Now that Google+ has been around for a few years, the benefits have come into sharper focus. Most notably, this rapidly-growing social network is proving to be a popular, integrated platform for small business. The brilliance of Google+ lies in the variety of engagement opportunities it offers. With tools like Communities, Hangouts, and Circles, small business owners can simultaneously build broad networks while engaging customers and prospects directly.

Let’s take a look at some of these features, and how brands of any size can unleash their power.

Boosting your presence with Google+ Communities

The objective behind Communities was to create a platform within Google+ where individuals, organizations, and businesses could meet and engage based on shared interests and passions. The 235 million active users on Google+ have quickly shown an affinity for the Communities platform, using it to discuss topics of all kinds—from hobbies to pop culture, politics to business, and everything in between. This video perfectly demonstrates its ability to connect large groups around common interests.

Communities is ideally suited as a virtual space for meeting and engaging customers and prospects. Aside from offering an accessible front-facing platform where you can join in dynamic conversations with your client base, Communities makes it easy to share multimedia content as well. Sharing a new video tutorial about your products or how your brand is positioned in the industry has never been easier.

Of course, the other great benefit of Communities is that it offers users a two-way street for engagement. The most proactive small businesses will take advantage of this knowledge by asking questions, creating polls, and finding other innovative ways to get their community members off of the bench and into the game.

Narrowing your focus with Hangouts

While Communities are excellent for facilitating public exchange, sharing ideas over a broad network, and meeting new prospects, Hangouts is more of an invitation-only gathering. As such, Hangouts allows small business owners the opportunity to make more direct, customer-specific contact. With this feature, your brand can host online video chats with as many as 10 people. This tool is invaluable for hosting meetings with associates, clients, or prospects spread across the globe, and it’s easy to set up. Just get your webcam ready and pick your participants from your Circles. If Communities is the best place for a business meet-and-greet, Hangouts is where deals get done.

Targeting your content with Circles

No platform makes narrowcasting as easy and part of the experience as Google+. Let’s face it: social platforms have become busy, crowded places. While it’s important for you to get your message out, it’s equally important not to intrude. By targeting your posts to specific Circles, you avoid crowding others’ newsfeeds with useless information. Circles perfectly demonstrate the new maxim that one-size-fits-all marketing simply doesn’t have a place in social media. By segmenting your message to prospects and clients at different levels of the buying cycle, you will sustain a higher level of interest in your brand by always presenting the right kinds of content to the right kinds of people at the right time.

Please share your experience using Google+. Are you using Communities, Hangouts, and Circles to connect with your customers?

Many bloggers stop the promotion of their content on social media sites at Facebook and Twitter. While Facebook and Twitter are great ways to spread the word about new and existing content, it is by no means the only relevant social media platform available to bloggers. Google+, however, has broadcasting components that can make the promotion of content easier and can create more interactive reader experience.

Back End SEO

Simply setting up a Google+ page automatically gives bloggers a little more search engine juice. Because Google+ is a feature of Google, the platform is designed to be more easily found by the Google search engines. Through the simple stages of page set up, you can choose to incorporate title tags, meta tags, and keywords through Google+’s step by step process – no extensive knowledge of coding needed – making your blog, Google+ page, and even individual blog posts more easily found through Google searches.

Claim Ownership

One of the best features of Google+ for a blogger is the ability to claim ownership of articles on your own blog as well as other blogs and sites. Should a post of yours gain notoriety or is simply something you find important, you can claim ownership of it. By claiming ownership of a specific post, your name will be seen, along with your blog post’s title, every time the piece shows up in the Google results pages. You can claim authorship by using the rel author tag, which helps Google link an author with their piece of work and, in turn, allows users to discover quality content.

The more often your name gets seen, the more likely you will be seen as an authority, and authorities are the ones who
are more likely to have trusted content that readers share.

Create Circles

With Google+ Circles, bloggers are able to place followers within certain groups. While this may seem cumbersome and even unnecessary for a blogger, being able to place key influencers into a Circle can actually be highly beneficial. There’s a little check mark box before you share a G+ post that says “Also send email to this circle?” While you certainly don’t want to check that box every post and spam your key influencers circle, using it sparingly can mean more key influencers will see your blog post. They will get an alert in their inboxes that you shared a post with them.

Creating specific Circles will make sure that all of your followers aren’t feeling spammed by constant information that may not interest them. You can tailor what they see in your news feed.

Join Google+ Communities

Don’t be afraid to join as many communities as you deem relevant to your blog. You can also share your individual blog post with different communities just as you can share it with different Circles.

Go Multimedia

Reading your content is great but seeing the person behind the content is even better. Don’t be afraid to also utilize Google+ Hangouts in addition to the other features the platform offers. Bloggers can host Q & A’s through Google Hangouts, attend real time video chats with followers, and post tutorials that can help further establish themselves in their specific blogging field. Because Google+ Hangouts on air stream live on YouTube and automatically record to your YouTube channel, you have multimedia content ready to go when you click ‘End Broadcast.’ Or, use the free YouTube editor to add enhancements to your video. All you need to host or join a Hangout is an internet connection and a webcam.

This new way of bloggers interacting face to face via webcam is called “Human Media.” This new living, breathing layer of social allows a writer to extend the life of their content beyond just the page, and via webcam go directly into their readers’ living rooms.

While Facebook and Twitter dominate the text based social landscape and it’s important to have a presence there, consider the face to face benefits of Google+. Its free digital tools are allowing more bloggers to become broadcasters.

Google Speaker image courtesy of Daniel Morris, Flickr.

Google has released a new stand-alone app and unified communication platform for Hangouts. Now, Google+ users can initiate both text and video chats with other Google+ members at any time by launching a new hangout. For many, this has resulting in a bombardment of notifications from people wanting to chat, and attempting to launch chats with entire circles.

First, like most other apps, the Hangouts app comes with Notification settings that should be reviewed. If you want to have a visual or audio notification that someone wants to hangout with you, make sure you adjust your settings accordingly.

But what’s new and interesting is that with Hangouts, you can have a far more fine-grained control over what you get notified on.

Open the Hangouts app and tap on the gear icon to access Settings. Here, you have access to change your profile pic, “snooze” your notifications for a determined amount of time (a Do Not Disturb option), view your Hangout Requests as well as your Archived Hangouts. Remember that Hangouts are now like instant messages or SMS messages – you will retain the conversation and can pick it up again whenever you want.

There’s also a setting for “Customize new requests” which will allow you to change the default settings for requests from people who haven’t contacted you yet – people you aren’t already in an existing hangout with.

Tapping the Customize option reveals a list of every circle you’ve created, along with an option for Public. You can now adjust settings on a per circle basis.

The two available options are “Hangout with you” and “Request only.” This allows you determine ahead of time, according to how you’ve organized people in your circles, how you want to handle an invitation to hangout. It works along the same lines as Google+ Messages within the app. When someone messages you for the first time, it comes through to you as a request to chat. Hangouts can be set the same way. Simply select a circle and choose whether or not you want people within that circle to have to request to hangout, or if they have your permission in advance to automatically start a new hangout.

While Public and the standard circles are “Request only” be default, you will likely find that all of your custom circles are “Hangout with you” so you may have several adjustments to make.

Run through them and set them however you think best and see how that goes for a few days or a week. You can come back and change a circle setting any time you wish.

What other features or settings have you noticed?

If you’ve joined a lot of Google+ communities looking for opportunities for discussion and to meet new people, you’re likely a member of at least a few communities that either aren’t active, or are not providing you with the valuable discussion you were looking for. These excess communities add to the total number of communities listed on your community page, complicating your ability to find and participate in the communities you’re interested in. And posts to these extra communities show up in your Home stream and drown out the more interesting posts.

Just like when we cleaned up and reorganized our Circles, we need to do the same thing with Communities regularly if we’re going to continue to gain value from the Communities and Google+.

First, go to your Communities page and review the Communities that you’re currently a member of. Go through each and determine whether or not you still want to be a member. If you aren’t getting any value out of a Community, or if it’s just not active, click on the Actions button in the left sidebar and select Leave Community. Once you leave a Community, you’ll automatically return to your Community page and can select a different Community. Repeat as needed.

Note the red notification number on top of the thumbnail icon for each community. This indicates how many new topics have been posted to the community since the last time you were in that community. This is an easy way for you tell whether or not a community is active.

For all your remaining Communities, it’s time to decide just how active you want to be. How many Community posts do you want to see in your Home stream? You have the same options as with your Circles: More, Standard or Fewer, as well as the option to completely remove them from the Home stream. You also have the option to receive notifications for each and every post.

What settings you choose will depend on how you like to use Google+, and the Communities that you choose to join. I’m in Communities that are focused around Business and Marketing topics, as well as personal interests. I prefer to keep my Home stream as clear as possible of personal interests as I check it often throughout the work day. And instead, I can hop into a specific Community if I feel like catching up on the latest Sci/Fi developments or Android vs. iOS debates.

I will be writing in more detail another time about Google+ Community Strategy, which may help you further refine which communities you’re a part of and active in, but hopefully this will help you get started. If you have other questions about Google+ Communities, feel free to post them into the comments below, or contact me if you’d like help understanding how to incorporate Google+ into your business strategy.

What does this mean for social media strategy and content marketing on Google Plus? Here, I will introduce the Ultimate Google Plus Cheat Sheet which outlines exactly how marketers can take advantage of all of the old and new Google Plus posting features and get the most out of every post.

From hashtags, notifications, photo editing and more – this cheat sheet will make sure that your posts always stand out from the pack. Here are a few highlights from the cheat sheet (Download and print here).

Post Anatomy

This area outlines all of the components of a complete Google Plus post. Each component of the post is highlighted and explained in detail to make sure you understand each piece.

Notifications

The notification and circle-based system is unique to Google Plus and must be understood to take full advantage of this feature. Here, you will find information about the four main circles that you will be sharing content with on a regular basis:

Public – This circle includes anyone that has a public profile on Google Plus. Since we are marketers, always share your posts with the general public.

Your Circles – This circle will mass-share the post with all of your circles. Be sure to use this function wisely, as one post rarely adds value to every one of your circles (I personally have never used this feature).

Specific Circle – Specific circles are the go-to for relevant and scaled content marketing on social media. Find or create targeted and valuable content for one specific circle.

Specific Person – You can call-out individuals for a more 1:1 marketing feel

Email Your Circles – Google Plus makes it possible to email up to 100 people within the notification circle(s) that you have selected for the post. Use this function with care, as overuse can turn good relationships sour.

Keyboard Shortcuts

These keyboard shortcuts can be used to navigate faster and have a better experience with Google Plus overall.

Post Style Options

Another quality that is unique to Google Plus is the way that text can be styled within posts. It is possible to use text styles such as bolding, italics, and strike-through. The cheat sheet outlines best practices for using each option.

Rich Snippets

Rich snippets are extra preview text and images that are connected to links to websites that are enabled for Twitter Cards. This section shows how to choose different images and stand out from the pack.

Photos

Maintain a high-impact and professional look with all of your images in posts by making sure they are full-bleed (that is, the image goes to the edge without ‘spacer bars’”. The cheat sheet outlines all of the dimensions and guidelines required to get a great full-bleed photo in every post.

How to use Google Plus photo editing features such as tagging, rotating and even adding text is also explained in this section.

Hashtags

Even though they were started on Twitter, hashtags have become a popular way to add depth, meaning and context to your posts and are now an official part of Google Plus. Here are a few ideas and best practices when adding hashtags to your posts.

My Ultimate Google Plus Cheat Sheet prints nicely to a standard 8 1/2 x 11 printer page. Download and print a copy of your own to keep near your desk for a quick reference and be sure to always squeeze the most value out of every Google Plus post!

The main difference is that the navigation menu has more colourful icons. Instead of being greyed out and not noticable, they stand out more. I guess one problem of the previous layout was that many people didn’t realise the navigation menu was there to take you to different areas of Google Plus.

Navigate around Google Plus from the home page

The left hand navigation bar disappears once you are using the account, only popping open when you hold your mouse over the Home link at the top.

Bring conversations to life with hangouts

By default the Hangouts menu is open, but you can click on the green icon in the top bar to hide it and create more screen space.

Make your photos look better

Click on hashtags to explore related posts

This one is highlighting a new feature. Hashtags have been made more prominent within the posts that appear in your Stream.

Also, Google automatically adds related hashtags to your posts – a feature that you can turn off in Settings, if you like.

Recommended posts – that you can turn off

Some posts appear in your Stream with this at the top. These are promoted posts, a bit like the Sponsored posts in your Facebook Timeline. However, unlike Facebook, where you cannot prevent Sponsored posts appearing, in Google Plus you can go to the What’s Hot section and set how many items you see or turn off the feature.

How do you log out of Google Plus?

When you scroll down the page to read content, the top bar containing the search function and your notifications disappears, leaving only the Google Plus navigation menu. In order to log out, you have to scroll to the top of the page to reveal the top bar again.

Other features of the new Google Plus layout

• The layout is now easier to understand, with content on white boxes over a greey background. This makes it easier to differentiate between different items of content.
• The top navigation on the Stream shows your top circles, so you can easily filter content posted by people you follow within specific Google Plus Circles – which are exclusive to you, don’t forget.
• The Edit Settings section is now in the main left hand navigation, at the bottom. Open the menu and then use the in-menu scrollbar to scroll down to the Settings link.

Credit: Ramon B. Nuez Jr.

It is very impressive in what Google and the Google+ engineers have been able to accomplish over the past 2 years. And what is that impressive thing you might be asking — well simply put Google+ has intensified the capacity, for you, to connect with others.

I can’t even begin to imagine. The 10’s of thousands of engineering hours that Google has invested in the Google+ project. When Google+ was launched in June 28, 2011. The Mountain View company explained that “online sharing is awkward. Even broken.”

So Google set a goal for itself — to fix this issue. And I believe that the company has done a rather nice job. Yesterday, Google+ received a brand new look. But most prominent is Google’s continued loyalty to the photographer.

Photos: your darkroom is now a Google data center:

• Auto Backup (aka Instant Upload). Too many pictures stay stranded on the phone, so with your permission, we’ll automatically backup your mobile pics as you snap them.

• Auto Highlight. It helps you find your favorites faster by de-emphasizing duplicates, blurry images and poor exposures, and focusing instead on pictures with the people you care about, landmarks, and other positive attributes.

• Auto Enhance. Taking a good photo and making it great is a task generally reserved for professional photographers. That’s why, for example, we continue to support and improve tools like the Nik Collection.

• Auto Awesome. Sometimes we’ll create a brand new image based on a set of photos in your library. For example: if you upload a sequence of photos, we’ll try and animate them automatically.

Call To Action

If you don’t’ have a Google+ get one — it’s free. Then use it.

If you have a Google+ account then use it often. Post your images, your projects, your thoughts and helpful advice. Build your Google+ community — and drive that traffic back to your web site.

Looking at Google’s social media history, one could speculate that the company just doesn’t have a knack for that particular sector. Buzz only hung around for a year, Friend Connect survived a bit longer but folded last year, and Orkut has been pawned off entirely to Google Brazil. Google+, on the other hand, is poised to succeed.

Why? The answer is simple. Google hasn’t made its newest social network better than any other. They’ve simply made it count for more.

Today, local businesses must maintain a Google+ Local Business Profile in order to – quite literally – put themselves on the map. Google’s algorithms also emphasize the importance of a Plus page to improve your rankings in organic search and generate visibility on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Like it or not, today’s most successful online marketing strategy will incorporate Google+.

How does it work? Google Plus Local Business Profiles are designed to act as dynamic listings for your company, and a strategically designed listing has the potential to

• Establish your brand as an authority via +1’s and positive user reviews.
• Improve your rankings in Google’s organic search results.
• Present your company on mobile devices to searchers who are statistically likely to patronize your business.

Your Google+ listing literally puts you on the map, and optimizing your profile with fresh content, reviews, and +1’s will keep you there. Outrank your competitors, make yourself available to shoppers on-the-go, and establish yourself as an authority to Google users and search robots alike.

It all starts with a verified listing which will confirm business details like location, phone number, and website. From there, you can enhance your Plus page with photos, logos, product information, categories, and more. Once that’s done, you can start accumulating keyword-rich reviews, +1’s, followers, and shares to increase your authority as a relevant business in your location.

Getting set up with Google+ is easy, and as local search continues to dominate the market, it might just be the most important thing you do for your business this year – like it or not!

As we already see on many other social networks, starting on Twitter, and now Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., the hashtag will start making an appearance in Google+ updates as well. It will also let you see other posts related to the hashtag with the click of a button! Click on the hashtag and the box will flip around to show you a stream of other recent posts using the same hashtag.

One of Google’s goals with this new visual update is to better connect the use of Google+ and online photos, making it more seamless within your account.

Google’s goal is to create an effortless flow between its products and to reveal a lot of information in a fast, easy way. Visually this new redesign seems to mimic the fluidity, function, and overall look of Pinterest. What do you think?

I’m definitely looking forward to this and other Google updates rolling out in the next few weeks. What are you looking forward to the most?

This week, at the Google I/O 2013 conference, Google announced many exciting changes for various parts of it’s platform.

The bulk of the upgrades this year centered around the Google+ platform…

Here’s 10 Tips to Surviving
the #NewGooglePlus

1. Change from one-to-multi column layouts by going to the bottom of the More v menu.

Three column layout exists but only for the largest of resolution displays. If you want to take a peek at it, just reduce your zoom on the page. The design is fully mobile responsive.

2. Shift+L will rapidly refresh the stream bringing you to the top and the new posts if you don’t want to click the button. Currently no way to return to auto-refreshing of the page.

3. Infographics will display in a nearly-useful size at full length in the new layout. Estimated dimensions 503×930 for desktop viewing. An influx of infographic posts is likely. Keep an eye on ensuring readability.

4. Find an assortment of additional information related to each post by clicking on it’s “Shared Publicly” or “Shared Privately” link right under the authors name to flip the card over!

5. The “send feedback” form is located at the bottom of the menu under “home”. Cant find feedback? Just type the “@” sign when not in a comment box to bring it up.

6. “What’s Hot” is back in the sidebar under home – and temporarily displaying strange gender biases (being fixed).

7. A Hangout is now any form of group communication = Video Call or Group Chat or Group Calling, etc. Merging together it’s many messaging and calling products.

8. Google has released a standalone Hangout app that replaces Google Chat and allows for text and video chat across Android, iOS, and Chrome.

iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hangouts/id643496868?mt=8

Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.talk

Chrome Browser Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hangouts/nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjanaoiihapd

9. In the right-hand hangout menu, the drop-down menu offers a number of useful options including a link to sign out of hangouts.

10. In the hangout app, the little green bar under someone’s photo indicates they are active & online.

11. To start a new hangout on air, you need to first visit the Hangout on Air page and then look halfway down the page on your right for a “Start A Hangout on Air” button that is not very visible.

12. YouTube expands it’s Live-Streaming feature to all channels with more than 1,000 subscribers. Learn more.

13. You can now send money through Gmail/Google.

14. When starting a new conversation, the status box loads up front and center with bright classic Google colors.

15. Major improvements to many of the photo tools can be altered in your settings page. (Unfortunately, being able to edit an image as you upload it and before posting it has vanished.)

The auto enhance is really handy for on-the-fly image enhancing. The ability to upload high resolution images is fantastic. Lots to love in these changes. (Including the ability to remove the download image button.)

Have you checked out the New Google Plus yet?

What do you think?

Love it? Hate it? Let Me Know!

PS: And if all of that is enough to make you need a break… go over to http://images.google.com and type in “Atari Breakout” for some amusement.

Google announced that there were over 40 new features and changes coming to Google+ during the keynote address at Google I/O 2013. We already talked about some of the changes released to the Home Stream, Hangouts and Photos, but more have been noticed that are of interest.

Home Stream

First, the home stream no longer “streams” automatically. While many liked that posts from the people you follow would automatically appear and push older posts down, a lot of people struggled to keep up with their stream, and there were pure technical issues of not being able to +1, Comment or Share on a post while it was moving. Now, your Google+ Home Stream will remain static but a blue button will appear notifiying you that there are new posts to load up.

When viewing a post, new comments on that post from other people appear automatically, without having to refresh.

Google+ Layout Changes

The top region of Google+ has been changed and streamlined. The menu that used to be along the left side is now a pocket menu accessed by mousing over the Home icon. To the right of the Home icon are your top few circles – mine happen to be organized into Notify Me, All Posts, Some Posts and Most Posts. To the right is the new Hangouts icon that reveals conversations and contacts.

At the top of your screen is a clean status update box where you can post text, links, photos, video and hangout, and upcoming events are displayed to the right of that.

Note that if you use the new multi-column layout, the number of columns visible to you will adjust according to the size and resolution of your browser window. Mine happens to use two columns, and goes up to three if I expand my browser to full screen.

Sharing

When sharing someone else’s Google+ post, the share interface has been changed and really stresses adding your own comment, which I love. Otherwise, the functionality is the same, with the original post displayed and the audience selector for the share appearing below.

Left Menu

The new left menu, in addition to being a pocket menu, has been revamped to better fit within the space as well as describe what’s being accessed. For instance, the old menu had “Explore” while the new menu has “What’s Hot.” “Find People” is now just “People” and is higher up in the menu with Profile and Photos. Pages and Hangouts are no longer hidden under “More” and Settings have been moved here and out of the top right.

Photos

Photos that you’ve previously uploaded are now automatically categorized and rearranged. They’re also arranged in gorgeous mini-albums and slideshows.

People

When viewing your circles within the People section, you can hover over someone you follow and the circles they’re in will enlarge slightly. Your circles are also color-coded now, though there’s no indication yet that you have any control over which colors are used. You can right-click on a circle to edit the name, add a description, and view that circle’s stream of posts.

What other changes have you noticed?

Google+ is making some changes, with your eyes in mind.

Perhaps to help cement its place as the go-to place for photographers and photo lovers, Google has announced an image-focused redesign of Google+.

Your Google+ stream will soon have a multi-column layout, much like Pinterest, with the number of columns to depend on the device you’re using and the size of your screen. Each stream will put photos front and center while allowing you to increase the size of images. In addition, new photo filtering functionalities can be enabled to empower Google’s intelligence to actually highlight your best photos, ignore duplicates and poor quality shots (very valuable if you bulk upload), and fix any basic esthetic or technical issues in the pictures.

In an effort to make the network a bit more intuitive, Google will also be adding related hashtags to your stream. This means that Google+ will add related hashtags to the content you produce and share, allowing you to more easily hunt down similar information that interests you .

Did you know that Google+ Pages are integrated into HootSuite? If you haven’t already, connect your brand’s Google+ Company Page to your HootSuite account. If you’re on the fence about it, read our 4 reasons why your brand should be on Google+, and our list of best practices for the network.

190 million people are active in the Google+ stream. Are you one of them? What do you think of the redesign?

In part 1 “Google+ for Brands: 4 Reasons your Brand Should Be on it”, we learned that over 500 million people are connecting in Google+ and that the network draws the second largest active follower-base after Facebook. And if that isn’t enough, we discussed the top 4 value propositions for having your brand present on Google Plus: Better discovery, deeper engagement, increased marketing performance across the web and measurable impact.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s pretend you are the owner of a cafe with a budding social media presence (these tips work for any size of business). Now that you understand the importance of being in G+, the next step is to build an effective strategy and attract an interactive community.

In this post, discover Google+’s checklist for building a successful strategy and our 9 tips for effectively engaging with your community. Together, these make up our Google+ best practices for brands.

Google+’s Checklist for a Successful Social Strategy:

• Create a Google+ Page

• Verify your Page

• Enable social extensions within AdWords

• Claim your custom URL

• Assign Page managers (you can only comment as a user)

• Add the G+ Badge to your site

And finally…

• Post exclusive content

• Grow your follower base

• Engage with your community

Once you’ve established solid foundations of your Google+ page, you can begin to strategize around what kind of content will resonate best with your follower base.

But before skipping over your cafe’s account setup, here’s a little Google+ insight: “Mashable experienced a jump in followers after rolling out the Google+ badge on their homepage, which increased its Google+ page audience by 38 percent. Mashable also uses the +1 button on articles and across the site to empower sharing to Google+.” In short, add the G+ badge to your cafe’s website.

Google+ Exclusive Content

Photographs of beautifully crafted lattes… whether you’re against it or not, they will always attract likes. Photo by Sam Milbrath

Sharing attractive and rich content goes hand-in-hand with growing your follower base and engaging with your community. But what kind of content have G+ users come to expect? The most engaging rich media on the network are beautiful photos, inspiring videos and informative charts and infographics. Use this rich media to catch people’s attention and make them more likely to share and interact with your brand.

Beyond that, post often and keep it fresh and timely (just like your coffee). Every time you post, your cafe is brought back to the top of everyone’s mind. Plus, the more you post, the more Google search visibility your brand has.

That being said, not every post needs to be about your brand or even linked back to your site. Use these status updates to teach others what you already know, offer help, align your brand with other specialists and help spread your insight and opinion.

For example, sending out weekly industry facts or tips and tricks will entice your followers to want to check your updates. Try sharing your cafe’s secret recipes or social media tips for coffee lovers. Or, why not host a weekly competition with brand perks? People love discounts, gifts and prizes ~ especially if treats are involved.

Target your Audience

When adding people to Google+, you can choose what “circle” to put them in. Just like in life, your cafe’s customers could also be your friends or they could be just customers or even co-workers. Segment your audience into these different circles and deliver content that would be interesting to or relevant for them. You wouldn’t send that to your mom, would you?

Our 9 Tips for Engaging with your G+ Community

1. Be responsive: Keep the conversation going.

2. Ask questions: The best way to stir up conversation is with a question.

3. Thank your supporters: Who doesn’t love shout-outs?

4. Poll your audience to +1 or comment: Ex. which coffee do you like the best? +1 your fave! Quick and easy engagement, plus you can poll your audience (the customer) on a particular product.

5. Share insider content: What makes your G+ different than Facebook or Twitter? Give your customer content that they won’t find anywhere else, and watch your follower base grow in time.

6. Run exclusive promotions: Launch products here first to make your customer feel like the insiders with special discounts and inside scoops.

7. Do something weekly: Host weekly hangouts or hold customer service sessions at a specific time every week. This generates sustained interest and keeps them coming back for more – depending on the quality of the content.

8. Learn from others: Follow other G+ pages and see what they’re doing right and perhaps wrong. Creativity is infectious.

9. Cross promote: Promote your G+ Page on your website and use your other social networks to leverage followers.

Engage with your Community

In part 1, we discussed the benefits of Google+ Hangouts and Communities, but let’s dive into how your brand can make the most of these meeting places.

G+ Hangouts

Internally, you could host a Hangout with your cafe employees and buyers from around the world. This could be a fun team building or on-boarding activity, or educational product, sales, marketing or customer service meeting; whatever the occasion.

Externally, your cafe could host a Hangout that introduces the coffee makers to the loyal customers. Or, hangout and discuss how to make that picture perfect latte. The benefits of Hangouts for your brand are clear, but this may not be reciprocated with your customer. Get creative and make your customers want to hangout with you.

Here’s a cool example of diving deep into G+ Hangouts:

G+ Communities

Google+ communities are filled with socially savvy people who share all kinds of interests. Search “coffee” in the communities tab and join in on the conversations. Use your social media etiquette in here though; don’t just plug your cafe. Add to the discussion, ask questions and be human. Prefer to moderate the community? Create your own and guide the conversation wherever you’d like.

Stay tuned as we roll out more best practices to help you and your business better navigate social media’s expansive universe.

Google Hangouts for the Google+ service has quickly grown to become one of Google’s most popular products. This application allows users to video conference with up to nine other friends and live stream to even larger audiences.

Utilizing Google+ as a social backbone, participants can run these video chats from mobile devices, increasing its usefulness and proliferation. As enhancements to this fine feature — such as the new Capture functionality — continue to stream from Mountain View, there’s now an abundance of fun and creative ways to push your mobile marketing strategy.

Capitalizing on the “always connected” characteristics of current mobile technology, you can use Google Hangouts to feed live content to your customers wherever they may be. I encourage you to consider some of the fresh ideas below that might just give your mobile marketing strategy the interesting new spin and visibility it needs. Keep in mind that by connecting the following ideas with mobile customers via QR codes whisking them to a Google+ circle or mobile ads inviting them to a live hangout, you can bridge the gap between passive mobile marketing and creating instant personal connections with your customers.

Demonstration

Making use of Google Hangout’s ability to broadcast live video over the web can instantly increase your visibility among target groups. By providing demonstrations of your product in a live environment, you engage the customer in a more meaningful way. Spreading the word about these live demonstrations can be easily accomplished by using the integrated Google+ “circles” functionality along with any other social media you’re no doubt already using. A prime example of this was demonstrated by Google itself when they promoted their new Google Glass product with great success. This kind of live demonstration can even be run entirely from mobile devices, as spelled out in this instructional video.

Live contests

Everybody likes getting something for free, right? Well, Google Hangouts can be used as a spectacular platform for distributing giveaways and gaining customer exposure at the same time. Coming up with fun and innovative themes, such as holiday product tie-ins or launch-day giveaways, can generate impressive amounts of interest. It’s also important to make it easy for the audience to participate, which is precisely what makes accessible, mobile solutions like Hangouts so important. By utilizing their own mobile devices to view and participate in these live events, customers are more apt to get involved knowing they don’t need to be tied to their desktop or TV.

VIP access

Leveraging the mobile nature of social media with Google Hangouts, you can give your customers a “VIP look” of the behind-the-scenes action in your organization by streaming live from a smartphone or tablet. This platform can be stretched even further by using the new Capture feature to take snapshots of live events that you can then distribute through any number of social media outlets. Coca-Cola, Topshop and even the President have used this strategy with success.

A hidden beauty to these mobile marketing strategies utilizing Google Hangouts is their immense reusability. Live streams can be automatically stored in a mobile-friendly YouTube channel, which not only lends to the social media integration, but also allows for reuse in later marketing campaigns. The key takeaway from this technology is the use of live media combined with the mobility of smartphones and tablets to grab the audience’s attention and, once captured, provide easy ways for them to interact and share in the experience. With over 500 million users, many of which rely on mobile devices, Google Hangouts have granted wonderfully creative new ways to reach your customers through their increasingly mobile lifestyles.

The Latest on Businesses and Google+

Yesterday, reports came out concerning business usage on Google+. As Alexei Oreskovic writes for Reuters, Google+ “is struggling to win over the brands and businesses that have been its most loyal customers in the internet search market.” It appears that businesses – even those who have Google+ pages – are not taking the time to update their pages as compared to what they do on Facebook and Twitter.

For businesses and agencies, Facebook and Twitter’s recent changes have made using their service for advertising and reaching consumers a lot more attractive. One scary stat from Redorbit’s report on this Google+ news states that of the “seventy-two of the 100 most valuable global brands” on Google+ “approximately 40 percent have either never posted content on the website or had only done so infrequently.” That’s not a good sign for Google as they try to bring in more businesses.

Alexei reports that with Google+, Google’s goal appears to be “to prevent migration of internet users to Facebook and other social networks.” Google+ doesn’t have advertisements so that statement appears to hold true for now. Eventually, Google+ may start implementing ads, especially given some of the recent positive news from earlier this month.

Are Businesses Ignoring at Their Own Peril?

In May so far I’ve spent two mornings writing about some positive news and numbers for Google+. The social media platform has come a long way since its inception in 2011. First part of the good news was the dramatic growth Google+ has seen over the past year – enough growth to surpass Twitter! Then there was the news last week that Google+ numbers for time on site had increased almost 100% (although still very low compared to Facebook).

Businesses ignoring Google+ may be making a mistake. The numbers from the above two posts show that Google+ is gaining traction for users all over. As Google grows its other offerings, they will undoubtedly bring more people into the Google brand ecosystem and ultimately to Google+. If Google Glass is a huge hit, millions more people will be using Google+.

Then again, the ignorance may be intentional. Businesses could just be waiting for when the number of users and the time they spend engaging on Google+ reaches a certain point before they shift their limited social media resources to the platform. Still, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to simply include Google+ into your social media strategy. I think it’s best to use every tool you’ve got.

Are businesses doing the right thing by ignoring Google+? Should they be devoting more time and effort to the platform?

This came out of the article I reference in the video: Businessinsider.com

If you’ve just started your Google+ journey in prep for Author Rank, I’m sure you have a bunch of questions, and you’re probably looking for some tips/shortcuts too. I collected a bunch of questions, some I once asked and some I’ve heard others ask, and answered them. I also cover some keyboard shortcuts and text formatting.

Let the fourth and final post of this Google+ series begin!

What shows up on my Home tab?

The Home tab on Google+ is where you’ll see your stream. The posts in your stream have been shared with you. That means you’re seeing a post from someone either because that person is in your circles or because that person shared something with you specifically.

You’ll also see in your stream posts that are labeled “What’s Hot and Recommended.” Google strives to show you “serendipitous and diverse information,” and one of the ways it does that is by showing you interesting and exemplary content in your stream.

You can adjust the number of Hot and Recommended posts you see. Just go to the Explore page, and you’ll see this slider:

Move the slider to the right if you want to see more Hot and Recommended posts. Move it to the left if you’d rather see less. If you’re not too keen on the serendipitous and diverse information Google is showing you, you can also turn off this kind of post completely by moving the slider all the way to the left.

If you’re part of any Google+ communities, you can choose whether or not you want to see posts from communities in the stream. Just go to the page for the community you’re part of and click the button labeled Actions (it’s right below the profile picture). Check or uncheck the “Show posts in Home stream” box.

You can also filter your home stream by circle. At the very top of the stream, you’ll see filters named after your circles. Click one and you’ll see content from only the people in that circle.

Let’s say I filter my stream because I want to see content from only the people in my Mainstreethost circle (aka my coworkers). When I filter my home stream, I’ll see a button labeled Settings on the right-hand side of the page. This lets me make my stream even more customizable.

If I don’t want to see in the stream posts from people in this circle, I can uncheck that “show posts in Home stream” box. I can also change the amount of posts from people in this circle that I see in the stream.

What happens if I add someone to a circle?

When you add people to circles, they will get a notification telling them you added them to a circle (this could be an email or just a notification the next time they log into Google+, depending on how someone has their notification settings set up). People will not know the name of the circle you’ve added them to. You’re the only one who can see the name of your circles, so you can name your circles anything that you want.

Can I edit circle visibility on my profile?

Yes! I’m sure you’ve noticed that when you look at someone’s Google+ profile, you can see all of the people he/she has in circles. If you want to change what people can see when they look at your profile, go to the About tab of your profile. Click Edit in the box marked People.

Here’s where you can choose which circles are visible when others look at your profile. Maybe you want other people to be able to see everyone you have in all of your circles. Maybe you want them to be able to see only people in certain circles. Maybe you don’t want people to see the people who have circled you. You can change all of this.

What else can I edit on my profile when it comes to visibility?

You can determine which tabs are visible to others when they look at your Google+ profile. The About tab and the Posts tab will always be visible to people who look at your profile. But when it comes to the Photo, YouTube/Videos, +1, and Reviews tab, you can choose whether or not you want to make these tabs visible. If I don’t want people to be able to see the reviews I’ve written, I can hide that tab. Press the gear icon on your Profile page and click Settings.

Scroll down, and you can edit tab visibility:

You can also change the visibility of the sections on your About tab. All of your information is public by default, but if I wanted to make my work info visible to only the people I have in circles, I can do that.

You can change visibility for all sections on this tab. But if engaging with people and sharing your content is important to you, you want to make all of the info on your profile public so that it will be crawled by Google.

If I comment on or +1 a post, who can see my comment or +1?

When you comment on or +1 a post, everyone who can see the original post can also see your comment or +1. So if a post is public, anyone can see your comment or +1 because anyone can see the post. Let’s say my boss Craig shares a post with me, my coworker Brandon, and my coworker Mike. If I comment on this post, only Craig, Brandon, and Mike will see my comment. But any of them can reshare the post and thereby expose both the post and my comment to a larger audience. Also, if I mention some other person in my comment, that person will be able to see the post even if it wasn’t originally shared with him/her.

Can I edit something I’ve already posted?

Yes! Have you ever tweeted something only to realize your tweet has a typo or is missing a word? Your only option is to delete the tweet or risk being judged by your followers. Facebook gives you some editing power, but it’s really limited. On Google+ you can edit posts after the fact. Just click on the arrow in the top right corner of one of your posts and select Edit from the drop down menu.

You can fix typos, add more hashtags, add updated commentary, or do whatever your inner editor desires.

You can edit your comments on posts after the fact too.

When I share something, I see the option to share with Extended Circles. What is Extended Circles?

Extended Circles includes people in your circles’ circles.

What does muting a post do?

Muting a post takes the post out of your stream. It also prevents you from receiving further notifications about a post. Let’s say I comment on a post by Starbucks. This post will most likely garner a lot of comments, and I may not want to get a notification every single time someone else comments. So I’d mute the post.

Text Formatting:

Bold = *Word*

Italics = _Word_

Strikethrough = -Word-

(you have to put spaces around words if you want to format them)

Keyboard Shortcuts:

/ go to the search box

j move up one post

k move down one post

n next comment on current post

p previous comment on current post

r comment on current post

If you missed any of the posts in the Google+ series, check out Part I on Google+ Profiles, Part II on Google+ Communities, and Part III on Google+ Ripples.

NPR hosts a “Morning Edition Virtual Coffeehouse” Google+ Hangout with reporters and special guests, Glamour Magazine hosts several Google+ Hangouts including a book club, and even sites like, Breast Cancer Answers hosts a bi-weekly Google+ Hangout with various doctors to, you guessed it, answer questions and educate readers about breast cancer.

Our very own search engine optimization guys hosted their own Google+ Hangout with Skadeedle, discussing keywords. They broadcast the Google+ Hangout to the world (which can also be streamed and recorded on YouTube) and, boom! Not only did we have a successful Google+ Hangout, but we also have an excellent piece of content marketing in the form of a recorded video.

Sarah Hill, Chief Digital Storyteller for the Veterans United Network, recently wrote a fascinating article about how she utilizes Google+ Hangouts to engage, build relationships and connect with military veterans. Hill writes, “There is nothing more effective for building your audience than face-to-face communication. Social media posts can’t compare with the ability to see your audience blink, follow their hand gestures, or witness their eye movements and facial expressions — all key components of what’s been called human media.”

Many in Hill’s network prefer the virtual face-to-face communication because, “Text-based interactions can leave users feeling like they’re just following an individual. Face-to-face interaction through group video chat gives users a feeling of truly getting to know you.”

One of Hill’s most effective Google+ Hangout methods is her weekly “Virtual Front Porch,” in which participants are free to come and go as they please, with no set agenda, just a friendly chat to touch base. Hill writes, “For personal branding and content creators, this can be a gateway to great interviews or subjects for your next piece — and remember, you don’t have to worry about taking notes if you have it streamed directly to your YouTube account.”

Hosting your own Google+ Hangout is an excellent opportunity to interact with current and potential customers, create stellar content marketing, and implement some of those human elements back into our marketing tactics. Have you hosted or attended a Google+ Hangout? Share away!

Recently, Google announced that Blogger blogs were getting access to the Google+ comment system (rather than their previously crap-tastic commenting system)…

It is important to note that there is no capabilities to sync these comments with the native comment system meaning that they will not be retained in your site’s database.

Using Code

HOW TO : Enable Google+ Comments on Any Website

Note: You will need to replace “[URL]” with ”” if you are adding these to your entire site at once.

Using Code For Thesis

How To Add Google Plus Comments To Thesis Theme for WordPress

Using Plugins

There are several plugins now available. Each has different nuances. Be sure to read the details.

Google+ Comments – Displays G+ & Native comment systems in different tabs

Google+ Comments Widget – Replaces native system, Mobile Responsive

WordPress Google Plus Comments – Works with native commenting system. Can set width and language.

(I intentionally did not include all plugins because a few were just not solid.)

G+ Comments Live on CloudHero.net

The SEO Question

Like other alternative WordPress commenting systems, this runs in an iframe which means it does not help your SEO. In fact, the comments themselves are sync’d to Google+ and indexed there with no chance of that traffic coming to your blog.

However, ease of engagement, lack of spam, and facilitation of chatting, it can be a great way to build social proof and engage with your audience.

It also can bring in traffic since the comments go to Google+ and friends of readers may return to read the post. (This is similar to how FB comments can create traffic.)

Because of this, this commenting system is really best and ideal for those who are going to reply to their fans and open dialogs and carry on conversations.

Check out the Google+ comments below (and the original ones further down) and let me know what you think!

PS: I’m using the code for Thesis and have added my own little blue border around it to help differentiate it from the author box above.

If you’ve just started out on your Google+ journey but aren’t really feeling the social network and think it couldn’t possibly have any good stuff, then take a few minutes and learn about Google+ Ripples. (I promise it’s worth it.)

(Oh, and just in case you missed the previous posts, Part I was about Google+ profiles and Part II was about Google+ communities.)

What Is Google+ Ripples?

Google+ Ripples produces an interactive graphic that shows you exactly how a Google+ post spreads (or “ripples”) through the network.

To get Ripples for a post, click on the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner of the post and then click View Ripples.

Here’s what Ripples looks like for the above ESPN post:

What does it all mean?

ESPN is at the center of this diagram because ESPN authored the original post. All of the arrows extending out from ESPN represent reshares of that original post. The names and smaller circles that those arrows point to are the names of people who reshared the post.

There are also a few larger circles on here, representing Aziz H and Tony Simons. These two people have larger circles because they have more “relative influence,” i.e., people reshared the ESPN post from them. Tony Simons saw the ESPN post, shared it, and then someone who has Tony Simons in circles saw the post and reshared it from him. He put that post in front of a larger audience.

You can see everyone who shared the post in that right-hand column next to the diagram and you can zoom in on the circles and names in the diagram itself. You can also hold your cursor over someone’s name and see if he/she added any commentary when he/she reshared the post.

In addition to the interactive graphic, Google+ Ripples shows you a live animation of how a post spreads through the network. You can actually watch the sharing process unfold over time.

And finally, Google+ Ripples identifies influencers, statistics about the post, and languages in which the post was shared.

Some important things to remember:

You can view Ripples for only public posts.

Ripples shows only public shares. It won’t show private shares. When you look at the ESPN post in the stream, you can see that the post had 146 total shares. But when you look at Ripples, you’ll see only the 74 public shares for that post.

Also, while this may seem obvious, I have heard people voice confusion about this, so I think it’s worth mentioning, if you click on the dropdown menu of a public post and you don’t see the View Ripples option, then no one has shared that post. So it won’t have any Ripples.

What can you do with Google+ Ripples?

1. Identify early adopters

That live animation shows you who shared a post and at what time, so watch it and identify the first people to share your post. Watch the live animations for all of your posts, and see if you can spot a pattern. Do the same people consistently share your content soon after you post it? Identify these early adopters. Everything I’ve read about Author Rank says that if/when it rolls out, getting people with a higher Author Rank to share your stuff will be key to boosting your own. Take a look not only at the people who share but also the people they’re connected to.

2. See who’s saying what about your content

Ripples shows you the commentary people add when they share a post, and there’s no better way to see on Google+ exactly what people are saying about the content you post. If people are sharing your content and saying positive things about it, thank them, comment on their shares, +1 them.

3. See what kind of content is best received

Along the same lines as the point above, if you’re looking at Google+ Ripples for all of your posts, you can see which types of posts get shared the most, which get the most positive commentary, the people with whom your posts resonate. You can then use all of that info you’ve gathered for future blog posts/infographics/slide decks.

4. Circle the people who share your content

You can create an advocate/influencer circle specifically for these people.

5. Use that data!

Working on building up your Google+ profile and want to assess how things are progressing? Ripples is one way to do this. You can also show other people how things are progressing in a cool, interactive way and avoid the whole boring spreadsheet deal.

Ripples for URLs

You can also see Ripples for any URL. When you’re looking at the Ripples for a post, you’ll see this in the upper right-hand corner:

So I put in the URL for a Mashable article about the best brands on Google+ and got this:

Like ripples for Google+ posts, ripples for URLs gives you a lot of useful information as far as the people sharing a given page. But constantly going to and from Google+ to enter URLs sounds annoying, doesn’t it? This is where AJ Kohn comes in. He made a bookmarklet that you can get at:

blindfiveyearold.com/ripples-bookmarklet.

If you go here, you can drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar and click it any time you want to see Ripples for the page you’re on. (Thanks, AJ!)

Now go check out who’s sharing your Google+ posts!

I’m going to be wrapping up the final part of this Google+ series next week, and I’ll be covering a whole bunch of helpful Google+ tips and answering some common questions about Google+.

Google Plus on the Rise

Google has been traditionally limited in discussing the numbers behind Google Plus. Unlike Facebook, which flaunts its numbers as much as possible (I would too if I had a billion users), Google appears to not focus as much on their number of users.

But today, as Thomas Watkins writes on The Business Insider, “Google Plus is racking up large numbers of new users and continues to outpace Twitter as the world’s number two social network.” Even with all of the amazing changes that Twitter has made in recent weeks, Google Plus has somehow managed to grow faster.

Now it looks like there are close to 360 million active users on Google Plus. Thomas explains that this is a whopping 33 percent increase in users since June of last year. Users have been enjoying the unifying nature of Google’s services and Google Plus is becoming a more important part of that.

For businesses and agencies, focusing on Google Plus is not only smart social media use, but as Thomas quotes Claire Stokoe, a strong Google Plus account “is one of the factors that will help you rank high on Google.” Maybe it’s time to start focusing a bit more on your Google Plus page? It’s certainly worth thinking about.

Google Glass & Twitter Apps

If this rapid growth continues, Google Plus is going to be a serious competitor for Facebook in terms of reaching audiences and users. Google has a potentially game-changing product on the horizon: Google Glass.

Glass is important because it brings together for a user all of Google’s product and social media offerings. Google Plus is key to its functioning, and if Glass is a hit with millions of people, Facebook is going to have a hard time competing. Even a former executive at Facebook has said in an article by Nicholas Carlson on BI, that “he’s worried Facebook is getting lost in incremental “feature creep” – and that it should be focusing on “ground-breaking new products.””

In the long run, Google Plus could become a much more salient platform for customers. Even Twitter is making sure it has a hold in Glass with an official app. They don’t want to miss out on the potential for Glass to go mainstream.

Looking Forward

For businesses and agencies, as of right now at least, Facebook is still able to reach the most people, but one shouldn’t ignore Google Plus – it has a lot to offer. It really is on pace to become even more useful to users and businesses alike. It can’t hurt to get started if you haven’t already, and I think businesses and agencies should really be keeping an eye on Google Plus for the remainder of 2013 to see how much more it grows and how well Glass is adopted by the mainstream public.

Is Google Plus going to surpass Facebook in usefulness for users, businesses, and agencies? What do you think?

The meaning of that phrase may soon transform from a general invitation to a specific video chat request. Google’s Hangout feature is free (with a Google account) and allows for up to 10 people to chat together. It also allows for an unlimited amount of people to watch live broadcasts of “Hangouts on Air.”

Google+ provides an excellent opportunity for thought leadership and engagement – it grants anyone, anywhere the role of a broadcaster. It’s even accessible from the Google+ mobile app for Android and iPhone.

What truly makes the Hangout feature stand out among the virtual video competition, however, is Google integration. Google streamlines Hangouts with other features, making it easy to create calendar events and search for videos. For those working on calls, Google docs can be opened simultaneously for collaboration.

Included within Hangouts is the YouTube app, which streams your videos on YouTube and saves them for later viewing. The Google Effects app lets you have fun on camera, while the recently unveiled “Capture” app makes it easier for you to take pictures while the Hangout is in process.

The interactive element of Hangouts can alter how brands connect with consumers. Is your company getting overwhelmed with the same product questions? Hold a Hangout with friendly employee faces explaining the details along with releasing a FAQ document. Have a phone meeting with a potential client? Offer to host it on Google+ Hangouts for a more personal feel.

Another upcoming benefit of Google+ Hangouts is monetization. Glamour magazine recently teamed up with Google to launch a series of sponsored Hangouts. Eight of the nine planned social videos will be sponsored by a company, whose products will be a large part of the content. For instance, a DIY blogger will use Suave products while demonstrating hair styling and tips. This further opens up the door for innovative social marketing and product placement. Below we outline other possibilities on Google+ hangouts:

Take advantage of Google+ Hangouts for:

• Webinars
• Internal/External Meetings
• Training
• Networking
• Q & A Sessions
• Brand Contests/Giveaways
• Product Demonstrations
• Client Presentations
• Customer Testimonials
• Launch Parties

The Benefits of Google+ Series: Overview

The Benefits of Google+ Series: For Businesses

The Benefits of Google+ Series: Local SEO

The Benefits of Google+ Series: Communities

Have any questions about Google+ or social media marketing? Contact ZOG Digital today.

1. Maturity

For many social media marketers the “shiny object syndrome” of social media has worn off and the reality that social media provides just another tool kit for marketers has set in.

As it has become clear that social is not free, people are starting to flock towards marketing automation and CRM systems to help them measure the impact of their social media activity. This can be difficult, especially for large companies with multiple systems and small companies with limited budgets. As many are trying to catch up with this sophisticated new marketing reality, continuous innovation and new mandates like mobile keep marketers on their toes.

2. Consolidation and Isolation

The big social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and G+, have been consolidating features on their platforms. Each of these “communities” wants to offer every possible social feature themselves: content sharing, video, live streaming, discussions – to just name a few.

Points in case are: a) Twitter dropping support for Instagram and getting their own photo (and video) tool; b) LinkedIn adding endorsements, company pages, and the option to add all kinds of content to profiles; c) Facebook offering live streaming and now even free phone calls.

Realistically, for marketers, it’s a strain on resources to have to upload the same content to multiple platforms, e.g. pictures to Instagram, pictures to Twitter, and pictures to G+. Personally, I like it that I can put my videos only on YouTube and then share them almost anywhere – easy!

So here is my prediction: As most individuals, and even companies, don’t have the bandwidth to be equally active on all major channels and duplicate their content uploads, there is going to be a movement of isolation as a result to all this consolidation activity. People will narrow down the number of social networks they engage with. This is likely to give each network an even stronger niche focus, e.g. Facebook for B2C, LinkedIn for B2B. All in all, maybe not a bad thing.

3. Drop off and Specialization

Let me ask you this provocative question: “Can you imagine a world without Facebook?”

I had been lukewarm on G+ ever since it started – but since they announced their Communities functionality, I see the sky as Google’s limit. Think about it: Community, email, analytics, document hosting, pictures, video sharing with YouTube and more – and all of it accessible with a single password and login, connected to the most powerful search engine in the world.

And while Facebook charges brands to reach 100% of their audience (PageRank), Google makes this free (at least for now). Furthermore, reports indicate that people are cutting back on time spent on Facebook. The promoted stories are annoying, to say the least, and graph search makes me very worried about my privacy. I see Facebook going the way of Monster.com and Yahoo.com, who were once great and then ended up being full of spam.

As Jeff Korhan writes in his blog Winning the Social Media Overwhelm Race: “Many businesses are discovering that Facebook isn’t working for them, so they are focusing their efforts on LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Google+…It’s better to have a robust presence on Pinterest than a mediocre one across the board on the more “popular” networks.”

Google+ is already in second place when it comes to the number of most active users on a social network (and has over 500 million users total). Some question this number as Google has been forcing users to use G+ to write reviews and more – but I still believe that Google’s attempt to make G+ the gold standard of social networks will be a success. Just give it time.

Having multiple Gmail accounts is awesome… but having multiple Google+ accounts is annoying! (And potentially a violation of the Terms of Service of the site.)

While a Google+ profile is auto-generated when you make a new Gmail account, it fortunately is almost as easy to get rid of as well.

How To Delete A Google Plus Account

1. Start by logging into the account you wish to remove. Take special care to ensure you are NOT in the account you wish to keep. There is no undo button.

2. In the upper right corner, open the drop-down and select “Account”

3. On the page that comes up, https://www.google.com/settings/plus, select “Google+” on the left hand navigation, and then scroll all the way to the bottom and select “Disable Google+” (and click the click here link).

4. On the resulting page, https://plus.google.com/u/0/downgrade/ click the radio box next to “Delete Google+ content”. Be very careful NOT to select the box next to “Delete your entire Google Profile”. These are worded in a way that it is easy to select the wrong one. Only select the one with a + in the name.

4. The final view is an expanded view of the prior window. Be sure that the button next to “Delete Google+ content” is still checked and that you (still) do not accidentally check the other one.

Then put a check mark into the “Required” box and click “Remove Selected Services”.

Done!

You have successfully removed an unneeded or unwanted or duplicate Google+ account!

Now you have a solution!

Do you use Google+?

Google+ communities are created around a particular interest. People share posts, have conversations about a given topic (or topics), and ask/answer questions. There are communities for virtually every industry and topic, from social media to psychology to food blogs to cats. (Grumpy Cat aka Tardar Sauce has a Google+ community because of course she does.)

Why You’d Join a Community

To network- When I first joined Google+, I had a hard time finding people in my field (other than my coworkers and blogging “celebrities”) whom I could add to my circles. I knew people were interacting with each other and sharing links on Google+, but I had a hard time discovering those active, engaged people. Communities can put you in touch with like-minded people and help you expand your connections. You can then circle the people you engage with in a community.

To discover information- I was scoping out an SEO community and saw a link to an awesome post by Mike Arenesen on SwellPath about including CTAs in your Google+ posts. I read it, learned about something entirely new to me, and shared it with people. I probably wouldn’t have discovered the post if it wasn’t for that community. Active communities in which people are regularly sharing links and asking questions are great resources for finding news, cool tips, and that great content everyone’s always buzzing about.

To ask and answer questions- Something stumping you? Curious about something in your field? Ask the people in your community! You can also answer the questions posed by other people and establish yourself as a knowledgeable expert.

To find potential topics for blog posts- You can use the questions people ask as the basis for a blog post. You can also use communities to monitor frequent topics of discussion, people’s interests, people’s pain points, and then incorporate any one of those into a blog post.

Types of Communities

Public: anyone can join, anyone can see members and posts, anyone can find the community through search

Public: anyone can request to join, but moderators need to approve membership, anyone can see members and posts, anyone can find the community through search

Private: anyone can find the community through search and request to join, but moderators need to approve membership, only members can see the other members and posts

Private: not shown in search results, only invited people can join, only members can see other members and posts

When you post to a public community, people who look at your Google+ profile page can see those posts.

Posts you share on a community page won’t show up in the streams of people who have you in their circles unless those people are members of the community. Let’s say I’m a member of the Apple community on Google+. My coworker Brandon isn’t a member of the Apple community (what can I say; he likes PCs). If I share something on the Apple Community page, Brandon isn’t going to see my post in his home stream because he doesn’t belong to the community.

(Google+ pages can create/moderate/join/post to communities, too.)

Joining a Community

Finding/Joining:

Click on the “Communities” button on the left-hand panel on Google+.

You’ll then see a bunch of suggested communities. You’ll see that some of these suggestions are based on the communities that people in your circles have joined. From there, you can search for communities.

You can also use the main search located at the top of Google+. It has a community filter, so you can type in your query, select Communities, and in your results get communities that match your query.

If you’re in search of communities, you can also check out CircleCount, which ranks Google+ communities by number of followers.

Even if you’re not too familiar with Google+, joining a community is 100% foolproof. When you click through to a community’s page, you’ll see a red button labeled “Join community.” If you need moderator approval to join, you’ll see an “Ask to join” button.

When you scope out different community pages, you’ll notice that a lot of communities have categories to help organize topics of discussion.

Sharing:

If you want to share something with a community, you can go to the page for that community and post a link/video/photo/comment. Or you can share to a community from anywhere in Google+ (your Home page, your Profile page). Just pick a community in that same box where you would choose what circles/Google+ users you want to share with.

Let’s say I wanted to share something with that Samsung Galaxy S3 community I showed above. I choose Samsung Galaxy S3 and then I choose which category I want my post in.

(You can share to only one category.)

Notifications:

If you join a community and you don’t want to receive an email every time someone posts in a community, you can turn notifications off by clicking on the little bell icon under the community’s profile picture:

If you’re part of a community that has more than 10,000 members, notifications are automatically turned off and you cannot turn them on. How will you know when people post? When you log in to Google+ and hover over the “Communities” button on the left-hand side and you’ll see notifications from the communities you’ve joined.

Creating a Community

To create a community, click the “Communities” button on the left-hand side of the page and then click “Create Community.”

Then choose whether you want your community to be public or private.

This is your one and only chance to choose between a public or private community (*Dun, dun, dun*). You can’t create a private community and then later decide you want to make it public, or vice versa. (It sounds so irrevocable, I know.)

Then add details about your community: give it a name and tagline, pick a profile picture, add discussion categories (you can always go back and rename/add/remove categories), a description, links, and a location. (Obviously the more descriptive all of this information, the better. It lets people know exactly what the community is about and what topics community members discuss.)

Some things to keep in mind when creating a community:

Invite people! (You can invite individuals and entire circles, or you can invite someone through their email address.)

Comment on posts shared by members, answer questions, +1 posts/comments. (Duh. But seriously, comments and +1s can go a long way and make people feel like their contributions are valuable and appreciated. It also helps make your community an active place where people want to share.)

Add moderators. Moderators help manage a community. Here’s what they can do:

Add and edit categories

Remove posts

Remove members

Ban members

(Only an owner of a community, not a moderator, can add other moderators and delete a community.)

And that’s it for Part II of this Google+ series. Next up: Circles and Ripples (even if you’re not big on Google+, if you’ve never heard of Ripples, it’s worth your time to learn about them. They’re one of the best features of Google+.)