Social media has become a way for "the everyman" to connect with thought leaders, politicians, and celebrities. With Hangouts on Air and Communities, Google+ is becoming the go-to for medium for these people. Next week, that continues with Jay Bilas of ESPN.For quite some time the topic of paying college athletes has been discussed in academia. A few months ago Google+ started a "conversations" program in which thought leaders in an industry use Google+ communities to discuss very important topics. Google+ employees often reach out to the influencers on the social platform to get help within a specific community. I created the college football and college basketball communities the day of the communities release. Since then they have grown to become the largest communities in their respective niches. Google wanted to leverage these diehard fans by giving them a great topic to talk about which is, "Should college athletes be paid?"
Enter Jay Bilas
When considering a thought leader for a college sports topic a name that repeatedly came up was ESPN's +Jay Bilas. Mr. Bilas has a law degree from Duke University, and he has been very outspoken about his opinion related to college athletes being paid. The reason to select Jay Bilas was not because of his opinion. He was selected because he is a very educated man that can give valid reasons as to college athletes should or should not get paid.Google and I did not want to select a candidate that couldn't articulate their valid points in a debate or discussion. We needed someone eloquent, educated and understanding of the platform. We also wanted someone that was willing to do a Hangout on Air after the week long discussion concluded.
Jay Bilas was more than willing to take part in this project and the #BilasConvo is now taking place in the College Basketball community. You can tune into the Hangout on Air on Tuesday, October 15th.
Google+ Reaching Out to Users
Time and again Google+ proves to be the best social network when it comes to listening to users. A few of my close friends, that enjoy sports, asked me how the Jay Bilas conversation was started. I mentioned that it was all Google and they wanted to reach out to help the audience enjoy a thoughtful conversation. My friends laughed and said, "There is no way Twitter or Facebook would ever do something like that." I shook my head in agreeance and changed the conversation back to Google+.Rather than creating their own specialized community for a conversation like this Google is smart enough to realize that users are the ones that make the platform. Google+ would not be where it is if it were not for the users. This comes as no surprise to me as this has been happening for over 18 months that I have been active on the platform. Ultimately, I think this is the exact reason Google+ will be the largest social network in the world. Google cares about people. That's a plus.