Tips To Create a Successful Google+ Community

Unlike Facebook, Google plus has still a long way to go in terms of popularity and user profiles. Although Google has had been trying really hard to promote Google plus by affiliating it with all the other products that comes under the same brand, people often find this social network a dry one indeed. An interesting point here is the fact that Google plus offers more or less, a similar flavor to the users that they enjoy using Facebook, there is still something lacking when it comes to moderate the communities effectively. While the moderators seem confused about how to give a boost to their Google+ communities, Google seems to notice it and has now come up with some worth following solutions.

If you are looking for how to create and maintain a Google+ community successfully, you have got the right platform. We will first discuss the Dos� and Donts� that you need to take care of in order to attract followers and keep them involved in your community.

What you need to do?

No one likes to be a part of an unknown territory. Try promoting your community by targeting the potential followers, presenting your community as a platform where they can share their ideas.

What has been generally seen is the fact that owners often create a community and do not participate themselves. As a devoted owner, participate in the conversations, interacting with the followers, giving them a feeling that there is someone who is interested in listening and replying to them.

People love to know about hot stuff, they love more discussing it. Share latest and controversial news and ask for feedback. Most of the time people only speak when they are asked to.

Business has its own decent rules. Offering some power to the devoted followers is what keeps them glued to your community. Try adding moderators to your community who can manage content and help you out in keeping the platform alive.

Neither you, nor I know everything, isn�t it? How about learning from the followers and teaching them what they might not know? This is what helps building a smooth community.

Apart from the above stated must-do things, you should also add categories in your community to help guide discussions. We will discuss about categories in later part of the post.

What you Should Not Do?

Just breaking hot news on a community is not enough. What people mostly do is they often state the information without making it worthy enough to attract a single look of the reader.

People, usually the newbies aim high and work really low to reach their desired levels. In order to attract a good deal of followers you should first provide a reason to the readers to follow you. Never invite people to join your empty community. In fact, prepare your welcome message and expectations note before inviting followers so that when they land up on your community they get reasons to stay.

Never leave your community unmoderated. This is truly what brings a disaster to even those communities that initially survive to gather a considerable followership.

How to Use Categories in Google+ Community?

If you are a google+ user who is running a community too, you must know its importance. Categories, as the name suggests, organize the discussions in your community. These categories gives an idea to the member that what your community is all about in the first place, and next, in what topic he is interested in. Say if you have a community related to online business, a category for each section might be like, blogging, surveying, freelancing, etc.

Adding Discussion Categories:

Select Edit Community from action menu.

How to add Moderators to your Community?

Google+ is turning into an easy place to deal with. Adding moderators to your community is what that helps you only. To add moderators:

1. 
   Click members below your community�s photo
   
   


2. 
   Click the drop-down menu to the right of the member you�d like to add as a moderator
   
   


3. 
   Click Promote from member to moderator
   
   

What Moderator are allowed to do?

1) Add and edit categories

2) Remove posts

3) Remove members from the community

4) Ban members from the community

5) Add additional moderators

Works become easy and systematic if you know how to do it. Google Plus is the next huge social media or probably the biggest in upcoming days because what makes Google Plus a strong contestant is its backbone; that is Google, itself! Google Plus communities are significantly important in the online business strategies and one must know how to deal with them properly.

Best Wishes

How To Create a Google+ Page?

Just Like Facebook Like Pages, Google+ has introduced the fan, followers or +1 pages for web masters thus providing them better option of driving traffic to themselves by updating their readers through Google Plus. Google+ Pages are now also available for local business purposes. Soon you will be able to submit your Site or Blog RSS Feed to Google+ to automatically update your readers whenever you publish a new post. Lets now create a cool Google+ Page for your blog by following the easy steps below.

 

Create a Google Plus Page

1. Go To Google Plus Pages
2. Choose Local Product or Brand as your category

 

       3.   Fill up the details with your website title and URL.

       4.  Accept the Terms and hit the create button

        5. You have now successfully created a Google+ page!

The next step would be to inform all your friends in your Google+ profile to join your Fan page. Simply follow the easy instructions that may follow up. Describe your blog in 10 simple words and upload your blog logo. After which you will be asked to share your page on your profile as a post. Do it in order to inform everyone about your new Fan page.

How To Delete Google+ Pages?

In case you wish to delete your fan page then simply follow these steps:

1. Go To your Google Plus Homepage
2. Near your profile pic click the drop down menu and select "Manage Your Pages"

    3. Click the Delete link next to your page and Job done!

What's next?

In my next post I will share how to create a Google+ page Badge. Stay tuned! :)

How To Revert Back To Old Blogger Profile From Google+ Profile?

Yesterday, at MBT you guys learned how to switch your blogger profile to Google+ profile, overwriting your present Blogger profiles. Google is interlinking all its services in a unique manner. Previously Blogger profile was a totally different thing from your Google profile.



Now that you have your Google+ profile, it would be easier to manage things around. The profile would act as one single page (Google+ profile page) that would portray you and your circles.



As in the previous post, it was mentioned that you could revert back to the old Blogger profile in case you don't like the change. People normally resist change. But i believe its a good one and should be tested. You would always have the chance to revert back, that we are going to discuss today.



Note that the revert link that ill provide in a second, would only work if you have switched over to Google+ profile from Blogger profile, (obviously). How could you revert something that you haven't done :)



So yeah, go to revert-profile link and follow the instructions there on.



After the revert process has been done, a notification would appear on your Blogger Dashboard.

 So that's it. Wasn't that easy? Tell us whether you would like to revert to the old Blogger profile or the new Google+ servers you better.

---

Guest Post by Hassam Ahmad Awan. MBT's Gold Star Guest Author.

Replace Blogger Profile with Google+ Profile

Finally Google+ now jumped to Blogger. Blogger team announced yesterday that now you can Use your public Google+ profile on all your existing BlogSpot blogs. Upon switching your default Blogger profile will be replaced with Google+ profile and all your posts, comments and Author profile widget will be redirected to your Google Plus profile. Your blog pseudonym will be replaced with your common name. Your blog photo and info will be replaced with that in Google plus. This option works at present with Blogger in draft and after few weeks it will work on blogger.com too.

 

The three main features that this shifting offers are:

• You will get access to upcoming Google+ features on Blogger
• your social connections (friends) will see your posts in their Google search results page with an annotation that tells them that you've shared the post. Thus increasing your blog traffic! See below:

• Most importantly it would give you one Unique identity. All your Google Accounts will now use one common name. Your Common is the nickname that you chose on Google+.

Important Notes

However this shift may seem exciting but you need to first note these important points:

• Upon switching to your Google+ profile,you will have only 30 days to revert back to your old blogger profile. After the time limit is crossed, your Blogger profile data will be deleted permanently.
• Information on your Blogger profile won't be transferred to your Google+ profile, so you must manually copy your blogger profile data to Google+ before making the automatic switch.

After having read all the pros and cons lets now make the move!

Change Blogger Profile To Google+

1. Click this link: Switch to Google+ profile
2. Read the instructions carefully, agree to the terms and hit the "Switch Now" button
3. Done!

Try this new change after you have backed up your blogger profile data and see if you like it. If things were not delightful then simply revert back. Make sure you revert back within a month. I hope this latest news may be interesting for most of you. :)

Fundamental Tips for Google Plus beginners

Google Plus has created a lot of sensation among the existing and new social network users. Its rapid success and user-friendly interface is setting new records. Here, are some interesting tips for new users. Learn them well and enjoy this new social media site on the internet:

 

Let�s invite friends and family

It�s not difficult, but quite interesting to invite friends on your Google Plus account. You can easily learn how to invite friends on your Google Plus account. If interested, then follow the steps:

• Visit the Google Plus network and login your account

• Make some sensible and crispy streamline like a message and it should be an invitation, which allows them to join you on this network

• Next, you will find a textbox where you have to insert the e-mail ids of your friends and family members. Once it�s done, then you can share this message with them, which you have already created

• Now, you have to click on the �share� button. By doing this, your message will be floated to those guys. Only those can receive your message who have been invited by you

• After this, everyone will receive an e-mail message where they can click on the specified Google Plus link to get connected with each other

Yes, you can also remove them

You can organize your friends with this great social networking site. This new social media site is fully loaded with different features like adding or removing friends from your account. It�s quite easy as you can add lots of friends and your family members in your �Circle.� Then, you can also have the right to remove someone.

We all know that sometimes we have to take some strict actions against some �rotten eggs� for our security and peace of mind. The annoying personalities can be in our own social circle. So, it�s better to kick them away before they create some trouble, especially when you have added your family members.

You can follow a logical sequence, which can direct you to get rid of some trouble creators.

• Start with clicking on the �Circles� option, which you can find on the top navigation of your account

• Now, you can double click on the specific circle where he is added. It will generate the list of all members of the particular circle

• Select and just remove him from the face of your circle, but don�t try to click him again. It will �de select� the option and he will remain in your circle. Once you click it, it will be highlighted. Now, just remove it by clicking �remove� option available on the top

You can download data from Facebook

If you are already using Facebook or some other social media site, then it will be quite difficult for you to live the dream on Google Plus. How would you be going to interact with them, as they will be on Facebook and you will be isolated here?

Don�t worry! Google Plus has better options for you as you can move contacts from you Facebook account to your new Google Plus account. You don�t have to make a lot of efforts to move them onto your Google account. If you think that moving contacts from your new account is difficult, think again, because Google can facilitate you very well.

You can use Yahoo to transfer all of your contacts to this new account of yours:

Note: Please read this separate tutorial on transferring Facebook contacts to Google+

• Visit Yahoo and make a new account there. After creating account, you can go to the �contacts� option

• After that, you can select the option, �import contacts�

• Now select, �Facebook�

• Make sure all of your contacts are available there

• Now, open your account at Google Plus and then open, �Circles�

• Here, you have to click on �Find� and then click on �Invite�

• Then again, click on Yahoo and follow the sequence by selecting the option, �invites�

• It�s done now, all you have to do is to arrange them in your �circles now

It�s time to customize the page

Don�t you want to have a page, which is customized according to your personal likes and dislikes? If you do like, then you can customize your page easily. After all, it�s all about your impression on the profile page and you can�t compromise on good impression. Your impressive profile will reflect your aesthetics.

You can follow these steps to easily customize your profile:

• First login, then click the third tab

• Your profile will be visible, at the right side, you can click on �edit�

• Now, edit the page as you like

• Your mouse movement will make certain content �editable.� So, do what you want to and make it in accordance with your own taste and preferences

Did you see the magic? If not so, try applying these tips properly and open the wonders of Google Plus today!

---

This article is written by Kevin Moor who writes for online-virus-scan.org, a site reviewing and testing various online virus scan issues.

How to Create a short Google+ Profile URL?

When Facebook usernames were introduced branding was at its peak and almost everyone tried it to brand their social profiles. Now you can even create a fully custom username for your Google+ profile using an unofficial service provided by gplus.to/username. This API will create a permanent username link for your Google Plus profile that will redirect your friends to your account when they click on the link. The steps are extremely simple. Follow me:

 

Make a short Username URL for Google+

1. Go To gplus.to
2. Submit your username/nickname. In my case I chose mybloggertricks.
3. Submit your G+ ID which you can get as follows,

You can get your G+ ID by clicking profile and then copy the number from your address bar.

      4.   Now simply hit the add button and copy the link which will look similar to this,

gplus.to/username

 

In my case it is:

gplus.to/mybloggertricks

 

      5.   That's it. Now youre link is permanently added to gplus.to data base and you can use the URL shortner anywhere you wish. Enjoy! :)

Google+ Invites Limited to 150 Per User

I just came to know that now all Google+ users are restricted to 150 invites only. You can at most invite 150 people on a single Google Plus account. Google+ now also provides you with a unique invite share URL or link that you can post anywhere to invite friends directly. This is the same invite link that is blocked by Facebook. You can find this unique URL on your Google+ homepage towards the right sidebar under "Send invitations - 150 left" Upon clicking it you can easily copy the invite URL and share it with friends on forums, blogs and social networks to invite more and more people. You can invite people by email or by a share link as shown below,

 

 

You can clearly see that only 150 sign ups can be made per account. So invite only close friends and use the limit carefully. This is done so that the social network may not become a spam spot or adventure park where anyone would come and go. Only active social people are allowed to join Google Plus. Since we still have 150 invites left so you can post your email ID's below for an invite as we have enough accounts and the limit does not bound us. :p

How To Create RSS Feeds For Google+?

Since the day Google Plus stepped into online social media, developers are trying every possible app to further enhance the G+ experience.  At present no developers help page exists at Google Plus as it is still in its testing mode but some people do always find a way to bring something innovative. Plus Feed is a free open source app tool that creates an Atom feed of your Google Plus Posts that you share publically.  You can use any application to subscribe to the updates. You can use your browser bookmarks or Google reader or My Yahoo!. Many options. Lets learn how to create a Feed to your posts that may update your friends, visitors and fans whenever you share something on Google+.

 

Create an Atom Feed For Google+

Simply replace the highlighted digital number below with your Google+ ID,

http://plusfeed.appspot.com/104961845171318028721

You can get your G+ ID by clicking profile and then copy the number from your address bar.

Now once you created the Feed URL simply share it with your visitors using this HTML Code,

<a href="http://plusfeed.appspot.com/104961845171318028721" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" >Subscribe to our G+ Updates</a>

I have optimized the link so you can safely use it. On clicking the link your visitors will see this page,

From the Subscribe to this feed using option they can choose which service to use to subscribe to your updates. That's all! have fun :)

Google+ Games Launched! Play Angry Birds on Google Plus

The most awaited feature of the new social mega giant network has just been uncovered. Google Plus games apps have been just made available to all active users worldwide. The featured games category include the most popular games of smart phones which include Angry birds, city of wonder, Bejeweled, Zynga Poker and more. There are at present a total of 16 games available that you can play online. Most of these games are single player and I am sure multiplayer games are on its way too that will give you even a more social touch.

Games are always a great marketing tool to attract wide amount of traffic and Google knows it well. Facebook games like mafia wars and others have been one of the many reasons why Facebook become so much popular world wide. After games I am sure the next big news would be the Google+ Ads hanging on sidebars of your profile accounts.

How to play a Game on Google Plus?

Simply click the games tab at the top of your Google+ account and then choose a game that you wish to play as shown below,

To see the complete list of games simply click the All Games link on your left side to see all 16 games available.

Your accomplishments such as high scores, points, and levels passed will be visible to your friends on Google+. This way your friends will know if you have played the game or not. I will be publishing some tricks on how to score high on Google plus games and this will surely let you enjoy free time online.

Your scores will appear live on Games Stream!

Now you can not hide your scores. Whether you receive a gift or curse from Fortuna it will be visible to all your friends in circles so better play hard and leave good impressions. :d

Sergey Brin (Google co founder) says that he scored 35390 in level 1-1 of Angry Birds. Do you think you can beat it? Tell him what you can! :p

Show Author Profile Picture Next To Google Search Results

Google webmaster team has introduced an easy way of displaying your Google+ profile picture next to the links of your website or blog or any content that you generate. You might have seen profile pictures or image thumbnails of Google developers appearing on search results page. Previously only reserved users had this option but now thanks to the generosity of Google+ social network, even you can display your profile picture next to all your articles or webpages that you own. This will be a proof that you are the sole author and owner of that site or blog. The author information will be shared globally on Google results and your visitors can see your image and author information link next to your article. This is a great way to attract visitors and increase website traffic. Lets learn how to do it!

Update: A Complete and Working tutorial Has Been Published here �� CLICK HERE!

Show Author Photo in Google Search Results Page

You need three things,

1. A website or blog that you own
2. A Google Plus Account
3. An About Me page on your blog. If you already have an about page where information about author is given then you need not worry. However if you don�t have an about page then you must create one now. 

If you have met the above three conditions then you may follow these steps:

1. On your website sidebar or header or footer add this link,

   <a href="https://plus.google.com/GOOGLE+ ID"
     rel="author" target="_blank"> Join me on Google+</a>

   PS: Do not remove rel="author" else the trick wont work!

   Replace GOOGLE+ ID with your Google profile link id. You can get your Google Plus ID by going to your Google Plus profile page and then copy the digital code from your browser address bar as shown below,

   

   

   You can edit the text Join me on Google+ if you wish.

   Example of author link on my blog:

   

2. Next go to your About Me page and add this link anywhere you want,

   <a href="https://plus.google.com/GOOGLE+ ID"
     rel="me" target="_blank"> My Google Profile</a>

   Again replace the Google+ ID with your Profile ID. You can edit the text My Google Profile if you wish.

   Example of link on my blog:

   

3. Now go to your G+ profile and click the �Edit Profile� button

   

   Then click on the "LINKS" area as shown below,

   

   Add your Blog/site homepage URL and also the URL of your About page. You can also add your Facebook and twitter links if you wish.

4. 1. Go to http://profiles.google.com/me/plusones.
   2. Click Edit Profile.
   3. Check the Show this tab on my profile checkbox.
5. Next Upload a quality Profile Pic of your self . Your image will look best if it is 150px by 150px in size. To learn about Google+ image Dimensions Click here

   

6. Finally Save your profile and you are almost done.

Test How your profile photo will appear on SERPs

Now you need to see how your image will appear. Click here and submit your homepage link in the search box and hit preview as shown below,

If you have followed all steps correctly then you will be able to clearly see your photo and name appearing next to your blog title and description. You will also see this green message: "Verified: Authorship markup is correct for this page"

Your authorship is verified only when you have fulfilled all requirements correctly. I will summarize todays tutorial once again so that you may know what to do:

SUMMARY:

1. You need to add two links on your site. The first one is to be added on your sidebar, footer or header. The second one is to be added on your about page.
2. Add your site homepage link and about link on Google+
3. Add a clean profile photo of at least 150px by 150px in size.
4. Check the Show this tab on my profile  box
5. Finally Save your profile
6. Test your homepage link and see if your author information appears next to your site url.
7. If the photo did appear then say Bingo and you are all done! :)

If you needed any further help then feel free to let me know. Have fun. :>

Note: It will take about 48 hours for your photo to appear globally on Google results page. Even my photo thumbnail have not yet appeared on Google.com so it will take sometime till Google display it. Kindly be patient.

Create Google+ �Add To Circles� Widget For Blogger

You can see this widget live on my sidebar with real time followers stats of my Google Plus circles and with a �Add me To Circles�  Button. The Widget is completely customizable and will blend any site theme perfectly. The number of followers displayed by the widget is automatic. You just need to fetch the code and paste it on your blogs. Lets know how!

 

Add �Add me on Google+� Button To Blogger

1. You just need to visit Google Plus widget homepage i.e. Click here
2. Click the Get Widget button

   

3. Create your widget by using the tabs to fully customize the look of your button
4. Enter your Google+ ID in the basic settings tab,

   

   You can get your Plus ID by going to your Google Plus profile page and then copy the digital code from your browser address bar as shown below,

   

   

    

5. Set the Widget width equal to the width of your sidebar. In my case I have kept it 300
6. You can also change the language of the add me button from basic settings.  Currently 9 languages are supported.
7. To change color codes use our Color Generator
8. Once you are done simple hit the Get Code button at the top. Copy the code and then go to Blogger > Design
9. Select a HTML/JavaScript widget
10. Paste your code inside it and hit save.
11. You are all done!

Do let me know if you needed any further assistance. Have Fun. :)

If you enjoyed this post then why not add me on Google+? Add me to your Circles :>

Follow Larry Page and Sergey Brin on Google+

What can be more interesting than following the Google Founders and Pioneers of Globally acclaimed search engine. Internet has brought everyone so closer that whether it may be a common man or a Billionaire, you will find all sharing their daily life with each other. After Twitter, Google+ has become the next biggest social network which is being used by the world�s most renowned CEOs, pioneers, developers and engineers. Larry Page, Sergey Brin can both be find on Google+. Amazingly Mark Zukerberg (CEO of Facebook) is the number one Google+ user with highest fan following with over 429,072 followers. Second comes Larry page with 249,773 followers and third comes Sergey Brin with 170,991 followers.

Follow Google Founders On Google Plus!

To Follow Larry Page Click Here

To Follow Sergey Brin Click Here

To Follow Me :) Click here

I just hope you may enjoy following them on this new social network. There is always something good in following role models. Enjoy tracking them. :>

10 Amazing Facts about Google+ Statistics

Google+ is growing fast and since Google has still not revealed the real statistics therefore interesting information is continuously coming from major sites that track traffic. According to Experian Hitwise Googe+ has started building up great traffic and is quickly increasing in numbers. The exact number of Google+ users is still not known but according to many third party analytics the current number of active registered Google Plus users is no less than 20-30 Million. Lets now read some interesting new stats for Google Plus from Hitwise and some other sources.

 

1. Around 13% U.S. Adults have signed up for Google+ and the number can hit 22% in a year. This will let Google+ become the number two social media network beating twitter and linkedIn.
2. From July 16 onwards, Google+ has become the 42^nd most-visited social networking site in U.S. and the 638^th most-visited site on the world wide web
3. Google+ has grown by 821% from the week ending on July 2, the first week Google+ was made available to its users.
4. Around 56% of Google+�s traffic come from Google services itself. 34% come from Google.com, 37% from other search engines and 21% from Email services which includes Gmail
5. Google+ is visited mostly by adults of age between 25-34. They account for 38.37% of all visits
6. Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco are the most dominant locations driving traffic to Google+ than any other place globally
7. 55% traffic comes from USA and 18% from India
8. 71% are Males and 21% Female Users
9. 29% Google+ users are engineers by profession, 17% developers and 14% Designers.
10. There are currently 25-30 Million Active Registered Google+ Users.

These were some stats that I could gather so far and all these facts are estimated figures and are not officially endorsed by Google Inc. itself.

What do you think?

Do you think Google+ will be able to capture a major portion of Facebook�s market. Development is still under progress and it is expected that Google will soon launch Games and other options for users and developers. How far do you think this new social network can go?

Read Google Plus Notifications on Your Desktop

Danny has created a useful windows utility software named G+ Notifier. It fetches latest updates from your Google Plus network and displays notifications on your windows toolbar. It is extremely easy to install and use. Since there is no API for Google+ as yet therefore this application uses the Awesomium Web-Browser Framework. User will be prompted to login to Google+ on startup. The browser window is kept open but hidden on your toolbar and G+ Notifier will fetch data and display it to you on a real-time while you work on your computer. At present it is compatible with all latest versions of windows OS.  It is an open-source project so you can fully customize it and develop it further using the source code if you are good with algorithm.

 

How to install G+ Notifier

1. Download This Zip File
2. Extract the file using winrar or winzip
3. Run DanTup.GPlusNotifier.exe to start the application. You can be prompted to download the latest version of .Net framework. You can download it from here.
4. That�s it you are done!

Now you will be alerted with a pop-up message whenever an activity takes place on your Google+ profile, you will be notified. You just need to click the icon on your system tray to find out what new comment, photo tag, video tag have you received or where have you been mentioned. Have fun! :)

How To Delete Circles In Google Plus?

Circles are one of the best features of Google+ that gives you more control over your privacy. You can categorize your friends in different circles and share stuff with people you want. However sometimes you wish to block a person in a specific circle or you may wish to delete the circle completely without loosing the contacts. According to Google+ if you delete a circle then the people in that circles will get disconnected from your updates and will not be able to see your stream updates. However there is a work around which we will discuss here.

 

Create a Circle

To create a circle kindly read the simple steps on my earlier post which you can read by reading this tutorial:

• How to create circles in Google Plus?

Delete a circle

To delete a circle simply do this:

1. Go to your Google Plus account and click on circles

     2.    Right click on any circle you wish to delete and choose Delete Circle   

Note:- If you do this then you will loose all contacts in that circle though they will still me in your friends list. In order to avoid this choose people you don�t want in the circle and drag them out. A red �1 sign will animate indicating that the person is removed from your circle.

Use your mouse cursor and pull out that person from the circle. Do the same for all you don�t want in the circle and wish to remove them from that category. This is how you remove a person from a circle.You have now successfully removed a person from a circle.

Block a person

You can also block a person in a circle by right clicking the circle and choosing Edit Circle

A new window will open. Select a person and then choose more option from the top-right corner of the window as shown below.

Now select Block. That�s it. Now that person wont receive any updates you share with this circle. Hope this helps most of you. Have fun. :>