Not these circles. These are “dream circles”.Circles, circles, circles… Everybody’s talking about circles and writing about circles. We’re starting to see circles in our dreams.

(OK… not in our dreams. But since we can’t mention what we’re actually dreaming about here, it might as well be circles. Right? Right. Circles, then…)

So. What’s all the fuss about circles?

Not these circles, either. Although you gotta admit, that’s pretty cool…Well, when it comes to social media, circles are the story. Circles are the Google+ innovation that will allow users to separate their friends and followers into groups. And they’ve got people excited. As the Economic Times put it:

At first, Google+ looks like a shameless Facebook duplicate… But there’s one towering, brilliant difference:

Circles.

Not this circle, either. We don’t even know what that is… but it looks neat, huh?In fact, T3 conducted a reader survey to see which Google+ feature should cause Facebook the most worry. The answer?

The results were varied, but the majority (44.81 per cent) said that ‘Circles’ are the killer Google+ feature. Circles is the social network’s defining aspect, letting users categorise their friends and only update to select groups.

Nope. Still not it. But this is a “social circle” if we ever saw one. ;)(We admit… circles was part of what we found intriguing about G+. Even folks who eat, sleep and breathe social media occasionally have to wonder whether something shared on Facebook would appeal to our ex-kindergarten teacher, business associates, and buddies from the block… oh, and Grandma. Starting to see the draw of circles?)

But circles are good for more than just making sure Grandma doesn’t see your embarrassing party pics. (Heh. Not that we’d have any pics we’re embarrassed to show Grandma… just a hypothetical example there. Don’t sweat it, Granny.)

OK… Now we’re just messin’ with ya.Eran Gefen at AdAge writes:

In the long term, brands could be the overall biggest winner of the targeted “circle” trend. If all moves forward as it should, and other sites catch up to the trend, brands will be able to develop more individualized messaging that will meet specific ROI goals — i.e. sales, website traffic, etc.

We agree. That’s why circles are news. They’re going to allow something totally new – targeted messaging within the social media environment.

We’ve told you from day one — “Engage your customers!” Well, it’s going to be a lot easier to engage customers within specific groups.

THESE circles.Expect to hear more about circles. Expect to read more about circles. Heck, don’t be surprised if you start seeing circles in your dreams, like we fibbed about.

Circles…

In the (somewhat cleaned up) words of our illustrious Vice President:

This is a big f-ing deal.

We agree, Joe. We agree.