Introducing Google+ to your friends

I realised today that simply sending somebody a Google+ invite or telling them to go there is not very helpful for most people, they will wonder what it is all about, see very little and probably leave disappointed.

This is not anybody’s fault, just remember that a blank profile is a boring one and wont do much for them but with a few simple steps the beginnings of a profile and some good info may be of help.

I just got an invite to Google+ and I don’t know what to do now…

Most people have a google (gmail) account by now (if you don’t then get one) and you may receive an Invitation from a friend wanting you get into Google+ so where to from here?

You might have got an email like this (on the right) telling you all about the great Sharing, Circles and Hangouts that Google+ is all about.

Still not sure?

It doesn’t matter, everybody with a google/gmail account already has plus, it’s just a matter of going in and getting it started.

Click on the ‘Join Google+’ button on the email or go to plus.google.com

On this messy page to the right it asks you for a few final details, enter your real (or commonly known) name and ‘JOIN’

It also asked me to link this profile with my Picasa Images profile and connect those two old accounts together, Done.

Circles

This next page lists suggestions for you to add people you know to your Circles. Adding people makes Google+ interesting (like on Facebook or Twitter) and the ‘Circles’ are the groups that you make to organise people.

You can include people into Family, Friends, Acquaintances or create other new groups like Work or Sport as you go. They suggest including at least 10 people into your circles before you continue. Even better is when these people are active Google+ users. You can source other people from your hotmail or yahoo account too or if you have run out of suggestions you can start searching for people toward the bottom, try Mark Zuckerberg or other celebrities you may be interested in.
– Click Continue

Next is a page of other suggestions, people who like to post publically, add a few more if your interested in them.
- Click Finish

You have completed your Google+ profile.

OK, this is a nice full page if things going on, where to start and what to do?

The top navigation bar:

Allows you to quickly jump from +You to Gmail to Calendar and more…
On the right it has your Notifications (messages) in a red box and some Share/Settings controls.

Content:

Stream, Photos, Profile, Circles, Games and Google+ search

• Stream is shown below, a feed of all the updates and posts provided by your friends in your circles.
• Photos is the new Picasa image storage system, upload any picture in hear to share with your friends, include in your posts or share with anybody. Drag photos from your desktop to your albums, drag and drop uploading!
• Profile lets you edit details about yourself, your job or school and how public you might want this to be
• Circles lets you arrange friends or more into groups of your choice – simply drag people into circles
• Games I am told are quite good but I haven’t played with yet
• Search lets you find other people or posts about stuff you might be interested in.

Filters:

Under your Image on the left it shows your circles, so here you can select and just see the posts/stream from your family or friends more selectively.

There is also a ‘Whats hot’ link to find other content that would be public and popular but not something in your direct ‘circle’ of friends.

Under this is also the older (gmail based) text/voice chat.

In the middle:

This is of course where all the nice stuff is, things that people are saying, picture people uploading and it’s all gets updated dynamically as you watch.

The Best feature!

On the right are other ‘suggestions’ but the best feature is hidden below all this, a little button called ‘Start a hangout’

Why this is over there and down below the fold (out of view) I really don’t know because its the best tool for people to stay connected and the highlight feature of Google+

Hangouts are places that you can chat, share and video conference with many people at the same time.

So there is nobody else here right now, but when there is many people with video and audio can chat away. You can even share YouTube videos amongst yourselves.

Finally

It is easy to compare parts of Google+ to Twitter and Facebook and wonder why you need to move, well i am not saying you need to move, but at least go in and explore it a bit. With the above help things will be a lot better than a blank page, so get some friends, make some circles and see some new things happening on this exciting platform.

Go to Google+ before you’re asked to and sign in and be ready.

Coming soon: How to post something yourself…