Google Plus communities joined the social media scene not too long ago.
With Facebook already down in the dead-zone in terms of forming groups, Google Plus gave us a new look. It has given social media another chance to keep any form of group or community in its truest form.
Communities are:
– a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
That is how a community should function and feel in its truest form. But with everything that comes alive on the Internet, there also comes the spammer.
Google Plus communities have helped me gain new connections and have helped me grow Internet Dreams even bigger. As I continue to use them, I also continue to accrue results and experience.
As a former beginner, I made a lot of mistakes with Google Plus communities. Many of them that I am not proud of at all.
I don’t want any beginners going into Google Plus communities to do the same mistakes that I have done and the most common ones that they will most likely do.
These are the six mistakes that I have done using the communities on Google Plus and why I think they are mistakes.
Let us work together to keep Google plus communities free of spam and become happy like this:
Posting more than one link
This is downright spammy!
I can’t believe that I was thinking this practice was “alright” in my mind.
This is what I was thinking:
Well, if one guy doesn’t find one of my links interesting, there is a chance that he will find my other link interesting.
Not to mention that I was driving the moderators crazy, I was also giving myself a bad name.
A name that can be very hard to influence to the positive side if created on the wrong foot.
One link is absolutely enough for a group, and sometimes none is the best way to go for some.
If your content is incredible, then one link is enough to let the community members know about it.
Incredible content is the key to getting shares and plus ones from the Community members.
If the content is mediocre, then don’t even bother displaying some of that stuff.
It’s not worth it.
Don’t do this:
Joining too many communities
Juggling too many things at once?
A good juggler will juggle only the amount that he can handle.
Otherwise, the common occurrence is someone bending over and picking the blocks over and over again.
Don’t let that be you.
A smart person would handle only how much he can and how much he pleases.
I know you’re a smart person and you’re thinking at this moment of opening a tab a removing yourself from fifteen of those Google plus communities that you’ve joined.
Doing things less is sometime more in certain situations.
If your activity in the communities is just dropping by to drop in a link of your latest post, then in my eyes, that is spammy.
You aren’t doing any good, even if you think you are just providing content for the members.
Communities are all about coming together and discussing each others problems.
I would say joining three communities and engaging at the start, is key in getting results from them.
Also help.
I bolded that word because it is very important.
Your link is not what a person in need is looking for unless you know that beforehand.
You are there to help the “random” person that might come across a community and decides to ask a question there.
Helping and engagement are key, and too many joined communities can hinder those two to prosper.
Communities aren’t only just about links, but a purpose to engage and connect with each other.
Only posting my own stuff
Posting only your stuff is going to be such a downer for many people. I know your stuff is incredible content and you work so hard on it, but the other man won’t know any of that.
You see, he sees so much content on the Internet everyday. At the moment he spots your article he categorizes it as mediocre, just as the other content he spotted on the Internet that day.
Unfortunately, much of the content is mediocre to down right crap these days!
Tell Google about it!
You see, social media isn’t only about me.. me..me.. It is about the others and your will to help others on there.
Posting your own stuff all the time isn’t seen as help to the others. It is seen as manipulation to see your “own” content.
Helping others, again, is the whole point of social media and communicating with them.
Why not help a few of your friends with the promotion of their latest article? Why not get one of the best articles on a big blog that might help a member in a community?
All I am implying is you share a whole of range of important topics in the form of articles and links.
Not just your own.
Kept posting my own link, every time being removed
If a moderator decides to have a look at your link and he then comes to conclusion to delete it from the community, let it be.
Why I say, “let it be” is because you are going to accept that your link isn’t appropriate for the group. Mostly, accepting that you can never be able to post that link again in that specific community.
You see, I can be quite the bonehead.
I was too stubborn to accept that my article link was not accepted by a moderator of the community. Sometimes it just isn’t!
And don’t do what I did. I tried a couple of times to repost the exact same link!
You know what happened? You go it! It was removed again, as expected.
Warning!
If you keep posting the same link, you will eventually be banned forever from the same community. Again without hesitation, don’t try to repost the same article into the same community if it has already been deleted before.
Not enough engagement
This is a nail-biter for everyone, including myself.
Let me remind you again the purpose of what Social Media brought to us. The purpose of Social Media is to connect and share our ideas with each other.
Not in a form of articles but into the form of simple conversation.
Google plus communities have brought us in new fresh air into the social media world. Since Facebook is completely overrun by spammers in each of the groups, Google plus has given us a new perspective.
I am going to from now on try to keep the communities of Google plus clean from the spam of my articles. I will now look at them as a perfect gathering to connect and share my ideas on a personal level.
Engagement is going to be my sole action in Google Plus communities.
Let us from now on vow to keep Google plus communities free of our own spam, and maintain the integrity of what a Google Plus community should be!
Google Plus Communities are for help and not only for posting links
As this ties into what I just talked about in the point prior, communities on Google plus are all for engagement.
As far as engagement goes, it can also include the following actions – helping, sharing, and advising. Helping is such an underrated action that many don’t bother to perform.
Helping is not done by the masses because they are too selfish with their own time. They think it is a waste of their own time when they decide to help a person in need.
How can they think that way? They don’t realize that helping someone has such a stronger influence than having them find you via your “content” from somewhere else.
What I mean is not that you helped them via your article, which can most likely happen, but if they discovered you in a different way other than “you helping them”.
The potential of him returning to your blog and turning him into a follower is so much greater. You “helped” him and he wants to return the favor.
Maybe even learn a few more things from you!
Read more: Why I Am Going To Block You – A Google+ Etiquette Guide