Brands As People, People As Brands

Originally published at https://www.masonpelt.com on April 17, 2023.

On a call for a long-dead startup building its empire on Google+, someone, a person, objected to being paid to appear in a commercial promoting a class they sold because of how it would impact their brand. They were a chef, not a famous one. But in July of 2011, they had quickly amassed a following of about 6,000 in under a month on the hot emerging social network that was Google+, and they believed fame was on the horizon.

Google+ launched with hype in 2011. Even a flurry of new players fighting to capture the mindshare of an uncertain Twitter doesn’t match the hype I saw around Google’s new social network. It was a big deal in June, July, and part of August in 2011.

The startup I worked with used Google+ to connect experts with people who wanted one-on-one online instruction. Solid as a concept, and outsourcing almost the entirety of product development to the rapidly growing social network arm of a major tech company left startup costs at nearly zero.

R.I.P. Google+ June 28, 2011 — [Technically] April 2, 2019

In November of 2011, The BBC ran an article titled ‘ Google denies Google+ death reports’. The BBC joined the chatter after most of the tech press had already called…