Google+ Pages and Profiles

Google+ Pages

Creating your own Google+ page is a piece of cake!

1st Google+ Coffee Shop page.
I believe, that we are the first British coffee shop to have a Google+ Page and it is pretty exciting to be working with the dynamic Google+ social media platform, especially as we intend to extend live hangouts, into our shop!

Just waiting for Network Rail to hack through the jungle that has grown up around the back of Enfield Chase Station and then the engineers will be coming to specially install our broadband!

Create your own business page.
Visit our business page on Google+, you'll easily be able to set up your own business page, just click on the create your own page button. Believe me, you will not need to watch a video tutorial, or read through some instructions, Google has made it all very intuitive and user-friendly.

Once you've set up your own page there's a little button on the left saying 'Get Started' and that will help you to create a Google+ badge for your website and other stuff.


Google+ Profiles


How to connect with the people you already know!

Facebook
There's no official way to import your personal Facebook contacts into Google+ but there is an unofficial way! Just follow these step by step instructions, here.

Twitter
Find out which of your Twitter connections are on Google+ by using Find People on Plus.

This amazing website can even help you to find people by location, job, interests and type of posts, it's very powerful and is an excellent tool for gathering your connections onto Google+ and making relevant new connections.

Getting added into other people's circles

How do you get yourself added by other people? Just by interacting, posting and being there. If you don't post, if you don't respond to notifications, if you don't publish, then your name won't get seen and your profile, will be keeping a low profile! Keeping active, posting, adding people to your circles and reacting is the best way to generate new contacts and that goes for just about any of the social media platforms, to varying degrees.

Another good way to get more people to add you to their circles, is by putting a link to your google+ profile and/or page, on your website, at the end of emails, on other social media sites and on your business card and other printed literature.

Don't forget to promote your Google+ business page by putting that as a link on your Google+ profile too.

You can create a short and easy to use link of your Google+ profile by going here.

Keep up with me on Google+ by looking at my profile and putting me in your circles and keep up with
My Coffee Stop, by putting our page into your circles.

Please feel free to put a link to your Google+ profile and/or page in the comments section of this blog and mention what circle/s you reckon people should put you in.

Happy Google plussing. xx

If You're Going to Google+

If you're going to  Google+, read this first!

Facebook/Twitter Hybrid

As one of the first British people on Google+  before it opened to the public, you'd think that I'd been playing around with Google+ for a few months now but funnily enough, although I had entered my profile and cautiously invited a few other contacts, I hadn't really played around with it until just over a week ago.....

Social

And what fun I have been having! More alive than Facebook, the responses from posters on Google+ are more proactive and you can write longer posts than Twitter, it's an effective hybrid of the two that has developed into a completely new and effective tool for connecting with people globally and locally, on a personal or business level. Not only that but you can have realtime video and audio contact with up to 10 people at once on Google+ Hangouts! Think what that could mean for your social or business life!

Business

Google+ has only just recently opened its doors for business users to come on board, which means that if you have a business account with Google Apps, you can, without being blocked by Google+ extend the social media activity, for your company, to include the Google+ platform!

If you want to take advantage of Google+ for your business and you haven't got an account with Google Apps, I suggest you get one and go from there. You can get Google Apps free here

Please note that, if you have already created a good personal profile on Google+ and you want to build on that but you have a business that is already registered on Google Apps, it is better for you to stick with your personal profile, at the moment. You can wait until Google+ release their migration tool for this purpose, which is expected in the next few weeks.

Get These Links

Whether using Google+ for business, for personal, or for both, make sure you download these brilliant apps from the Chrome Web Store.

1/ Use Google Chrome as your browser, as you will then be able to access some powerful apps that will increase the pleasure and ease of use, of Google+. Get it here.

If you need to transfer your favourites from Internet Explorer, or Fire Fox to Chrome, then read this article.

2/ One of the most exciting and powerful features of Google+ is the ability to 'Hangout'. You really need...a camera, headphones and microphone and to try it for yourself! This is where you go to try Google Hangouts!

3/ To control what circles show up in your stream and other nifty tricks download, PLUS MINUS

4/ To add extra buttons for easier replies download, REPLIES AND MORE

5/ To stop animated images with the escape key, download GIF STOPPER

6/ To integrate Google+ with the Chrome Browser, download SURPLUS

Many thanks to the generous and very helpful Mike Downes, for these links! Might I suggest you add him to your Circles, he is extremely knowledgeable and helpful with it.

What Next?

Google+ is only fun and effective, if you actually have some people in your circles.

So how can you work on getting people into your circles and on getting yourself into other people's circles?

How can you get Twitter followers onto Google+?

How can you find people by location?

How can you create a short and easy to use link to put on the signature of your emails and elsewhere to connect with Google+?

I'll be answering these questions and more, in my next post.

 Keep googling and feel free to add me, Karen Mercer to your circles!

Also, please post questions, ideas and other suggestions, so that we can keep sharing our knowledge.

Thanks for reading. xxx