Guy Kawasaki insists that Google+ adds value

A legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki has spun geeky tech concepts into gold for the better part of the last three decades. He was at Apple since before the first Macintosh, eventually served as Apple's Chief Evangelist, and his startup book "The Art of the Start" is still a top-selling entrepreneurs' guide eight years after its publishing. Kawasaki's nearly three dozen tweets every day are read by his almost three-quarters of a million followers.

When Guy Kawasaki talks, Silicon Valley listens. And now, many of its residents can't believe their ears. In his keynote address at ad:tech, Mr. Kawasaki will encourage advertisers to double down on the struggling Google+.

Google's social networking platform is on a worse public relations streak than that horse-racing show on HBO. A recent study showed Google+ traffic down 31 percent over the last four months. An executive left the company while issuing a blistering public critique of their social networking strategy. Analysts say the average user spends only three minutes on Google+ per month.

Yet how much does Mr. Kawasaki believe in Google+? He just published a book entitled "What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us."

And they're not even paying him to say these things.

"From my perspective, Google+ is to Facebook and Twitter what Macintosh is to Windows," Kawasaki writes. "Better, but fewer people use it and the pundits prophesy that it will fail."

Mr. Kawasaki will be delivering the keynote speech at the ad:tech Conference in San Francisco, entitled "Advertising in the Social Sphere -- Deciphering Ways to Create Connections, Engagement, and Presence."

Among the key points Mr. Kawasaki makes in support of Google+ is their innovative use of brand pages, allowing users to tie their social circles into their product interests. Google+ introduced brand pages in November and their growth has outpaced a similar offering from Twitter by more than 400 percent.

The "circles" concept is more deeply engaging for the user, Mr. Kawasaki argues. "Twitter is for news, Facebook is for friends, family and people and Google+ is for passion," he says.

Critics say Google+ has become a "ghost town." Mr. Kawasaki and Google insist these critics will be proven wrong. Remember, Google also proved wrong those who claimed that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Mr. Kawasaki's ad:tech keynote speech is scheduled for Tuesday, April 3. He'll share the stage with Rackspace executive Robert Scoble.

This article is part of Allvoices’ series on ad:tech, the largest digital marketing and technology conferences and expositions. Check out allvoices.com/adtech for more of Allvoices’ ad:tech San Francisco event coverage. This series is supported by ad:tech.