, is the same viral speed with which stories of its origins and faux histories can spread just as quickly.”

Ledet, who is a member of the U.S. military, dispels the theory of the parallels with slavery, but supports people’s rights to believe that view, a view that he thinks is untrue.

“We all take pictures, standing up smiling, and now we can take them laying down,” he said. “It’s really fun.”

Whatever the origins, others warn of places you can plank.

Krystal Allemand, 46, of Raceland, said “planking is ridiculous,” but doesn’t protest what plankers like to do. However, she is protesting a planking picture posted on Ledet’s page, a picture of someone planking on a church altar.

“This is very distasteful and shows great disrespect for Jesus and the Catholic church,” said Allemand, who has asked for the photo to be removed and reported the picture to Facebook. “The altar is sacred and should not be desecrated.”

CONQUERING THE WORLD

Whatever the origins, people throughout south Louisiana, from the young to the old, are planking.

“We have people from 85 and 90 to 3 years old planking on the Facebook site, so it kind of links the generations together,” said Ledet, who is creating a planking site for Terrebonne.

Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, said it’s fascinating to see new trends take off globally with the use of social networking.

“What’s interesting about planking is that it’s so uninteresting, and maybe that’s a part of its appeal,” Thompson said with a laugh saying that he can remember the days when people would just take a photograph of them smiling and saying “cheese” and posting it in a photo album. “It’s about as interesting as someone lying flat on the ground.”

However, there are dangers associated with planking.

In May, an Australian man died when he tried to take a picture of himself planking on a seven-story balcony before falling to his death.

Major Malcolm Wolfe, a spokesman for the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, said there have been no reports of illegal planking in Terrebonne, but said plankers should not trespass to get pictures.

Sgt. Lesley Hill, a spokeswoman with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, added that she has heard of no troubles in Lafourche, but warns trendsetters to practice planking in a safe place.

“With the Internet, you can get something started … Monday morning and by Monday afternoon, it can spread,” Thompson said.

He relates the trend to previous trends of taking pictures of garden gnomes in unique places.

“It’s a variation of things we’ve seen before,” he said.

And if you’re one of those that scratches your head about the idea, Thompson offers this summation: “I guess there could be a lot of worse things” than planking.

“It’s totally awesome,” Ledet added.

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