Google+ is a social networking and identity service. Unlike most conventional social networks accessed through a single website, this is being described as a “social layer” covering its many online properties. Google+ also goes by GooglePlus and G+.
Important Terms (Plusisms)
“Plushare(s)” – Short for “Plus-share(s)” which are the various items (posts, photos, videos) in a Plustream along with any comments
“Plustream(s)” – Reverse chronological list of items being shared by the Plushers in your Circles.
“Plusher(s)” – Short for “Plus-sharer(s)” and pronounced like pushers but with pl… – these are the people and organizations sharing on Google+.
“Circles” – Fundamental organizational aspect of Google+ to categorize the plushers in your social network.
“+Mention” – While entering a post, you can type the “+” or “@” keys followed by the name of another plusher to mention them and invite them into the conversation.
“+1” – You can recommend comments, websites, plushares to other plushers (equivalent to FB “Like”).
“Sparks” – News, videos, photos, articles, etc based on your interests..
Want people to follow you? (get circled)
Google+ is a lot more fun when you’ve been added into relevant circles. Circle other people who have similar interests to you. You can find people by topic when using Google+ search and selecting “People and Pages” to see who Google recommends. Circle other pages you find interesting. Comment on posts you like in your stream and share posts with people.
Sign up for an account
Go to http://plus.google.com with your web browser.
Use your real information on Google+. When you sign up, it will guide you through a series of steps to populate your profile. You will want to begin by adding people you know to your circles.
Customize your profile with photos and information.
Help
Google+ Help
http://support.google.com/plus/
How to get started with Google+
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-get-started-with-google-plus-your-complete-guide/
Google+ Terms
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2012/02/google-plus-definitions/
Tools
Google+ for iPhone
http://www.google.com/mobile/iphone/
Google+ for Android
http://www.google.com/mobile/android/
Advertising Opportunities
http://www.google.com/ads/
Google Ads – Advertise on Google and Show Ads on your website
Videos
How To Use Google+
Make sure to complete your Google+ profile so that you can connect to as may people as possible.
The most important aspect is to link your Google+ profile to your website/blog/forum. Also make sure that the code inserted properly into your website. You can learn how to here: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1713826?hl=en
This ensure that Google Authorship is in place. What this means is when keywords are searched, your picture and a meta description will appear as one of the top searches, especially among people you have connected with online.
I don’t think Google plus will catch on as well as how twitter and Facebook caught on. It had become a viral phenomenon. I don’t see that happening for Google plus. Unless they have something extraordinary to offer.
When Google+ first came out, I was ON that like white on rice. Nowadays I don’t really use it and I’ll tell you why: it’s a resource hog and it’s slow. If those issues were solved, I’d be on it all the time again.
On the other hand, though, I’ve met a bunch of really cool people there that I now have professional relationships with. This is mainly because I can’t name one friend, in real life, that joined Google+, so in exploring Google+, I had to make new friends. Amazing experience — being a part of Google+ when it first came out.
Google Plus .. number of members: 15
Google could launch its social network, but it will not take the right way. Facebook and Twitter are the leaders in the genre.
But I had a pity to see Google Plus trying to dévelloper …..
Looks like it’s stuck …. it does not move enough.
Google+…what will we ever do with you? Honestly, I’m not sure why I need to be on Google +. I feel like most people (or at least myself) had a Facebook or Twitter account long before Google+ came around. The idea of “change” to Google + as your social network is always a terrifying dilemma. I tried Google+ out, but felt it did not give me a completely new and better social network. It just gave me another place to do everything I was already doing. Do people prefer Google+ to other social networks/platforms like Facebook and Twitter? If so, I’d love to hear why. On that note, great information on G+, David. I think you inspired me to play around on Google+ for a bit today.
I remember the days when it was only possible to sign up at Google+ with a personal invitiation. Quite funny when you consider it was meant to be an opponent to Facebook and Twitter. With that goal you should be lucky with every guy that is part of your community.
It felt always strange to me. It just doesn’t fit to Google. Nonetheless, I am sure there are many people who have their fun there und who find online friends and lots of features.
I have not done much with Google+. I joined it mainly for the Google Authorship and to rank in the SERPS. For that it serves its purpose. I especially like Google Authorship and I do think it helps in ranking specific articles and pages on my Web sites.
But as a social network I don’t find Google+ all that engaging. Even comparing it with LinkedIn — which would seem the nearest equivalent, as both focus on one’s profession and on networking — it does not offer enough to draw me in so that I want to spend more time there exploring its possibilities. With the other networks — LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook especially — I have to discipline myself to not spend too much time there!
Personally I’d much rather prefer to use Google+ to Facebook but most of my friends and family are on Facebook and it would be hard for them to move away from that. I quite like Google+ because of it’s clean UI and it just seems to work better and faster (on my computer).
So one of the main problems I have with Google+ is the amount of people on it, if there were more people I know on it, then I would definitely use it.
I like the whole set up of Google plus, the interface is nice and I like being able to categorize publishers in circles. There’s a lot more useful information coming out of my Google Plus as compared to Facebook’s feed which is about 80% non-sense. It’s too bad that it’s not very popular with my friends, Facebook is still far more active users unfortunately.
I really don’t like Google+ I just think Facebook and Twitter are much easier to use. I hope to get used to these programs in the future.
I joined Google+ when it was opened and it actually was pretty decent.
But the problem with new social networks is that since everyone is already on facebook people don’t see any incentive in joining another one especially if it is very similar in it approach.
Needless to say I’m not active on Google+ anymore and left it a few weeks after joining it.
I don’t like Google +. For a social platform , I def prefer the others. And in the same time, I hate how it is almost being forced on the users on Blogger. I have the feeling that the problems with GFC and commenting, the closing of Google Reader and so many others are just to make people give up and make an account.
I use Google+ with my blog but I haven’t really felt its presence compared to Facebook and Twitter. It might improve still but it’s not something I got because I wanted it, just something that was there to be used.
Thanks for the tutorial, David. I’ve dabbled with google plus but haven’t gone all in on it yet. Most of my friends strayed away from google plus over the past few months. I had high expectations and it looks like google plus is not meeting them. Does anyone else think that google is doing way too much? A jack of all trades is a master of none.
Google+ is interesting, but I have been using it mostly as a means of rapidly increasing my search engine rise to glory. Google likes its own social networking site so much that it creates a lot of weight toward links put on it. Well, at least from what I have seen. I do enjoy communicating with friends as well though.
The few friends that I had who signed up for google plus have left their plus accounts idle and stagnant. Nobody that I know actively uses google plus nowadays. From my perspective, it hasn’t taken off as they had planned. You do make a good point about google putting weight towards links put on their social networking site. That is a nice, clever observation.
Yes, I have had a similar experience. Google+ has been very helpful for search engine ranking and for the Google Authorship program. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is wants to use it for Web site promotion. But it has not had much appeal for me as a social network. It just does not have that irresistible pull that other social media sites have, that make us want to keep visiting.
That said, I am glad to have it for those reasons. It will be interesting to see when/if Google+ makes any bold moves to compete with other social networking sites.
I personally don’t use Google+ and I don’t find it appealing. Also it doesn’t help that Google is really forcing that services of theirs to people which is really not helping them at all. It’s like that one kid in your neighborhood that really insists on playing with you even though your not friends and then he invades your toys so you’re forced to deal with his shenanigans.
What happened to this site by the way? I mean after it’s launch I think it just went down and down until nobody cared anymore.
This is some great information. I personally never use Google+ and do not know how it works or if it is useful. I might try it out one day.
I don’t really think Google+ has any chance of picking up, no matter how much they try to force it by integrating it right into YouTube and using hangouts instead of messages on the Android or whatever. Google should back out of the social media market for a little while and try again in a few years or so.
There is absolutely no escaping Google+ once you wish to be a member of either YouTube or the Google Play store. I find the mandatory membership a bit forceful on Google’s part, but it seemed to have paid off for them, as millions worldwide use it, but to what extent do they really use it is what I’d really like to know.
This is good information to know though, because I haven’t went beyond adding a few details to my Google+ profile and just leaving it. I have never used the circle feature or even knew what that was all about, so thanks for clearing that up. Overall, I’m not big on Google+ but I’ll just have to work with it since it’s a must.