Get Into GooglePlus: A Guide For Everyone

Here’s the point: joining Google+ means you will be poised to take advantage of all that Google has to offer. From personalized search results to instant photo uploads, you will soon see the value of Google+ even beyond its main benefit: sharing and discovering content that you are interested in.

Get Into Google+: A Guide For Everyone

By Maggie Marystone

http://www.thisabandonedhouse.com/

Edited by Justin Pot

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Perhaps you were a founding member ofMySpace Maybe you’re a Facebook poweruser, or maybe you’ve just started to explorethe world of social media Either way, ifyou’re reading this guide, you have probablywondered, “Why should I sign up for

Google+?”

The answer is simple: Google You may haveheard of them Even if you already have other

social networking accounts, you should sign

up for Google+ simply because Google isgoing to be around for a very long time It’salmost impossible to avoid using Googleproducts in your online life In December

2011, Google+ was averaging 625,000 new

users every day, and Google predicts they will have 400 million users by the end of

2012 Google continues to connect their

products in new, interesting and effectiveways - Plus is at the center of that

You may have heard that Google+ is on itsway out Google says otherwise

“Not only is Google Plus not a ghost town,”Vic Gundotra, Google’s vice president forengineering, said to the New York Times, “wehave never seen anything grow this fast.Ever.”

Here’s the point: joining Google+ means you will be poised to take advantage of all that Google has to offer From personalized

search results to instant photo uploads, youwill soon see the value of Google+ evenbeyond its main benefit: sharing and

discovering content that you are interested in

How is Google+ different?

The big difference between Google+ andother social networking platforms is thatGoogle has integrated Google+ with its otherservices (and continues to do so): search,YouTube, Gmail and much more While

Facebook and Twitter offer various ways ofusing their platform to share and comment oncontent you find on third-party websites, youwill find that Google+ is already built intoservices you use every day.

Google+ also redefines social networkingprivacy by introducing a concept new to thegenre: Circles Circles differentiate Google+from Facebook by allowing users precisecontrol over who sees what

How does this work? You know your Tweetsare public Your Facebook page is visibleto well, do you even know? With Google+individualized content is delivered only tothose you dictate

For example, if you were to tweet, “I hate myjob,” odds are you don’t want your bossseeing that tweet Similarly, if your mother isyour friend on Facebook, how can you besure she can’t see all those photos from thatcrazy party last weekend? Historically, on

Facebook, users were stumped This

functionality is now available but seems to bediscouraged by Facebook: it’s buried deepwithin the interface

With Google+, you are in control of your content right from the start.

Any time you share, you designate exactlywho will be able to see the content you’resharing Share with a particular person or aCircle of people

We will learn more about that later First, let’sget you a Google+ account

Creating a Google account

To participate in Google+, you need a Googleaccount If you already have a Google

account, use your existing account credentials

to sign into google com or mail.google.com.Then click on the +You button on the left side

of the Google toolbar to sign up for Google+

If you don’t have a Google account, now isthe time to get one Creating a Googleaccount will grant you access to many

different services and applications fromGoogle (Gmail, Google Docs, Google

Calendar, YouTube and much more Youhave two options here: sign up for a Gmailemail account or sign up for Google Apps for

As of January 2012, new users who sign upfor a Google account will automatically beregistered for Google+ as well Sign up here

The Google+ Sign-up

Process

Now that you have a Google account, let’s getstarted Sign up at plus.google.com or clickthe “+You” button on your Google menu bar ifyou’re already signed into your Google

account

By joining, you are automatically creating apublic Google+ profile Be sure to use yourreal name when signing up: not doing soviolates Google’s Terms of Service

Completing your profile

Okay, it’s time to complete your Google+profile First, specify your gender

Next, upload a photo This is crucial Do itnow You probably already have a profilephoto for Facebook or another social

network Using the same profile photo acrosssocial networks is a way for your friends torecognize you and pay attention to yourcontent Posting a profile photo is the numberone thing you can do to ensure your contentwill be viewed by other people

The next screen will prompt you to Addpeople you know to your circles Google willlikely already have a few suggestions for you.Alternatively, if you have a Yahoo or Hotmailaccount, you can import your contacts fromthose accounts or simply search Google+ forpeople by name.

Click “Continue,” and you will see a list of

“interesting and famous people.” Add anyone

you like to your Circles Don’t worry aboutadding everyone you know right now You canadd and remove people from your Circles atany time.

Your Profile

Next up is adding additional information toyour profile: the schools you went to, whereyou work and where you live, for example

When you’re finished you’ll be taken to yourmain Stream page However, there’s still alittle work to be done on your profile Click onthe profile icon in the Google+ toolbar If this

is the first time you have visited this page, apop-up will appear asking you to fill out moredetails in your profile

You can always edit your profile by clicking onthe Edit Profile button on your profile page.The more information you provide in yourprofile, the easier it will be for other people tofind you You are in control of who can see

virtually every aspect of your profile Do youwant to keep your high school private so onlypeople in your “former classmates” Circle cansee it? It’s simple.

There are a couple exceptions to this granularcontrol over your content Your name is visible

to anyone on the web, and changing it inGoogle+ will change it across all your Googleproducts Similarly, your Tagline or “briefdescription of you” is always public

Your profile includes the following:

Tagline: A brief description of you This

appears just below your name on your profile

Introduction: Enter something so people

know they’ve found the right person Probablybest to keep this set to Public

Bragging rights: Get creative with this one

or leave it blank; it’s up to you!

Occupation: What do you do?

Employment: Where have you worked?

Enter multiple jobs and control whether aparticular job is visible

Education: Enter the schools you attended.

Again, you can choose who to share thisinformation with for each school you list

Places lived: Enter all the places you have

lived, and Google will add points to your map!Home: If you like, enter your home contactinfo Fields are provided for Phone, Mobile,Email, Address, Fax, Pager, and Chat

Work: Just like Home - enter contact info for

your work

Relationship: This is your relationship status

just like on Facebook Your choices are: Idon’t want to say, Single, In a relationship,Engaged, Married, It’s Complicated, In an

Open Relationship, Widowed, in a DomesticPartnership, In a Civil Union (interestingly,Facebook offers two “Relationship” optionsthat Google doesn’t - Separated and

Divorced.)

Looking for: Options are Friends, Dating, A

relationship and Networking Gender: Male,Female or Other

Other names: If you have other names you

go by (e.g., a nickname or maiden name), this

is a good place to put that information sopeople know they’ve found the right person

Profile discovery: Checkbox for “Help others

discover my profile in search results.”

Other profiles: Connect your Google+ profile

to: Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr, LinkedIn, Quora,Twitter, Yelp, Hotmail, MySpace, Plaxo andlast.fm Here you can also add a custom link

to, say, your blog or personal website

Contributor to: Are you a contributor to other

websites? List them here!

Recommended link: This is just the standard

link list Enter a few of your favorite sites sopeople can get to know you

NOTE: You have control over which tabsappear on your profile Posts and About tabsalways appear (after all, that’s what Google+

is all about) But what if you don’t want tohave a public Photos tab on your profile? Noproblem Click Edit profile and then click onthe Photos tab Uncheck the box for “Showthis tab on your profile.” That’s it! Controllingthe visibility of the Photos, Videos and +1stabs work the same way

Here are two ways to think about Circles:Outgoing and incoming Design groups youwant to talk to and groups you want to listento

Circles are groups of users on Google+.Circles allow you to organize and filter yourcontent stream with names that are

convenient, descriptive and familiar to you.Once you create a Circle, you can sharecontent with everyone in that Circle In otherwords, Circles help you share the right stuffwith the right people You can also listen in onwhat people in that Circle are saying by

viewing the Stream from that Circle

Typical Circles include: Family, Work,

Friends, Classmates, etc You can add aperson to any Circle that you have created, oryou can create a new Circle entirely

Important: None of your friends will know

which of your circles they are in Circles arenot public and are only for YOUR privacy andconvenience.

There is no right or wrong way to organizeyour Circles, but remember that Circles areimportant filters for both sharing and receivingcontent Create Circles for the groups ofpeople in your life with whom you want toshare content Also create Circles for groups

of people whose content you want to follow

How to Create a Circle

Click on the Circles icon in your Google+menu bar

Google+ starts you off with a few defaultCircles, including Friends, Family,

Acquaintances (people you have met but don’tknow that well) and Following (people youdon’t know but whose content you find

interesting) You can use these default Circles

or create your own To create a new Circle,drop a person into the “Drop here to create acircle” image Keep adding people to theCircle or click the “Create circle” link You will

be prompted to name the Circle and add adescription You can also search for morepeople to add to the Circle

NOTE: Circles are listed alphabetically, butthe default circles are always listed at the top

If you want to control the way your Circlesare sorted, consider deleting all the defaultCircles and creating new ones

How to Add Friends to a Circle

It’s as easy as drag and drop! Add people to

as many Circles as you want There’s no limit.Remember: Circles are there to help you.Are you looking for interesting people onGoogle+? Google can suggest some for you

to follow based your interests Click the Find

People link in the right sidebar on yourGoogle+ home page.

“Follow public posts from interesting andfamous people Add celebrities, journalists,photographers, and more to your circles tosee what they’re sharing publicly.”

Creative Uses of Circles

As we have discussed, various aspects ofGoogle+ have started to pop up in otherGoogle products Circles are no exception.Google Circles are now available for GoogleVoice users What does that mean? Here’s anexample: Google Voice users may now useCircles to create groups of callers who ring

straight through to your phone and those whoare sent directly to voicemail Similarly, youcan apply any of your Google Voice rules toany of your Circles.

There are other potential uses for Circles; themain limit is your imagination Here are just afew more:

• If you’re a sports fan, you could create acircle for your favorite team and easily viewonly content related to your team

• Add circles for your favorite Cities, colleges,and more

• Notify your baseball team of cancelledgames, if you’re a coach or manager

• Create a carpool circle and use Messenger

to communicate with the whole group at once

• People with large extended families havefound that creating Circles for each branch oftheir family and another Circle for everyone inthe family is an easy way to make sure they

were sharing relevant content to the peoplethey meant to reach.

• Add a “Read Later” circle, and add justyourself to it Then, as you browse the

Internet and come across and article youdon’t have time to read, you can share it withyour Read Later circle, and it will be saved foryou to read when you have time

The same Google Chat feature you’re familiarwith from Gmail is also here in Google+ It’slocated below the What’s Hot link on the leftsidebar

View your main Stream by clicking on theHome icon in the Google+ menu bar Narrowdown your stream to only posts from people

in a particular Circle by clicking the name ofthe Circle in the Stream list, below your profilephoto See the Advanced Features section forsome tips on how to filter your stream

Sharing Content

Sharing content on Google+ is a breeze Clickthe “+Share” button located in the top rightcorner of any Google+ page Alternatively,post new content to your Stream from the

“Share what’s new” field at the top of yourStream Spice up your post by attaching aphoto, video, link or location Every time youshare content on Google+, you have thepower to make sure your message is onlyviewable by the people you want to see it

Disabling comments and

locking a post

Here are two more great Google+ featuresyou won’t get from Facebook (at least notyet!) - disabling comments and locking posts.You can access both of these options byclicking the small grey dropdown arrow to the

right of any post on your stream.

Disabling comments will not delete any

existing comments It just prevents any newcomments from being posted If you wouldlike to delete a comment posted to contentyou have shared in your stream, hover yourmouse over the comment you would like todelete and click the grey X at the bottom rightcorner of the comment Alternatively, you canflag the comment to report abuse or to blockthe commenter

Locking a post means that anyone you shared

that post with will not be able to re-share it intheir own Stream.

#Hashtags

If you use Twitter, you’ll be familiar withhashtags and how they work Tag yourcontent with # followed by a keyword

Keywords can be anything from #art to

#SOPA to # _ Google+ will even suggestrelevant hashtags

When you’re writing a post, type # followed

by a few letters you think might be relevant tothe topic you’re writing about Google willsuggest some popular hashtags This auto-complete hashtag feature helps cut down onvariants of the same hashtag, leaving oursocial content better organized

+1

The +1 feature is similar to Facebook’s Likebutton Clicking on a +1 button is like votingfor a site and is visible by all of your friends.Any site you have +1’d will be listed on the +1tab of your profile Clicking +1 on a website

will not automatically add the link to yourGoogle+ Stream, so if you want to share thelink, remember to post it to your Stream.However, your friends will be able to see anylinks you’ve +1’d that they stumble upon, you’llsee theirs too.

When you +1 a site, you also affect how thatsite shows up in related Google searches.Your friends will also see relevant sites thatyou’ve +1’d in their search results

See the Tips & Tricks chapter for a list ofGoogle+ browser extensions