Stream
Updating your stream is pretty simple, especially if you are familiar with Facebook’s interface. On your Google+ home page, there is a simple text box labeled “Share what’s new…” To post a simple text update, just click in there and start typing.
Once clicked, the Stream box expands to facilitate content entry:
You see it also grows a Share button and the option to include Circles and people to share with. More on that in a moment.
Of course, there’s much more to posting content than just status updates. You can also use Google+ to post photos, videos and links directly into your Stream, as well as tag your updates by location. To do this, just use the icons to the right of the text entry box.
We’ll get into each of these in more depth below.
After entering your post, you can share it with the world by clicking the green Share button.
Of course, you may not want to share everything with the entire world. That’s why you have Circles, right? To share certain content only with particular people or Circles, click the blue link just above that Share button, as indicated by the red arrow above. This opens up a drop down menu, where you can choose with whom to share your post. That way, you can tailor and target your content, or keep certain content restricted to a certain group, like your Friends or Family.
That’s really all there is to posting a simple Stream update. If you have used Facebook or Twitter at all, you will have no trouble catching on to this aspect of Google+. To be thorough, let’s look at how to include other types of media when posting content in your Stream.
Photos
To post a photo, start by clicking the picture icon in the Stream update box:
This will expand the text entry box as we saw above, as well as drop down a menu. From this menu, choose how you would like to add photos. You can either upload a photo(s) for this post, create a new album (along with corresponding Stream update to announce it) or upload photos from your mobile phone.
(Note: the mobile phone feature is only available for Android devices running the Google+ app.)
After adding photos via your preferred method, simply finish up the same way as above: choose people or circles to share with (if desired) and click Share.
Videos
The process for including video content is much the same as for photos, so I won’t flog a dead horse by going over it step by step again. Instead, this section will briefly cover the various ways you can include videos. Just as with photos, start by clicking the video icon, which is the next one to the right:
Just like with photos, there are three options for adding videos: uploading them from your computer, linking from YouTube or adding them from your mobile phone. Again, the last option is only available if you are also using the Android app.
Links
Links are extremely simple to post. Just as before, click the link icon (hint: it’s the next one to the right). The entry box grows as expected, giving you a space to paste or type in your link.
Google+ will translate links you enter to include an icon, thumbnail and preview:
If this looks familiar, it is because it is the same thing Facebook does when posting a link. See: if you know Facebook and Twitter, you can learn Google+ easily. Once your link is in there, just add an optional comment, select who you want to share with (or keep it public) and click Share!
What Kinds of Content Should You Post?
Now that you have learned the how of content, let’s briefly discuss the what. Look at the question above. What do you think the answer is?
To be frank, there isn’t one. By that I mean there is no one answer, but rather many. To illustrate this, let me share something I saw on Twitter recently. Someone asked Warren Whitlock, author of several books on Twitter and social media, if he had any tips for people who wanted to improve their social marketing. Whitlock tweeted back simply, “give more.”
He went on to explain that the only way to know what to give was to pay attention to your audience, whether it be on Twitter, Google+ or right there in front of you.
So, rather than trying to decide what kind of content to post to Google+, what you should do instead is engage with the people you are trying to reach and let them tell you what content to post. The key word here is engage
– it’s essential to all marketing, whether online or off. Google+ is no exception.
Updating your stream is pretty simple, especially if you are familiar with Facebook’s interface. On your Google+ home page, there is a simple text box labeled “Share what’s new…” To post a simple text update, just click in there and start typing.
Once clicked, the Stream box expands to facilitate content entry:
You see it also grows a Share button and the option to include Circles and people to share with. More on that in a moment.
Of course, there’s much more to posting content than just status updates. You can also use Google+ to post photos, videos and links directly into your Stream, as well as tag your updates by location. To do this, just use the icons to the right of the text entry box.
We’ll get into each of these in more depth below.
After entering your post, you can share it with the world by clicking the green Share button.
Of course, you may not want to share everything with the entire world. That’s why you have Circles, right? To share certain content only with particular people or Circles, click the blue link just above that Share button, as indicated by the red arrow above. This opens up a drop down menu, where you can choose with whom to share your post. That way, you can tailor and target your content, or keep certain content restricted to a certain group, like your Friends or Family.
That’s really all there is to posting a simple Stream update. If you have used Facebook or Twitter at all, you will have no trouble catching on to this aspect of Google+. To be thorough, let’s look at how to include other types of media when posting content in your Stream.
Photos
To post a photo, start by clicking the picture icon in the Stream update box:
This will expand the text entry box as we saw above, as well as drop down a menu. From this menu, choose how you would like to add photos. You can either upload a photo(s) for this post, create a new album (along with corresponding Stream update to announce it) or upload photos from your mobile phone.
(Note: the mobile phone feature is only available for Android devices running the Google+ app.)
After adding photos via your preferred method, simply finish up the same way as above: choose people or circles to share with (if desired) and click Share.
Videos
The process for including video content is much the same as for photos, so I won’t flog a dead horse by going over it step by step again. Instead, this section will briefly cover the various ways you can include videos. Just as with photos, start by clicking the video icon, which is the next one to the right:
Just like with photos, there are three options for adding videos: uploading them from your computer, linking from YouTube or adding them from your mobile phone. Again, the last option is only available if you are also using the Android app.
Links
Links are extremely simple to post. Just as before, click the link icon (hint: it’s the next one to the right). The entry box grows as expected, giving you a space to paste or type in your link.
Google+ will translate links you enter to include an icon, thumbnail and preview:
If this looks familiar, it is because it is the same thing Facebook does when posting a link. See: if you know Facebook and Twitter, you can learn Google+ easily. Once your link is in there, just add an optional comment, select who you want to share with (or keep it public) and click Share!
What Kinds of Content Should You Post?
Now that you have learned the how of content, let’s briefly discuss the what. Look at the question above. What do you think the answer is?
To be frank, there isn’t one. By that I mean there is no one answer, but rather many. To illustrate this, let me share something I saw on Twitter recently. Someone asked Warren Whitlock, author of several books on Twitter and social media, if he had any tips for people who wanted to improve their social marketing. Whitlock tweeted back simply, “give more.”
He went on to explain that the only way to know what to give was to pay attention to your audience, whether it be on Twitter, Google+ or right there in front of you.
So, rather than trying to decide what kind of content to post to Google+, what you should do instead is engage with the people you are trying to reach and let them tell you what content to post. The key word here is engage
– it’s essential to all marketing, whether online or off. Google+ is no exception.
No comments:
Post a Comment