GooglePlus tips

All About Google+ for Writers

GooglePlus
More than 625,000 People join Google+ EVERY DAY, according to Digital Buzz and Huffington Post statistics.  Before I even joined Twitter, GooglePlus (Google+) was my first Social Media network of choice.  I loved the beautiful images and videos that appeared on my timeline.  And I am stealing a couple of minutes every day to scroll down and share, or at least place a “plus sign”, on interesting posts.
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#1 Social Media for Professionals:
Participating on Google+ – also written GooglePlus – gives you an advantage at search engine results: your posts are automatically included in Google’s Search Engine.  What better then to combine social media networking and at the same time your visibility on the Internet!  Google+ has now the title of being the world’s second largest social network.  It’s a no-brainer to use the many benefits for authors and publishers.  And don’t forget the thousands of Google+ communities where you can place your post directly to your favorite audience.  Here are five tips how to improve your success with Google+.
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How to Start With GooglePlus.
Get tips how to sign up and start your Google+ account, how to find your followers, how to post, connect your Google+ with your Twitter account and most important: join Google+ communities.
Your first step is to open a Gmail (email) account, if you don’t have one already.  Once this is done you can sign up at Google+.  Watch this YouTube video how to do it.
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How to Build Your Google+ Profile.
On the top navigation of your page, there is an icon, marked “Profile,” which should appear once you roll your mouse over it.  From there, you can start building your Google Plus profile.  Just like Facebook, Google Plus gives you a main profile photo that acts as your thumbnail when you post text and images or when you engage with other people.  Fill out the “tagline” section, and it will show up underneath your name on your profile.  Try writing something that sums up your personality, work or hobbies in one short sentence, using important keywords convincing people to follow you.
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Your Bio / Introduction:
Here, you can write a short or a long note about whatever you want. Most people include a friendly welcome message, or a summary of what they do and what activities they enjoy doing the most.  These points are totally voluntarily:

  • Bragging rights: You can write a short sentence here about some accomplishment you are proud to share with your circles.
  • Occupation: In this section, list your current employment position, if you want, or just author.
  • Places lived: List the cities and countries in which you have lived. This will be displayed on a small Google map for people to see when they visit your profile.
  • Other profiles & recommended links: In the sidebar of your “About” page, you can list other social media profiles such as your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profiles.  You can also list any links you want, such as a personal website or a blog you enjoy reading.

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Finding People and Adding Them to Your Google+ Circles.
To invite people to your circles (up to 5,000), or to find somebody on Google Plus, simply use the search bar at the top to search for their name.  If you find them in your search, press the “Add to circles” button in order to add them to whichever circle or circles you want (max. 50 per day).  For authors the best search phrases to find followers are: readers, reviewers, book bloggers, book worms, book lovers, avid readers etc.
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Sharing Content on Google+.
Under the “Home” tab, there is a small input area you can use to post stories to your profile, which will show up in the streams of people who have added you to their own circles.  You can choose your Google posts to be view-able by the public (by everyone on Google Plus, even those outside your circles), by specific circles, by one or more people.  Place up to 500 words of content, including links and add attractive or funny images.  Don’t forget to use hashtags, described in this blog post.
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Five Tips for Google+ Advanced Users.
Google+ has now the title of being the world’s second largest social network.  It’s a no-brainer to use the many benefits for authors and publishers.  And don’t forget the thousands of Google+ communities where you can place your post directly to your favorite audience.  Here are five tips how to improve your success with GooglePlus.
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1. Curate Good Content – Share it!
Most users do not create enough of their own content to be active daily on Google+. By sharing other people’s content, you can effectively engage and inspire your followers. Google’s +1 button is used 5 million times a day, according to stats from Huffington Post.  Sharing other posts and writing a short comment, will also show up on Google’s search engine, and consequently improving your search engine ranking (SEO).
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2. Have Lots of Images – Less Links
Google+ is a visual social network. Posts with with a message and an uploaded image or video will get much higher engagement than shared links.
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3. Tag Other People’s Posts or Share Them
By adding a “+” symbol in front of page names, your exposure on Google Search engines increases as well as this with readers, bloggers, reviewers and your supporters.  You will find a strong increase of new followers over time too.  Do check regularly your Google+ notifications, found at this little bell symbol on top of your Google+ page.
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4. Check Your Google+ Statistics at “Page Insights”.
Want to know when your page was visited most, from which country your visitors came from, or their gender and age?  Google+ Insights will help you to find out what kind of content your followers engage with most, as well as their demographics.  Insights offers you statistical information about how your target customers are engaging with your business on Google.  In order to access this information, your business must have a verified local page.  In an article, Search Engine Journal lists these useful features:

  • New followers on your Google+ page
  • +1 clicks on your posts, the number of re-shares your posts got from your Google+ page
  • The number of comments your post received from your Google + page
  • The number of times people clicked on Maps to get more info about your business location
  • The number of clicks received to get info on driving directions
  • The number of clicks to your website through local search results
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5. Connect Your YouTube With Your Google+ Page
Currently in Beta, YouTube just announced the ability to merge your YouTube channel with your Google+ page.  How it works is in detail, even with screenshots, described in an article from NPtechforgood.com:
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Step 1: Click on your profile photo, go to your YouTube Settings > Advanced.
Step 2: Select “Connect with a Google+ page”.
Step 3: Select your Google+ page.
Step 4: Confirm that you want to merge your channel and your Google+ page.
Step 5: Note the new YouTube tab on your Google+ page.
Step 6: Select “Use YouTube as ….
Step 7: Note the integration of of your Google+ page inside your YouTube channel.
More tips how it works can be found on Google’s help site.
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Seven Reasons Why Google+ is Perfect for Writers:
1. Followers can be found much easier and faster than in any other social media network.  One can build “Circles” with hundreds or thousands of followers out of existing groups which are easily identified by keywords.  For example, to create my first circles I have chosen: readers, writers, publishers, photographers, librarians, book reviewers, book lovers etc. and also some “private” circles.  Within days I had 5,000 people in my circles and at that time over 1,500 had already chosen to have me in their circles.  Perfect for a big audience!  Search for useful connections you know from the real world and other social networks to include in your Google+ circles.
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2. Everyone can select the audience or the parts of your list that will be receiving your message through your circles and if you want to make it a public message.  On Twitter for sample, messages usually can be seen by all of your followers.  Google+ lets you fine-tune who reads what.  On Google+, you can post one sentence or you
can post an entire article if you like. “Like” or “Share” articles or images that others posted with one single click.
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3. SEO – Search Engine Optimization: You can submit each of your blog post to your Google+ account.  Google treats the information on its own platforms, aka Google Search Engine, pretty high, which means your SEO-ranking for your website or blog improves dramatically.  Your Google+ profile will always be top ranked on a Google search, so just fill it in and link it to all your other sites
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4. Perfect for authors: Create a Google+ Business Account – easy and free.  The Google+ platform allows for every business to act as an individual in many forms. Adding to the depth of their overall platform is the inspiring development of the local options, using the Local Google+ pages.  The interface is simple, you can see everything at one go, and adding or removing a page from a circle doesn’t require you to dig deep into the system.
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5. Easy to upload images, lots of them, and video allow authors to post cover photos of their books, book descriptions, author’s bio, their book trailer and a link to Amazon or other booksales pages.  Post free book images or photos to illustrate your books’ content – if you want, several times a day – and if you have enough followers in your circle, to not bore them with your book announcements.  By consistently posting on the same topics and growing your Google+ followers, you help Google drive even more customers to your site.
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6. Use “Google Talk” or chat with friends, customers and readers.  In your left sidebar, you have an option to connect with people in through chat.  It’s similar to the same chat feature in Gmail, also known as Google Talk, where the indicators will show you if someone is online and if they are available for a text chat (a green dot) or a video chat (a green video camera).   When you click on their name, a little chat window will pop up at the bottom right side of your screen so you can start chatting.
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7. Google is attaching author information to Google search results.  Thanks to this new author information service from Google, it will be easier for people to identify the initial or original source of a blog post or article.  Google is verifying that the blog post was written by this person.  Link from your blog (or your website), to your Google Profile and then, you link from your Google Profile back to your blog.
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Connect your Google+ and Twitter Accounts!
Using “Manage Flitter“, you can save lots of time, and have your posts (at least the first 140 letters including a link) transferred to Twitter.  Here is how to set it up:
There are many free services that do this, one of the best sites to do this is ManageFlitter.  Start with opening your Google+ account and go to your profile.  The URL should be http://plus.google.com/ followed by a long number, then /posts.  This is your unique profile URL.
Select and copy it.

  • Go to the ManageFlitter home page and click “Start.”
  • Click “Connect to Twitter”
  • Select the “Dashboard” tab, then click “Turn on/off Google+ sharing”
  • Paste in your Google+ profile URL you just copied
    and then click “Start Sharing.”

From now on, everything you post on Google+ will be tweeted on Twitter, with a link back to the Google+ post.  Congratulation! You made it!
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Fantastic Feature: Google+ Communities.
More vital than knowing when and where to network with your readers or peers or to post your blogs, is finding like-minded groups of people, such as Google+ reader and blogger communities.  There you can reach new people who are likely interested in what you are writing or blogging about.  Posts within a community are indexed by Google and will be found in organic search results – which means higher ranking for you on Google’s search engines!
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Start Conversations and Share Relevant Content.
Google+ Communities are for users who are more interested in vibrant conversations around topics than they are about self-promotion.  Quality community members are those who share relevant content that sparks conversation or debate, and who participate in conversations by leaving comments and +1’ing posts.  Users whose intentions are to spam the community will most likely be removed by a moderator, so be careful how you approach your communities.
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Avoid Too Much Promotion in Google+ Communities.
When you join a community, you can find people who are interested in the same topics you are.  Depending on the type of community, you may have to wait for approval before becoming a member.  Google+ Communities are for users who are more interested in vibrant conversations around topics than they are about self-promotion.  Quality community members are those who share relevant content that sparks conversation or debate, and who participate in conversations by leaving comments and +1’s.  Users whose intentions are to promote themselves or spam the community will most likely be removed by a moderator, so be careful how you approach your communities..
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How to Join a Google+ Community Step by Step.

  • Go to the left side of your Google+ page with your cursor
  • click on communities
  • search or type in e.g. “books” or “blogging” and click the magnifying glass symbol – almost 60! communities are showing up, sorted by membership size
  • choose for example “Promote Your Book” with over 2,799 members and thousands of posts
  • click on their image and see lots of posts
  • on top you will see “Join this community to post or comment”
    we are polite and click “Join community”
  • then we introduce ourselves and greet the owner of the community

Interesting:
– everyone in the community can read / answer to your post (also not your timeline)
– at most communities you can also choose if you want notifications to your email
– on the left hand side you will find another search function where you can search this community
– you can also see who is a member of your community and follow them
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Start Your Own Google+ Community.
When you own or moderate a Google+ community, you can create categories to organize discussions, remove offensive content, highlight great posts, add moderators to help you keep the conversation going, invite members, or edit your community.  You can invite people to join your community – up to 500 people at a time.  Having more people usually increases the number of posts in your community, and encourages others to use it.

Tip: Anyone can share a community by clicking the “Share this community” button. When you click it, you’ll create a Google+ post that links to the community’s page.  But it won’t create an actual invitation for people to accept or decline.  Learn more at Google+ Support.
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Google+ Benefits.
For me personally the best reason to be on Google+ (beside the fun scrolling and reading through the timeline) is that Google Plus influences search rankings – a lot!!!
What is Your reason to be on GooglePlus?

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5 Google+ Tips for Advanced Users

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GooglePlus

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Before I even joined Twitter, GooglePlus (Google+) was my first Social Media Network of choice. I loved the beautiful images and videos that appeared on my timeline. And I steel a couple of minutes every day to scroll down and share, or at least place a “plus sign”, on interesting posts.  Google+ has now the title of being the world’s second largest social network. It’s a non-brainer to use the many benefits for authors and publishers. And don’t forget the thousands of Google+ communities where you can place your post directly to your favorite audience. Here are five tips how to improve your success with GooglePlus.
.

1. Curate Good Content – Share it!
Most users do not create enough of their own content to be active daily on Google+. By sharing other people’s content, you can effectively engage and inspire your followers. Google’s +1 button is used 5 million times a day, according to stats from Huffington Post. Sharing other posts and writing a short comment, will also show up on Google’s Search Engine, and consequently improving your Search Engine Ranking (SEO).

.
2. Have Lots of Images – Less Links
Google+ is a visual social network. Posts with with a message and an uploaded image or video will get much higher engagement than shared links.

.
3. Tag Other People’s Posts or Share Them
By adding a “+” symbol in front of page names, your exposure on Google Search engines increases as well as this with readers, bloggers, reviewers and your supporters. You will find a strong increase of new followers over time too.  Do check regularly your Google+ notifications, found at this little bell symbol on top of your Google+ page.

.
4. Regularly Check Your Google+ Statistics at “Page Insights”.
Want to know when your page was visited most, from which country your visitors came from, or their gender and age? Google+ Insights will help you to find out what kind of content your followers engage with most, as well as their demographics. Insights offers you statistical information about how your target customers are engaging with your business on Google. In order to access this information, your business must have a verified local page. In an article, Search Engine Journal lists these useful features:

  • New followers on your Google+ page
  • +1 clicks on your posts, the number of re-shares your posts got from your Google+ page
  • The number of comments your post received from your Google + page
  • The number of times people clicked on Maps to get more info about your business location
  • The number of clicks received to get info on driving directions
  • The number of clicks to your website through local search results

.

5. Connect Your YouTube With Your Google+ Page
Currently in Beta, YouTube just announced the ability to merge your YouTube channel with your Google+ page. How it works is in detail, even with screenshots, described in an article from NPtechforgood.com:

.
Step 1: Click on your profile photo, go to your YouTube Settings > Advanced.
Step 2: Select “Connect with a Google+ page”.
Step 3: Select your Google+ page.
Step 4: Confirm that you want to merge your channel and your Google+ page.
Step 5: Note the new YouTube tab on your Google+ page.
Step 6: Select “Use YouTube as ….
Step 7: Note the integration of of your Google+ page inside your YouTube channel.
More tips how it works can be found on Google’s help site.

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Google+ Benefits
According to the Digital Buzz and Huffington Post statistics, more than 625,000 People join Google+ EVERY DAY. There were over 500 million users on Google Plus in 2013 and the numbers are growing strong. Get a long list of benefits for Google+ users on Binkd.com.  For me personally the best reason to be on Google+ (beside the fun reading my timeline) is that Google Plus influences Search Rankings – a lot!!!  What is Your reason to be on GooglePlus?

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Tagged: Binkd.com, Digital Buzz, GooglePlus tips, Huffington Post Statistics, NPtechforgood.com, reasons to join Google+, Search Engine Journal, why you should be on Google+