Google has seen a surge in usage of Google+ after opening up the product to everyone last week. To help newbies get started, here is my ten step beginners guide to everything you need to know about Google+ so you can quickly discover the full potential of Google+.
ONE - WATCH THESE SHORT VIDEO OVERVIEWS
- Full Google+ online demo: http://www.google.com/+/demo/
- Circles: http://goo.gl/GXF3l
- Sparks: http://goo.gl/JtsSh
- Hangouts: http://goo.gl/FgwyC
- Games: http://goo.gl/Q1teh
- Instant upload: http://goo.gl/tygxV
TWO - LEARN THE BASICS
- Google+ Complete Guide: http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/
- 10 Google+ tips for new users: http://mashable.com/2011/07/26/google-plus-tips-tricks/
- Set up your profile: Go to your profile page and provide some relevant information about yourself to help people find you.
THREE - SET YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS
FOUR - DOWNLOAD GOOGLE+ MOBILE APPS
FIVE - ADD PEOPLE TO YOUR CIRCLES
SIX - INSTALL COOL CHROME EXTENSIONS
SEVEN - SET YOUR PHOTO SHARING SETTINGS
Google+ makes it so you can easily share pictures through Creative Commons licensing, which gives you control over how they may be used by others, if at all. Here's how to do it:
EIGHT - START SHOWING OFF
Start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video, directly from YouTube:
Add Bold, Italics or Strikethrough text: Three simple formatting tricks: *bold*, _italics_, and -strikethough-.
Tag friends in posts: Get a friend's attention in a post by tagging them. Type "+" or "@" followed by their name. You'll see an autocomplete drop-down menu show up as you type their name, which presumably includes people in your circles and extended circles. Your friend will be notified they've been tagged in a post, and post visibility will automatically be set to just that person. Don't forget to add more circles and friends (if you want to) before sharing.
Send a "direct message": To send a message to just one friend, tag them in the beginning of a post and let them know it's a private message. Then, comment on the post to establish your own, private thread.
Backup or download all your Google+ data: Go to your Account Settings and select Data Liberation from the left hand menu. Click the Download data button near the top of the next area that loads. You can back up all data or just choose to back up Google+.
Set up a quick link to your Google+ profile to share with friends: glus.to
Ignore someone on Google+: When you ignore people, their posts and anything they've shared in your "Incoming" stream will be removed. In addition, you will no longer be notified when they mention you. Just select "Ignore" in the notifications drop-down, next to their posts in the Incoming stream. Alternatively, go to Circles > People who've added you, and select any number of people to ignore. When you're done, click "Ignore" at the top.
Blocking someone on Google+: When you block people, you won't see their content, they'll be removed from your circles (and extended circles), they won't be able to mention you, and they'll be forbidden from viewing or commenting on your content. To block someone, go to their profile and click "Block" in the sidebar.
Integrate your Facebook, Twitter & Google+ streams: install the SGPlus extension for Chrome
Add a Google+ feed into your blog: http://widgetsplus.com/
- Post to circles: Although you might be compelled to post publicly for better exposure, beware that all public posts are indexed by Google. So make use of your Circles to limit who your posts are visible to and only use 'Public' if you really are happy for anyone to read it (e.g. if you're a blogger).
- Disable reshare: If you're using Circles to keep certain posts limited to close friends and family, adopt "Disable reshare" so your posts cannot be forwarded on. After posting, click the arrow to the right of the post, and select the option there.
- Change photo album visibility: Go to your profile > Photos > View all albums. The little icons next to the album names signify each album's visibility: public (a globe), private (a lock), and limited (two heads). To change the visibility for any album, select it, click the link next to "Visible to," and enter Circles or e-mail addresses.
- Control photo tagging: By default, anyone can tag you in photos. To change this, go to Google+ settings (upper right), then scroll down and select which circles can tag you.
- Edit the visibility of your profile: Go to your profile and hit "Edit profile." From here, you can click on any element in your About section to change its visibility. Other tabs in your profile, like Buzz and +1, also have privacy options you may adjust.
- Change "search visibility": In the "Edit profile" mode, scroll down to the bottom of your About section and find "Search visibility." If you don't want your profile to show up in search results, click it and uncheck "Help others find me in search results."
- Hide or expose Circles: When people visit your profile, they can see who's in your circles and who has included you in theirs. Hide either or both of these modules by clicking "Change who is visible here" in the left sidebar of your profile.
FOUR - DOWNLOAD GOOGLE+ MOBILE APPS
- Android: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.plus
- iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google/id447119634?mt=8
- Download all your Facebook contacts and photos to Google+: http://goo.gl/Gj6em
- Go to the profile pages of your friends and see who they have in their circles - hover over any names you recognise and add them straight into your own circles
- Top 50 most interesting people on Google+ to follow: http://www.recommendedusers.com/peoples-choice/
- Google’s official list of interesting & famous people (all must have 100,000+ followers on Twitter or other social sites): https://plus.google.com/getstarted/follow
- Find people to follow: http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/
- Another G+ directory of users: http://www.gglpls.com/
- Add your Twitter followers to Google+: http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/twitter2plus
- Check out Google+’s top 100 users and the most popular posts on Google+ in real-time: http://socialstatistics.com/
- Google+ Apps Directory (unofficial)
- SGPlus (post to Facebook and Twitter, see your feeds inside Google+, and much more)
- +Comment Toggle (hide/show comments in your G+ stream)
- Extended Share for Google+ (extends G+ to share to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others)
- Usability Boost for Google+ (improves readability of your G+ stream, ability to star posts to read later, plus other useful features)
- Beautify G+ (fixes positions of left & right panes plus menu bar)
- Google+ Tweet (integrate Twitter into your Google+ stream)
- G+Me for Google+ (collapses the Google+ stream while keeping live updates: collapses posts, hides comments, etc.
- +Everything (keeps the black Google notifications bar at the top of any website)
- Search By Image (allows you to see if anyone is using your photos anywhere on the web without your permission)
SEVEN - SET YOUR PHOTO SHARING SETTINGS
Google+ makes it so you can easily share pictures through Creative Commons licensing, which gives you control over how they may be used by others, if at all. Here's how to do it:
- From Google+ (or any other Google site), select "Photos" from the top bar to bring up Picasa.
- Over in the top right corner, click the Options icon (it looks like a gear), and pick "Photos Settings."
- Select "Privacy and Permissions," then "Allow reuse with attribution" next to "Creative Commons."
- You may select further options, including letting others use your work for commercial gain, or the "Share-Alike" option, which lets others use your work for any purpose as long as they use a CC license for the resulting work.
- Click "Save changes" and you're all set!
- Go to "photos" on your G+ bar, it will open picasa albums. All your images are there.
- Click "Organize"
- Re-arrange by drag and drop. You can also set cover image in action drop-down over there.
- Read this Photographers’ Survival Guide to Google+: http://goo.gl/4yrFo
EIGHT - START SHOWING OFF
Start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video, directly from YouTube:
Add Bold, Italics or Strikethrough text: Three simple formatting tricks: *bold*, _italics_, and -strikethough-.
Tag friends in posts: Get a friend's attention in a post by tagging them. Type "+" or "@" followed by their name. You'll see an autocomplete drop-down menu show up as you type their name, which presumably includes people in your circles and extended circles. Your friend will be notified they've been tagged in a post, and post visibility will automatically be set to just that person. Don't forget to add more circles and friends (if you want to) before sharing.
Send a "direct message": To send a message to just one friend, tag them in the beginning of a post and let them know it's a private message. Then, comment on the post to establish your own, private thread.
Backup or download all your Google+ data: Go to your Account Settings and select Data Liberation from the left hand menu. Click the Download data button near the top of the next area that loads. You can back up all data or just choose to back up Google+.
Set up a quick link to your Google+ profile to share with friends: glus.to
Ignore someone on Google+: When you ignore people, their posts and anything they've shared in your "Incoming" stream will be removed. In addition, you will no longer be notified when they mention you. Just select "Ignore" in the notifications drop-down, next to their posts in the Incoming stream. Alternatively, go to Circles > People who've added you, and select any number of people to ignore. When you're done, click "Ignore" at the top.
Blocking someone on Google+: When you block people, you won't see their content, they'll be removed from your circles (and extended circles), they won't be able to mention you, and they'll be forbidden from viewing or commenting on your content. To block someone, go to their profile and click "Block" in the sidebar.
Integrate your Facebook, Twitter & Google+ streams: install the SGPlus extension for Chrome
Add a Google+ feed into your blog: http://widgetsplus.com/
NINE - PLAY SOME GAMES
See that icon in your Google+ toolbar that looks like a 4-seater table and chairs viewed from above? That's your portal into many wasted hours playing some cool HTML5-based games in your browser. Way better than anything you can get through Facebook.
TEN - TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS HOW GREAT GOOGLE+ IS!
