google plus stream – Small Business Odyssey

Google has taken video chat to another level with its Google Plus Hangouts. Commentators report that this feature is the real groundbreaking aspect of Google+. Unfortunately, Google+ Hangout has not really taken off yet as Google+ members are still trying to come to grips with the many features and implications of Google Plus.

Google continues to innovate in this area and has recently created further refinements based on user feedback. Google Plus Hangouts provide many opportunities for small business marketing through connection with your customers or clients. You can also connect with your friends and staff.

The only requirement is that the people you connect with on Google+ Hangouts have to be in your circle and they have to have you in their circle – so this requirement is a basic privacy element of Google Plus. There is also a limit on participation numbers – at the time of writing the limit is 10 participants.

How to start a Google Plus Hangout

The button for starting a Google+ hangout can be found on your page along with your Google+ stream. You will see a button in the right hand column with the words, “Start a hangout’ and related icon:

If you have not used this facility before (or used Google Talk), then you will be asked to install a plugin which enables Google+ Hangout to interact with the audio and video equipment on your computer. The plugin request will look like this:

You will be advised when the installation of the plugin is successful and you will have the option again to setup a Google+ Hangout.

When you have the plugin installed and click the “start a hangout” button your will be taken to the Green Room – effectively the waiting room before you go on air (you can even check out your personal appearance beforehand!).

The Green Room for Google Plus Hangouts – the waiting room

Google Plus has created an interim space, called the Green Room, so you can check out your appearance (if you want), ensure your audio and video equipment are functioning and invite people to join in your Google+ Hangout. Once you click ‘Start a hangout”, you will be taken to the Green Room which is illustrated in the image below:

From within the Green Room, you can add individuals or circles to your Google Plus Hangout. You click on the ‘+Add circles or people to share with” button and you will see a drop-down menu of your circles so you can specify which circles you want to communicate with (this is where setting up and naming your Google + circles becomes really important, e.g. creating a customer circle for customer communications and surveys).

You can also invite individuals by adding their name to the field that appears once you click the ‘+Add circles or people to share with” button. You can choose to place a name in this field and/or add specific circles. When you add a circle you can also add individuals by clicking on the field ‘Add more people” and entering the individual’s name beside the Google+ circle displayed as shown below:

Adjusting your settings for Google Plus Hangouts in the Green Room

In the Green Room, as illustrated previously, you will see icons for audio, video and settings (working from left to right). If you click on the audio or video icons, you will mute the relevant equipment.

The settings icon enables you to advise Google Plus of the source you wish to use for your video (webcam), audio and volume controls. You will be able to choose from the dropdown menu for each of these pieces of equipment. From my experience, Google Plus automatically activates my webcam when I click on “Start a hangout’ (even when I have not switched the webcam on myself). Remember to click the ‘Save Settings” button when you have finalised your settings.

The thing to remember is that the Green Room is for setting everything up for your hangout (even yourself). You or your Green Room are not visible to others until you click on the green ‘Hang Out’ button in the Green Room.

Google Plus Hangouts provides a great opportunity for small business marketing by enabling video chat with your circles (including your customers and friends).

The Google Plus Stream is the lifeblood of Google+. It enables sharing of information to Circles and has a lot of the characteristics of Facebook’s status updates. You can share ideas, status updates, photos, videos, links and your location (if you really want to!).

The Share box is accessible via the Google Plus homepage. You have a few icons you can click on to share specific types of information or you can just enter text in the Share box:

In line with Google+ Privacy Policy, you can specify who you share each post with. You can identify specific Circles or all Circles (public). Icons for suggested circles are shown (e.g. Acquaintances and Friends in the image above) and you can add more Circles by clicking on ‘+add more people’. You can delete a suggested Circle from your distribution by clicking on the delete button (X) in the respective Circle icon.

You can see that yet again Google Plus is deadly serious about giving you control over your privacy by allowing you to determine the desired distribution for each post.

What should you share in your Google Plus Stream?

I have discussed what types of content you can share in your Google Plus Stream, but what exactly should you share? The fundamental rule to remember is that your Stream on your personal Google Plus page should be about CONVERSATION NOT CONVERSION! If you indulge in a constant sales pitch, you will be very quickly dumped from multiple circles (…and defeat the whole purpose of using the Google+ network, which is to expand your contacts).

So think about the things that you find engaging and share something similar. Here’s a list of the kinds of posts that catch my attention and tend to encourage me to share with others:

informative
visually appealing
peaceful
intriguing
humorous
enlightening
challenging
insightful
reflective

So your purpose in posting to the Google Plus Stream is to share something of yourself, enhance your personal branding and provide content that others find useful or appealing and are inspired to share in their own Circles. In this way, your posts will have a viral effect.

The central Stream on your Google Plus Homepage is the accumulation of all the posts from people in your Circles (who included you in their distribution when sharing).

What to do with posts in your Google Plus Stream that you don’t want

You have a range of options in relation to each post that arrives in your Google Plus Stream if you don’t want to retain them or make them visible to others:

Report abuse
Mute this post (no longer visible)
Block this person

The options button is somewhat faint but you will see it beside each post as illustrated below and highlighted by the red arrow I’ve included in the screenshot:

How to ‘like’ posts in your Google Plus Stream

If you want to ‘like’ a post there are a number of ways to do this. Included in the options mentioned in the previous section of this post is an option “Link to this post” which enables you to copy the link for the post and share it with others (it is mystifying why this option is inlcuded with the other “dislike” options).

However, there are a number of other options which are more clearly displayed immediately below each post as indicated in this screenshot:

These options are explained briefly below:

+1 – indicates you really like the post and want to save it to your ‘favorites’ (this is an expansive topic and will be the subject of a separate post).
Comment – see below for further elaboration.
Share – with Circles that you specify when you click on this option.
Hang Out – Chat with the originator and others you choose to include (more on this in another post).

How to comment effectively on Posts in your Google Plus Stream

I have previously discussed at length how to comment on social media content in such a way as to build a positive online profile and brand image. The same principles apply when commenting on posts in your Google Plus stream.

You can see from the following example how a simple comment can generate a reciprocal response. Chris Brogan shared a video and a personal comment about the originator of the video, Tom Terwilliger. I watched the video and left a comment on Chris Brogan’s post. Tom responded and so we have the beginnings of a conversation:

So to reiterate, the primary principle behind your sharing through the Google Plus stream must be to focus on conversation not conversion.