Over the past few weeks I have dedicated time to understanding the nuances of how to use some of the Google Plus Features and I thought I would share my findings with you.
Why do I think Google Plus is Important?
Google’s latest changes to their search algorithm, Google Plus Your World (which I discussed in my last post, What is Search, Plus Your World and Why is It Important? )means that when providing search results, Google will now be pulling information from Google Plus to provide you with a unique and personal experience.
This is important because if you have an active and engaged community on Google Plus where you are sharing relevant, informative and educational subject matter and more importantly getting recognised as doing so by getting +1’d (which is the Google Plus equivalent of a Facebook Like), then that social proof will tell Google’s search algorithm that your content is valuable and should be shared in the search results.
That content will also become available in the search feed of friends of the person who recommended it. This is great as your content will be appearing in the search results because a friend or associate interacted with that content; by interacted I mean commented on, shared or +1’s. Their interaction could well influence the searcher’s decision to review that content.
Let’s take a quick look at how to use Google Plus Features for beginners.
I am not going to go through how to set up an account because that is quite self-explanatory. Instead, I am going to start by outlining some of the features.
How to use Google Plus Streams
The Google Plus Stream is the equivalent to the Facebook Wall in that it contains all the information that your social circles are sharing. However you can customize this so you only see certain information, posts, links, images, videos from certain circles. This means that you can avoid having a constantly cluttered stream allowing you to be more focussed.
How to use Google Plus Circles
A circle is effectively a group of people that share the same interest. When you initially get started with Google plus you will have circles such as friends, acquaintances, family however you can customize it and add your own circles.
When adding people to your network you can add them to a circle that only you see the name off.
For example you could add Barrack Obama and David Cameron to a Political leaders circle. You could add Tim Tebow and Tony Romo to a circle called NFL quarter backs.
The beauty of this feature is that you can actually control exactly what information you choose to share with each circle. You can also go into the circle to read the stream, knowing that the information flowing in that stream will be filtered only for that niche.
How to Use Google Plus’ what’s Hot Feature
I really like the addition of the What’s Hot feature. What’s hot is exactly what it says it is, it provides a feed of what is trending at that moment in time. I am sure you will agree is not that revolutionary, so why do I like it so much?
Well, you can add your own search criteria and save those searches so you get results for what is hot. For example, for the search “entrepreneur” or “small business marketing tips” or “football”, rather than scouring the entire internet for news to share to your community you can have a few specific searches saved. Browse them and share relevant ones with your community.
It is very similar to the Google alerts feature and for me will certainly save a lot of time.
This is a very rudimentary look at Google Plus features; there are some other features that are slightly more complex, such as Google hang outs, that will probably deserve a post of their own to discuss how to use them. The key take away from this post is that Google have provided users with a social media platform and their latest Google algorithm takes into account social influence. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that it is important to get on board with Google plus sooner rather than later.
Come and join me on Google Plus by Clicking Here ====>>>: James Debono add me to one of your circles and let’s start sharing.
Great info on Google Plus.