Google+ is great and I think your point about it’s influence on search results is important. I don’t think it rivals Facebook as the place to connect with your friends, though Hangouts certainly gives it the potential to. Additionally, the site’s combination of search and social make it valuable for businesses which gives it ammo against LinkedIn. Ultimately, the winner is going to whoever drives the most traffic and revenue.

There are some great examples there and I would offer a couple of concise points:

1. Just because the holiday isn’t a revenue generating one (like Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.), use it as an opportunity to create the feeling of timeliness in your promtions/advertising campaigns. I like what Salesforce did in this example.
2. Companies that ignore Google+ will be sorry in retrospect because Google has publicly stated that they are leveraging G+ information in their search results. This is original content that Google now places higher than any other single factor!

Happy belated 4th and an early Happy Bastille Day!

craig.