As well as design, you must be passionate about solving business problems; willing to probe into both the users and the businesses requirements to extract not only needs and wants but also opportunities for the solution to take advantage of. You must be able to tailor designs adjusting to business, technology or contextual constraints, while delivering the maximum amount of value for end users and fulfilling any proposition set prior.

You must:

• Have a proven track record working within a similar capacity, with a solid background working with the latest trends and technologies.
• Be comfortable liaising with clients and assessing their requirements, interfacing with our development team throughout the design process to help supply creative solutions.
• Be able to work individually or as part of a team and a strong sense of time management is essential.
• Have experience in HTML5, XHTML, CSS3, JavaScript and jQuery.
• Enjoy producing multiple designs for client projects and presentations
• Have a solid understanding of typography and layout
• Be able to innovate great user experiences

This is a challenging and interesting role and will involve working to tight deadlines and producing work of a demonstrably high standard with huge emphasis placed on attention to detail.

The successful candidate will work in our studio with our dynamic team of passionate strategic thinkers, creative minds and technical specialists to work on high-profile projects and help take us to new heights.

Please email studio@kalexiko.com with your CV, salary expectations and a selection of your work.

Good luck!

Note to recruitment agencies: We’re not interested!!

1. Positive/ negative thinking
With this you imagine the worst possible thing or scenario. For example, if you’re designing a website, you think of a truly horrible website; really the worst you can think of in every way.

You populate it with lots of detail and have fun thinking about how truly unpleasant and useless it could be. Then you envisage and create the complete opposite.

2. Push the possibilities
Ask a question but make sure the question involves the phrase, ‘What can I possibly do to…’.

Your question could be something like, ‘What can I possibly do to make this website look better?’ or, ‘What can I possibly do to get a meeting with this company?’ or, ‘What can I possibly do to win at least one new client in the next month?’ Then, grab a few sheets of clean A4 and start to write down quick, one line answers.

The key is to write down every idea that comes to mind, no matter how ridiculous it may seem.

We can all come up with ten answers easily enough, twenty at a push, but you must keep going and get to at least 25 or 30.

Pause and review and you’ll find that numbers seven, 19 and 24 (or similar) will be the ones you’ll want to develop!

3. An imaginary meeting
Call a meeting of imaginary consultants. You might invite Ghandi, Casanova, the CEO of a competitor business, Lady Gaga, Alan Sugar, etc., etc.

Sit them down around your (imaginary) table and then ask them how they’d respond to your problem.

4. Allow yourself to be inspired
Unfortunately, for most of us work is little more than actions and routines performed with minimal variation.

But say the challenge or problem you face has potential to significantly benefit your business or your life. Is it not worth taking an hour, two hours, a morning or even a day to consider the solution and open some creative doors?

So, visit an art gallery with a note book, have a team meeting at the zoo, organise an activity with a local school, become a street sweeper for a day, go to the beach and make sand sculptures, etc., etc.

The possibilities really are endless.

5. Obscure objects
We’ve also seen this called ‘object forcing’. This is when you bring a single, but obscure object into the mix and see what benefits it could bring.

Say your problem or question is, ‘How can we ensure we retain our existing clients?’

OK, your object is going to be a wobbly jelly on a plate (WJP).

Now you dive in and look at all the features and benefits of a WJP.

For example, image the reaction if someone walked into your room right now, carrying a big red, WJP. It’s a fair bet that everyone in the room would smile or even laugh and the atmosphere would instantly change because a WJP is always a delightful, colourful, treat. Could you therefore, delight, entertain and treat your existing clients more than you currently do and how might you do this?

Remember
If you always do what you’ve always done – you’ll always get what you always got.

If you want something different you have to open doors and allow change to come in.

We now have the ability to connect with people and communicate in ways that just a few years ago were unimaginable.

A world of information is at our finger tips and we control it.

Think about it, at any given point you can become a photographer, designer, artist, business owner, author, political activists, researcher, musician – or just about anything else you want to be.

Only a handful of years ago, pretty much all the activities on the list below were either impossible or required years of training before you could do them.

Now all you need to do is to carve out some time and using nothing more than the technology that is available in the majority of family homes, you can do them yourself and pretty much immediately.

You can -

• Send someone a message, a photograph, a video, some music or pretty much anything, instantly
• Compile a book and send it off to have it published
• Take a photograph, make it even better and print it out
• Listen to just about any piece of music or watch just about any TV show or video clip or film you want
• Design and build an online profile
• Explore libraries, museums, art galleries and historical archives from across the world
• Write a song, record it, release it and distribute it
• Meet and get involved with a group of like-minded people
• Set up and run a profitable business
• Book a holiday or book tickets to just about any public event you want
• Enter a parallel world and assume a new identity
• Buy just about anything you want and have it delivered to your home the next day (and you can sell pretty much anything too)
• Have a good look round somewhere you’re going to visit before you visit it (and plan down to the tiniest detail, the journey you will take to get there)
• Have a one to one, face to face meeting with someone sitting on the other side of the world
• Script a move, film it, edit it, add titles and credits and make it available to millions and millions of people to see
• Start a Government-changing political campaign
• Find a new lover

So, what are you doing this weekend?

It’s free!
Unlike telephone directories, listings on Google Places are completely free. All you need is a mailing address to register with and you can get started right away. You can add photos and descriptions, specify industry sectors and provide contact details. This contrasts with telephone directories or print advertisements, which generally cost far more money and don’t allow you to provide nearly as much information. That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for such things, but when a listing on Google Pages is free, there’s very little reason not to sign up.
Everybody else is doing it

If you were to do a search on Google Maps for web design agencies in Birmingham, you’ll no doubt notice that Kalexiko is up there near the top of the results. And rightly so. However you might also notice that there are plenty of other web design businesses there that aren’t Kalexiko. This will almost certainly be the case for your business too; if you’re not listed on Places then you’re potentially losing trade to your competitors. According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local businesses online, which is an opportunity your business can’t afford to miss out on.

Feedback
Places allows customers to give reviews of the businesses listed on it. This can be a double-edged sword as reviews aren’t necessarily always favourable, and it’s not unheard of for more nefarious business owner types to try and sabotage their competitors, although there are procedures in place for dealing with this. Everyone is in the same boat though, and if you’re providing the great products and/or services that you should be, then there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. It’s also possible to respond to reviews if you wish to, and it provides an effective way of finding out what you’re doing right, as well as the areas in which your business can improve.

SEO
Having an entry on Google Places not only increases visibility for your business in searches using Google Maps, but is also advantageous for overall page rankings. Uploading content like photos, videos and special offers is something that Google’s search algorithms look very favourably on, and helps to bolster your overall SEO strategy.

Mobile
This aspect of marketing is still only beginning to take off, but the potential is absolutely huge. With the advent of smartphones, gone will be the days of struggling to find a decent restaurant or a hotel for the night in unfamiliar surroundings, even abroad. Location based search really comes into its own when you’re out and about, but if people can’t find your business on their phones, they’re unlikely to find where it’s actually situated.

So there we have it. Google Places represents an easy and effective way to drive more customers to your business both online and offline, and best of all it’s completely free. We’re on it, are you?

MOST SEARCHED-FOR TERMS IN THE UK 2011
1. Facebook
2. Youtube
3. Ebay
4. Facebook login
5. Amazon
6. Argos
7. BBC
8. Fb
9. Google
10. BBC News

Within the top 50 searches celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Victoria Beckham, Kris Humphries reign at the top in search queries. UK internet users clicked to search for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton who where in the top ten people section to read about.

X-Factor was number one in reality television shows at the top of the charts with the Apprentice in second. Big Brother, Smallville, NCIS and House were also in the top ten list of TV.

The fastest rising people category at number one was Ryan Dunn followed by Adele in second. Rebecca Black, Ed Sheeran, Amy Winehouse and Charlie Sheen were others in top ten searches for 2011 in the UK.

The top destination search category reveals Las Vegas in the number one slot. New York, Disneyland Paris, Jamaica, Orlando, Barbados, Hawaii, Caribbean, Florida and Cuba were featured in the top ten searches online. While many travel destinations were queried these scored higher than others in the United Kingdom.

Food and Drink top ten searches included Asda as number one followed by recipes. Also in the top ten was Tesco, Sainsburys, pizza, chicken, chocolate, Dominos, Morrisons and Argos within the number ten slot.

Users now are typing in the navigational search rather than typing in the URL in the browser for a quicker response and queries to choose from. Google’s Zeitgeist list (spirit of the times) results range from people, places, things, destinations, television and other varieties.

Other top ten search categories within 2011 were “what is…” and “how to…” The ‘What is’ search category people were looking for AV, scampi, truffles, piles, 4D, cookies, zumba, icloud, copyright and probate completes the top ten. Within the ‘How to’ category at the top of the chart was revise followed by snog, reference, wallpaper, draw, sleep, flirt, geek, pronounce and shuffle.

The fastest rising movies top ten list consists of Breaking Dawn at number one. Final Destination 5, Mean Girls 2, True Grit, Conan the Barbarian, Scream 4, The Inbetweeners, Little Fockers, Transformers 3 and in the last spot was Unstoppable.

Everyone researches pets to see if they are compatible with the family’s atmosphere. The Cavapoo and Cavachon dogs were in the top two spots last year in the search queries. Cats, Pitbull, German Shepherd, Pomeranian, Shih Tzu, French Bulldong, Shiba Inu and Sugar Glider rounded the category.

Featured in the fastest rising Book category in the UK was of course Harry Potter leading the way with Pretty Little Liars in second. Breaking Dawn, Romeo & Juliet, Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Alice in Wonderland, Water for Elephants, Jane Eyre and last but not least in the tenth spot was Atlas Shrugged.

Interesting to see what 2012 has in store for us.

For a while now Google have been effectively sponsoring Firefox, backing them financially in exchange for integration of their search engine within the browser, and this deal was recently renewed to guarantee Firefox’s survival for at least the next three years. Since this arrangement was in place long before the launch of Chrome, it seems fair to say that Google was surreptitiously trying to keep users away from Internet Explorer (IE) by ensuring that it always had a viable competitor. Microsoft hit back firstly by improving IE, but also in other slightly more clandestine ways which we’ll cover in a moment. With Google now aggressively pushing a viable competitor of their own, it remains to be seen whether they’ll want to keep sponsoring Firefox beyond those 3 years, and if not, whether Firefox can survive.

For the time being, IE remains the dominant player in this market by quite a margin, as the graph below indicates:

Plenty has been written elsewhere about what these figures mean, as well as what the trends are likely to be for the future, so we won’t dwell too much on that (in short, Chrome is expected to be jostling with IE for #1 position within about two or three years, Firefox and IE will drop market share but only slightly, Safari will stay roughly the same). However what we suspect you really want to know is which of these browsers is best. So as a late Christmas present to you from your friends at Kalexiko, we decided to try them all and find out so that you don’t have to.

Internet Explorer
IE has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, and to all intents and purposes is a very solid piece of software, if not without its flaws. In 2000 Microsoft got in trouble with the US Department of Justice for embedding IE into its Windows operating system to the point that it became somewhat obstructive if you wanted to use a different browser. As a result they had to open up their system and make it easier to use other browsers, and even uninstall IE completely should you wish. However those restrictions are coming to an end, and industry watchers are already suspecting that Microsoft will return to their old ways with future versions of Windows. They’re already trying to integrate Bing, their own search engine, into the browser but this can be easily circumvented if necessary. It’s important to remember that many features that are now common across all browsers, particularly in privacy and security, were first done by IE so credit where it’s due. It’s also very simple to use, although due to some poor layout issues it really falls down if you want anything more than a few tabs open at any one time, and the native toolbars (albeit optional) seem rather clumsy. For less web-savvy users IE is quite fit for purpose, although advanced users might do better to look elsewhere.

Firefox
For years Firefox has been the logical alternative to IE, and as an open source project it benefits from constant improvements via an incredibly short release cycle. So short in fact, that Mozilla unleashed Firefox 9 whilst this article was being written. We think they just did it to impress us, and in the short time we’ve had to acquaint ourselves with the new version, it seems that they have. There appear to be some slight speed improvements, as well as some cracking tools for web designers. The layout, refined over the years, is also the most intuitive of the lot. In addition whilst it doesn’t necessarily make the browser run any better, we like the whole Mozilla ethos. Open source, not-for-profit and somewhat of an endearing underdog to the bigger companies, Firefox has a huge community constantly providing support, improvements and add-ons to improve the browsing experience. It still suffers from some irritating minor problems though, specifically add-on incompatibility after upgrading. It seems inexplicable that they still haven’t fixed this, although apparently they’re expecting to with the release of Firefox 10, which could be in as little as 6 weeks. Another problem is that if one tab encounters an unresponsive script, it can bring the whole programme grinding to a halt. It’s still a great browser though, so if you’re comfortable with it there’s no real reason to rock the boat.

Chrome
Except this. We were very impressed with Chrome, far more than we expected to be. In Google’s marketing of it they’ve heavily emphasised its speed compared to other browsers. You might think that a browser would only be as fast as your internet connection, but the truth is that Chrome really is faster. Not by a huge amount, but enough to be noticeable even when browsing normally. There are a few things that take some getting used to with Chrome especially if you’ve been using IE and Firefox for years, like the smart address bar that combines searching with a normal URL bar (although Firefox already does something similar), but unlike Firefox a single troublesome tab won’t crash the whole browser. Apps are another feature that on the face of it seem to be an improvement, and they’re implemented in a very similar way to smartphones. Aside from the initial culture shock we really couldn’t find a lot wrong with Chrome, which is why we’re not at all surprised at the ground it’s making on IE and Firefox. If we have to find a downside, it’s probably that the Bookmarks toolbar (which they’re probably trying to it phase out anyway) seems to jar with the overall pleasantness of other Chrome aspects.

Safari
Just a quick word on Safari as it’s not really worth considering for Windows. For Macs though, there’s nothing better, and unlike the other browsers is designed to work perfectly in tandem with Mac OS. Unless you like the idea of apps (in which case have a look at Chrome), there’s no real reason to use anything else.

Conclusion
So in the end it seems to be Chrome that wins. For now. Over the next few years this is of course liable to change, and any of its competitors might release something that blows it out of the water. We haven’t even talked about mobile browsing. The most important thing to bear in mind with browsers is that considering how much time is spent using them, it’s always best to pick the one you’re most comfortable with.

Xero – accounting software
Accounting for many businesses is a necessary evil. It’s time consuming and can be somewhat taxing (ha!), especially if you don’t have a particularly good grasp of figures. Add to that (ha!) the fact that a good accountant can be expensive, and that most small businesses don’t have the luxury of a dedicated finance department, and you can begin to see how accounting can pose a problem. There are plenty of accounting programs that can help you out in this regard, but our favourite is Xero. It’s easy to use and has a staggering array of features, from the standard invoicing, payroll, expenses and financial reports to more complex tasks like handling foreign accounts, asset depreciation schedules and retail logistics.

Wunderlist – task management
When an application receives rave reviews from such tech luminaries as Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Mashable and TechCrunch, we’re hardly going to argue. Wunderlist isn’t the only task manager available, and when they’re all fundamentally glorified to-do lists there’s very little to choose between any of them. It’s really down to personal preference, but this one is our favourite at Kalexiko. Whether it’s shopping lists, sandwich runs, birthday reminders or just sorting your life out, Wunderlist is convenient, customisable and easy to use from a mobile or a computer.

Goodprint – business cards
When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Which is why, without wishing to mention any names, the “value” that you supposedly get from companies offering 1000 business cards for £2.50 etc is usually reflected in their actual quality when they arrive. Goodprint aren’t necessarily the cheapest, even though they do run some pretty insane offers now and then, but even their basic cards look and feel great. They also do letterheads, labels and other office stationery, but the real clincher here is how easy it is to use their interface for creating your own business card design. It stays on file too, so you can always get more or change the design in the future if necessary.

TeamViewer – collaboration and remote support
You wouldn’t believe how useful this is, especially in our line of work. Remote control is the term given to controlling a computer remotely, which is great for if we want to share ideas, demonstrate something to a client, deliver a live presentation or provide support. There are other practical applications for it too, like being able to use it as a virtual server for copying files to and from computers even when you’re not sitting in front of them. If this sounds worrying from a security standpoint then it shouldn’t do, as it requires permission from both computers in order for it to work.

Pagemodo – Facebook page designer
At risk of putting ourselves out of a job here we’re going to recommend Pagemodo. With Facebook currently being the most popular social media platform for engaging with customers, you want your Facebook page to look as good as possible. Pagemodo requires no knowledge of web development to use it, and it’s easy to add videos, maps, Twitter feeds, pictures and more to engage and impress your audience. Whilst their business packages do cost money, we think that it’s money well spent considering how powerful a tool it is.

SEO and quality content creation
You’d be forgiven for thinking that SEO and quality content creation has always been important, and you’d also be absolutely right. But as we covered in a recent article, Google has shifted the goalposts slightly of late, and the other major search engines are sure to follow. With the release of Google Panda earlier this year, the search algorithms were adjusted to reward websites more on quality content, functionality and design, as opposed to arbitrary keyword densities and the number of backlinks. Rewording the same article every few days and calling it a blog is now likely to do more harm than good, so what we’re expecting to see in the coming year is a shift in emphasis towards creating quality content on a regular basis. Keywords and so on are still important, but only as part of a wider SEO strategy. This is arguably the way it always should’ve been, but it might pose problems for some. Just what constitutes good content? Is what you’re writing/podcasting/YouTubing actually of interest to your target audience? How do you encourage people to share it? What if you simply haven’t the time or inclination to generate the content yourself? Could outsourcing it be the answer? Shameless plugs aside, the fact remains that many of the SEO mantras from as recently as a year or two ago are now totally outdated, so we’re expecting this to be a real issue in the coming year.

Social Media Marketing
Again this is already an important one, but changes are afoot in the world of social networks, and before planning a social media marketing strategy for the next year you need to know what the social networks themselves are up to. Facebook appears to be going from strength to strength, Google+ is committing substantial resources to usurping them, geo-social networks like FourSquare still haven’t really hit the mainstream, and no one’s yet decided whether Twitter is actually worthwhile. Frankly we can’t be entirely sure about any of this ourselves; Facebook for instance have a knack for revealing new features only after people have complained about them. What we can say is that none of the major social networks have hit saturation point yet, so if you’re not already acquainted with them, now is the time to do so or else risk missing out on some of the most powerful marketing tools in history.

Mobile
Fun fact: mobile web consumption is, according to some studies, expected to overtake desktop web consumption by 2015. Staggering really. Smartphones are becoming more and more ubiquitous, and so the priority for marketers is how to channel their message to all of these people. The potential of geo-marketing hasn’t been remotely realised yet, with location-specific offers and vouchers just being the start of it. And then there’s NFC payment systems, which could be absolutely huge, although that’s probably not one to worry about for the time being at least. Aggregator apps and in-app purchasing are likely to be the buzzwords for this year.

Privacy
Of course, the problem with all this social networking and geo-tagging is that it relies on knowing who you are, where you are, who you know and what you’re into. Many people, not unreasonably, have some issues with this. Indeed, it seems these days that there’s a fresh privacy row in the news every week, be it about phone tracking, account hacking, facial recognition, browser cookies, or even taking photos of your house. All of which is deeply unsettling, and more worryingly it seems to be only a matter of time before someone really drops the ball on something like this, assuming they haven’t already. That being the case, it’s of huge importance to take all reasonable steps towards keeping your data secure, and if you’re holding the data of others, treating it as if it were your own.

Onwards to 2012
Some of these points might seem a little vague, but the truth is that in such fast-moving industries it’s nigh on impossible to make anything other than vague predictions about the future of technology. One new concept or idea could potentially change everything.

That said, 2012 is less than a month away, so with all this in mind now is an excellent time to start planning (if you haven’t already) exactly how you’re going to make it your year.

The big change
Aside from the interface improvements, which we’re sure you can discover for yourselves, the flagship new feature appears to be real-time activity monitoring. As the web gets faster and faster, and web designers have to be increasingly more fluidic in their approaches, this new tool will allow you to see what’s happening on your site literally as it happens. Seeing what people are doing on your website as they do it will probably at first be a bit of a novelty, but the practical applications for it are potentially huge, and will allow for a far more proactive approach to web design. Just written an amazing blog post that you want to tell your Twitter followers about? Well now you can see how many people answer that call to action after one hour, two hours, a day etc. Knowing this could help you to refine what might at the moment be a relatively scattergun approach to content sharing, as different types of sharing might have varying degrees of impact for different types of content. Perhaps links posted in some places carry a longer tail than in others, in that people are still clicking that Facebook link after a week, but not the Twitter one.

The other big change
Along the same sorts of lines, you’ll also be able to track which channels (such as searches, social networks, affiliate links etc.) customers have interacted with in the 30 days prior to conversion (purchase), rather than just the last channel that resulted in that conversion. We’ve been saying for a while now how important it is to have a multi-channel digital marketing strategy, and now you’ll be able to see the proof and optimise accordingly. For instance, with sequential marketing you could potentially derive a specific order that you wish to engage certain customers in, like affiliate/Facebook/mailing list, or print advert/organic search/deal of the day. There’s a lot of potential there, particularly as so many online customers tend to do their homework before parting with their money. Now you’ll be able to see how much of a part you played in that process, and what more you could therefore be doing.

The slightly smaller changes
With the increasing popularity of mobile browsing, and responsive web design subsequently becoming more and more important, it behoves a good web designer to know what the browsing habits of their audience are. Now you’ll be able to see what parts of a site people find more or less popular on their mobiles. For example a ticker tape bar might look great on a computer screen, but people might have trouble clicking it on a mobile browser, that is if it shows up at all. It will even show you which devices people are using, which again might be a bit of a novelty to start with, but will no doubt become invaluable information when designing sites for mobile access in the future. Another improvement is flow visualisation, which will allow you to see the analytic information for how people navigate to, through and from your website expressed as a flow graphic. This might seem aesthetic at first, but it will give you an easily digestible insight into your users’ activity, and it looks brilliant. This one will really become what you make of it.

There’s still plenty of time to acquaint yourself with this new upgrade, and indeed you’ll still be able to roll back to the old version until early 2012. However once you’ve seen what this version can do, and how useful these analytics can be for web designers and website owners alike, we don’t see why you’ll want to.

Google+: A Brief History
In case you weren’t aware, Google+ launched amid much fanfare in July this year, prompting 10 million people and businesses to sign up straight away. Features that stood out included Circles, which allow more effective micro-management of social groups than Facebook ever has, Hangouts, where groups of people can webcam chat in real-time, Sparks, which is basically a “Things you might like” tool, and Huddle, which is like a real-time message board for chatting, organising and collaborating. With much of the functionality of Facebook and a few neat twists of their own, Google+ looked set to at least give them a run for their money, if not necessarily be the “Facebook-killer” that some observers were hoping for.

Slowing Down
Initially Google+ was available to people by invitation only, on the basis that Google were still ironing out some of the bugs, but naturally the invitation process was abused by many who perhaps didn’t understand that it was still in the process of beta testing. Businesses also tried to jump on, despite being warned that the network wasn’t ready for them yet. Google added at the time that they had something planned especially for organisations, and asked them to be patient. That something was Google+ Pages, and it finally appears to be ready. The problem is that many users have already grown impatient with the lack of progress, indeed according to some reports, many of the 10 million Google+ users on launch have already stopped using it. At least for the time being, that is.

However…
We know from watching Google over the years that they like to play the long game, and that when it’s all ready to go it’s going to be pretty cool. Whether or not you think it’s going to reach the heady heights of Facebook, it’s still going to be a powerful tool for engaging with your friends, associates and customers alike. Circles allow you to group your connections in whichever way you want, while Hangouts and Huddles allow you to engage them face-to-face in real time. Plus there’s all the Facebook stuff you’re probably used to, with users able to associate themselves with your organisation, and “+1” buttons working in a similar way to Facebook’s “Like”.

The Money Question
Is now the time to get your organisation on Google+ Pages? The answer is probably, but we simply don’t know at the moment. More than 3 months after the initial launch, Google+ is in fact still ostensibly in beta, but they’ve been known to keep fully functional projects in beta for years before now, so that might not even mean anything. The numbers of users suggest that a presence on Facebook will reach far more people than on Google+ at the moment and is therefore the social media platform you should be prioritising, but on the other hand there’s every chance that Google with have a few things up their sleeve to rapidly get more people on board. We’re also only beginning to see the massive potential for integration with their search engine for a complete social search experience. Don’t forget that they’ve also got Google Docs, Gmail and YouTube, where there’s potential for even more integration. Like most things though, this comes down to value. One could argue that until Google+ has at least a comparable user base to Facebook it’s not worth concentrating your efforts there, but is a user base already in the tens of millions to be scoffed at?

So you’re on Google+ Pages – what now?
The problem for Google is that the organisations on Facebook are already so entrenched there that to set up on Google+ Pages would be to merely duplicate the content they’re already offering on Facebook. So Google is going to have to offer some real incentives to both users and organisations to get on board, as well as making it sufficiently different to Facebook to make it worthwhile doing so. Conversely, Facebook themselves are only another PR gaffe or privacy intrusion away from losing some users for good, and with a viable competitor now there’s only one place that they’ll end up. So what you might see is Google+ becoming the network of choice for power users and tech savvies (with generally higher disposable incomes), while Facebook remains the network of choice for the masses. Many people will happily use both.

Even if you don’t think you’re quite ready to take the plunge on Google+ Pages yet, it’s still well worth knowing what it can offer so that when you do, you know what you’ll be working with. On its initial launch Google+ was the fastest growing social network in history, so it’s likely that when they’re done tinkering there’ll be another explosion of growth. With this in mind, you might need to get yourself on there at short notice, so it’ll be worth knowing how it all works sooner rather than later if you don’t want to get left behind.