Have you tried this? Bring up Google+ in a room of marketers and communicators. Just mention the social network and see what happens.

You will hear mixed reactions. Some will sing the praises of search engine optimization  and network influence, while others will look at you like you’re a cat speaking Latin on TV.

Our social media team at Duke University is among the Google+ believers.

Duke’s main Google+ Page has grown to over 65,000 followers (as of Aprili 2013) and we’re continuing to see value in our presence on Google+. For one, the more people who follow Duke on Google+, the more we positively influence search results for people in the Duke community. Secondly, we see Hangouts On Air as a huge benefit for student-to-student connectivity and a great tool in our media relations toolkit. Finally, it’s a quirky and fun place where we can share content that is attached to Google trends and a niche science community that is super active on the network.

I’m working on a full blog post on all of the benefits and joys Duke sees in Google+. For now, check out this Hangout On Air I did last week with the Higher Education Google team discussing the power of highered on Google+. Enjoy!

httpv://youtu.be/gprIKAXqz8w