Why Bloggers Love Google Plus - Part Three

This is the final post in a 3 part series. In part one, we heard from Elaina Newton of the Rising Spoon. In part two, we heard from Nickie O'Hara from Geekalicious. Today, I'm wrapping up the series with my little love letter to Google !

I have to admit, I didn't take to Google at first. As a habitual early-adopter, I got myself an invite fairly fast, but once I joined, I jumped on the "G is a ghost town" bandwagon too fast and left.

It wasn't until I was invited to participate in Blogger Hangouts that I realized how much I was missing by giving up on G too soon. Here's why it's quickly becoming my favorite social network.

The Circles

Following on Google Plus is different than it is on other social networks. You add people to "circles", and you can adjust how often those circles appear in your main feed. This took me a little while to get used to, but once I got the hang of it, it became one of my very favorite features. I'm able to adjust the "volume" of different people and pages so the quiet ones don't get drowned out by super-active posters.

Planned circles also help me keep up with people and pages that post outside of my time zone. By placing them in a circle I check when it's convenient for me, I never miss out on their posts, even if they were made while I was asleep!

The Conversations

Google Plus is great for asking and answering questions, and for talking about big ideas. There are so many truly intelligent, thoughtful, and generous people on G . The format of G posts fosters conversation among all those bright lights.

I've learned a lot from people I've met on G , and I've also used G posts to expand on some of my tutorials and answer questions from readers.

The new-ish "Communities" feature makes it even easier to find and converse with people who share your interests. I'm involved in tech communities, blogging communities, and communities based on my hobbies outside of the blogging world. If you're new to Google , I recommend checking out the communities first to find people to follow and start introducing yourself.

The Hangouts

I absolutely love G Hangouts, both as a spectator and as an active participant. As "co-host", I've done several Blogger tutorials via Hangout with Blogger's community manager Lisa Ding. Those Hangouts give me a chance to share my tutorials & interact with my readers live. And, the videos are available on YouTube after the live Hangout, so anyone can watch them whenever it's convenient.

I'm also addicted to watching Hangouts, either live or later on YouTube. I'm a big fan of the Museum of Modern Art's MoMA Learning Hangouts, Hangouts with the White House, and Chef Dennis Littley's educational foodie Hangouts.

And, I'm very excited about the newest Hangout feature, remote desktop. The remote desktop lets you take temporary control of another user's computer (with their permission, of course), which makes it an amazing tool for providing tech support to friends, family, and clients. It's a brand new feature I haven't had a chance to try yet, but I know exactly what I'm going to do next time I get a tech support call from a relative!

The Data

I'm a bit of an analytics geek, and Google has plenty of data to offer. One of the coolest features is Ripples, a visualization of the sharing activity on G posts. Here's a screenshot of the Ripples from the sharing activity on Paperman, a Pixar short that became wildly popular on G .

Screenshot by Zach Alcorn

That's an example of an extraordinary amount of sharing activity — the average post has a lot fewer circles! But, no matter how many Ripples come from your post, you can use those Ripples to discover influential people in your audience and find new, interesting people to follow.

Google is also an essential component of Google Authorship, which opens up new data in Google's Webmaster Tools. With a Google profile associated with my blog, I'm able to access author stats inside Webmaster Tools, which shows my how often my posts are showing up in search and how often they're being clicked. If you're not familiar with Google's Authorship program, check out Google Authorship: What It Is and How To Get It for a starter guide.

Come Say Hi!

I hope this series has given you some useful tips on getting started with Google , and I'd love it if you got in touch on G !

Many thanks to Elaina and Nickie for their insightful posts — make sure to check out their blogs, The Rising Spoon and Geekalicious!