This will be of interest if you own or are thinking about starting a community.

This will be of interest if you own or are thinking about starting a community.

Originally shared by Google+

Community Management Best Practices: Promoting your Community with Pages and Collections

_This post was written by Community Vanguards member John Chvatal _

A Google+ Page used in conjunction with Collections is a great way of bringing more value to members of a Community. People love it when they are recognized for their contributions to a Community. The added benefit is it encourages people to put extra time and effort into the contributions they make to a Community.

A major difference between a Page and a Profile is that Pages can have multiple managers. Community moderators could be made managers of the Page, which allows for tasks to be divided up amongst the moderators of a Community. If you want to have multiple moderators manage an Event, a Page must be used instead of a Profile.

Creating a Google+ Page
Before sharing some examples, you’ll need to create a Google+ page. To create a Page, visit: https://business.google.com/manage/#/pages and click the button in the lower right-hand corner. I suggest you pick “Community” for the “Type of page”. You don’t need to add a website URL. Then, go through the rest of the prompts to create a Page. Don’t forget to add a profile photo, cover photo, and fill out the “About” tab.

Creating a Google+ Collection
Google+ Create member [Dustin Stout or Eli Fennell has a great guide on how to create a Collection:
[https://dustn.tv/google-plus-collections/ or http://elifennell.com/tips-using-google-collections/]

Also, check out the official Google+ Best Practices for Collections guide:
https://plus.google.com/+googleplus/posts/3zBwGASw3LW

Time for some Examples
Before wrapping this up, here are a couple of ideas on how to utilize Google+ Pages and Collections to create more vibrant Communities.

1. A Photography Community could create a Collection to feature one photo a day from a member of the Community.

2. A Community focused more on discussions could create a Collection and share a link to a post that has a particularly interesting discussion. This would in effect boost the visibility of that post.

3. Create a weekly recap or a newsletter for the Community with links to the top posts so members with busy lives can keep up to date on what is happening in the Community.

John Chvatal runs the Gazing Skyward Aviation Community, and manages the Gazing Skyward TV Page, using Collections to promote his content: https://plus.google.com/communities/114416383815843442147
Check out our Collection for more Community Best Practices: https://plus.google.com/collection/4G0lkB