Best Practices per Spencer Wade

Best Practices per Spencer Wade
Should be required reading for all newbies

Originally shared by Spencer Wade

A Few G+ Best Practices

It goes without saying that Google+ is a great platform for social sharing and interaction. While we all may have different reasons for using it, and may find different aspects of its interface more or less to our liking than others, we all can agree that it’s definitely a place worth spending time. So, since we’re going to be using the system for our own ends, and since those ends may be vastly different, it may be helpful to share a few best practices that you can use no matter what your desired outcome.

• Tagging People: While it may seem obvious to many, tagging people is one of the best ways to ensure the people you want to see your posts will and, hopefully, drive interaction with your posts. It’s a great feature, but, and this goes for everything we discuss, there’s good tagging and bad tagging. Your friends and family may love to be tagged on every little thing, yet others may see it as spamming since they’ll get a notification every time you tag them (if they have notifications on that is). When you share something others posted, or shared themselves, you should always tag them to make sure they see it.

• Post Your Best to Communities: When you create something you think is really good, you should find the Communities you feel it would be appreciated in and post to those. Simply making a post public doesn’t mean it’ll be seen unless you have a good deal of followers, so posting content of value to Communities that accept that type of content is the best way to be seen, It’s a great way to start conversations with new people who share your interests and expand your Circles.

• Use G+ to Long Post to Twitter: This is a great way to share long posts to Twitter and communicate your Google+ activity to a broader, and sometimes different, audience. Many people have different groups of followers on different social networks, so this is an excellent way to branch out without directly linking your accounts together. While direct linking is great, it can inundate your friends and connections with daily posts – depending upon how active you are across platforms. G+ allows you to avoid the character limit and introduce your posts to a new venue which is a win-win.

• Fill Out Your Profile: Just as with any online footprint you have, you should ensure that your Google+ profile has all the information you want to share filled out completely and correctly. On Google+, a platform where interaction is key, and eternal, it’s useful for people to know who they’re dealing with, listening to, following, etc. If it’s in your best interest, treat your profile as you would your About Page on a personal website. It’s not too hard to give a bit of “you” without sharing anything you’re uncomfortable with.

• Use Great Titles: G+ isn’t like Twitter or Facebook in the way a post is constructed. G+ gives you the freedom and space to write some powerful things, so make sure you use it to your full advantage. A good title can accomplish a lot for your post – research proves it. So, before you post next, take some time to think up a title for your post that gives impact and a glimpse into what’s in store for readers. It’ll help more than you might think.

• Take Chances: Google+ as a social media community is, as stated previously, different than the rest of the platforms out there. But, it’s more than the visible differences that separate it. The “feeling” is different and makes this a place where things that may ordinarily seem implausible could actually happen. So, take chances with Google+ - and not in a negative sense. Find your heroes, the people you wish you could talk to, and follow them. That’s easy enough, right? So, whenever they post something you find interesting, comment on it in a thoughtful, measured way. Don’t give the usual “nice post” comment, either. Be authentic and insightful and you never know what may happen. You may have a chat, get added to a Circle, who knows? In Google+, anything literally is possible.

Above all when using Google+, remember one thing above all others – be nice. This isn’t a YouTube Comments section or some incendiary website full of comment trolls. People here are here because they chose to be. They came to share, to learn, to grow – not to argue. In a perfect world, that type of behavior would never be allowed anywhere. Thankfully, it’s not welcome here, so be nice to everyone you meet. It’s easy, effective, and the only best practice that really matters.

Thanks for reading!

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