Why Google should not let businesses on Google+

In a few weeks Google is planning to open up Google+ to businesses to setup their own accounts. On Facebook these are called Pages. Essentially differentiating between a person and a business. Unless those guys have thought of something that defies the laws of social media degradation and has had Tom from MySpace on speed dial during development ... I think this is a big mistake to let business ruin Google+.

Please Google....don't let businesses on Google+.

Based on my experience with facebook, most businesses do not understand that over-posting doesn't make people want to trade in their gold..it only makes people hate you. I am not sure what makes businesses think that posting impersonal shout outs on everyone's wall is a sure fire way to get people to pile into your store. Unfortunately there are some businesses that do follow netiquette and try to engage their followers with meaningful messages that suffer because of all the noise created by spammers.

Facebook tries to minimize the abuse and noise by making businesses create pages and not profiles. Of course people abuse that too....but for the most part Facebook can manage your stream and of course you can always stop following a page. But this is really not what I am afraid of....it's more the tone it sets. If google allows businesses to be on google+ then it sets an impersonal tone to users saying "ok...the fun personal talk is over...now come the commercials". To me it has the potential of ruining a very vibrant and interesting conversation happening right now....and turning it into a faceless exchange of digital business cards with no souls.

It will make people think their boss is watching even though he is not in their circle. It will make people fear losing their job because they can be linked back to a business page. The party will be over. And we will all have to get back to work.

No matter what happens....stay gold pony boy.