July 16, 2011 53 Comments

Google Plus is a VERY Different Sharing Environment

Google+ Sharing

I’ve been writing a lot about Google+ , but that’s partly because it’s a very interesting social network environment, and it gives me a lot of opportunity to study a social network at its birth. Once you’ve been on Twitter or Facebook or wherever for a while, you take for granted what it was like in the beginning. This time, I’m capturing interesting things that might be of value.

This one is a little different to capture, but I think it merits a little consideration.

Google+ is a VERY Different Sharing Environment

I think that sharing is the coin of the realm in Google+. People who share interesting things get more follows, get added to more circles, and end up having more engaging conversations. I’ve been experimenting with what works and what doesn’t (adding a picture, a video, or a link to a post almost guarantees triple the engagement, for instance). But there’s more.

This environment isn’t geek-only stuff, even in its early days of the bleeding edge and early adopter types.

My last handful of conversations:

  • Beer.
  • A weird “fitness chair.”
  • Thinking of your career as if YOU are a startup.
  • A fitness ball question.
  • And a few geek conversations.

I asked the simple question of where people were and got over 500 responses (and counting). Talk about engagement. It’s just a different world in there.

So How Do You Use This?

Find the good stuff and share it. Don’t just share what you’re seeing inside of Google+. Definitely don’t just share links to your blog posts. Share interesting things that open up new conversations. Then, see if there’s more there, and see who comments, and consider following and Circling them.

See how a community of interest forms?

How’s your experience been with this?

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  • http://chapmanintexas.com Chapman

    Thanks for the post! I have just started trying to figure out this whole google+ thing.  And from your post it sounds like I can post and not only my circle can see it! I will try a random interesting and see how it goes. I wasn’t sure how to even begin.  It is very interesting!

  • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

    My business partners and I are finding it to be a great alternative to skype chats (text, haven’t tried video) because it can be an ongoing conversation and/or brainstorming session that we can just keep dumping in information with media as well…. and still have some control over who is seeing it (company versus public).

    The only downfall is the threads are not sticky and thus you have to be careful how you save information on their location, lest they get buried and you have to work hard to find them.

  • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

    I wonder if everyone (including those with only a few number of followers) are getting the same percentages of engagement… or if people are gravitating to where the party already is going on (such as your reader base, which is large). 

    Have you noticed any trends here based on viewing the streams of others?

  • Prem pandit

    ya its different and interesting with something new .   

  • http://twitter.com/RizzoTees Chris Reimer

    The Hawaii chair was hilarious.

  • Matt Hawk

    I’m a casual user of mainstream social media, and I’ve logged in to G+, but, I must say, that if conversations matter we’re challenging the status quo how? Like anything you get what you give. I think I like G+ because it links together much of the disparate offerings google has increasing functionality to truly make a personal home page. More than sharing, I think it allows you to readjust your “personality” without taking drastic measure due to its new-ness. Make sense?

  • http://twitter.com/susangiurleo susangiurleo

    How is it possible you don’t have a +1 option on this blog?? Different sharing environment, indeed, yet hard to share your posts….is that irony?

    • http://twitter.com/JudyHelfand JudyHelfand

      I suppose it is possible for the same reason that my BLOGGER blog has a +1 share option and I have not been invited to Google+!!! LOL

      • http://www.margieclayman.com Marjorie Clayman

        I have invites if you would like one, Ms. Thang. Or I did 5 seconds ago, anyway :)

        • http://twitter.com/JudyHelfand JudyHelfand

          I am a very patient person. I perform gratis QA for enough of GOOGLE products already. Soon enough an invite will come. Let’s test this and see how long it takes to arrive the old fashion way – that is, when GOOGLE invites me! 

          • http://www.margieclayman.com Marjorie Clayman

            hmm, well alright then, but if you change your mind…”You’ve gotta friennnnnnnd” :)

          • http://twitter.com/JudyHelfand JudyHelfand

            I know I have a friend. And I thank you.

    • http://www.margieclayman.com Marjorie Clayman

      I just added my +1 a couple of days ago to avoid such sinister irony :)

      • http://twitter.com/susangiurleo susangiurleo

        I’m not even there yet, so I’m not throwing stones.  But just find it curious not to see a +1 option here : ).

    • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

      Just picking things to do. Doing the money-making things first. 

  • http://ClimbingEveryMountain.com Mary E. Ulrich

    Love the idea that we are part of the birth of a new social network. Chris, I think you are smart to look at what brings in people. But do we really want a big network? Juggling Facebook, Twitter and my blog was already tough. The question I keep asking myself, do I want to run around in circles and circles (literally) on Google +?

  • http://www.margieclayman.com Marjorie Clayman

    Hi Chris,

    I’d just throw out a little dingy dingy bell warning of caution thing.

    Your experience on Google+ is very very different (already) from mine and other little dudes. Just as my experience is going to be super different from people who are using Google+ to dabble in Social Media for the first time. If I didn’t already have contacts from Twitter and Facebook, I don’t know how I’d be talking to anyone right now. Without the time to stalk people who look interesting, I’d probably be starting just like I did on Twitter, which was reminiscent of Pink Floyd. To wit: “Helloo…is there anybody in there? Is there anybody home?”

    The experience folks like you, Liz, Darren, and others are having is interesting to me because it makes tangible the volume you are dealing with in other places, which is interesting (and I feel for you!). However, not everyone is getting 500 comments in a conversation. I don’t think I’ve gotten 500 comments total yet and I’ve been over there for 2 weeks now :)

    So – as with other platforms, there is a layer of perspective there. I just didn’t want people to feel like they were poopy if they were NOT getting the same kind of response.

    OK, leaving now.

    • http://www.lexiconn.com/blog/ Rob Mangiafico

      Agree 1000%. The experience of the little guy is much different from the big guys and gals.

      Chris has managed to move the conversation to another medium but the engagement is due to his huge following. G+ is not driving the engagement per se it’s simply the conduit.

      • http://ClimbingEveryMountain.com Mary E. Ulrich

        Another variable is that Chris’ expertise and subject is social media. So a new social media platform is on topic. For the rest of us who are not experts and not in social media, we are fishing in a different lake (usually without bait).

    • http://twitter.com/susangiurleo susangiurleo

      Not to speak for Chris (who’s at the lake, I see) but my sense is he’s spent loads of time in Google+ intentionally to generate big numbers and larger engagement.  I can see how to do it, I just havent’ done it. Does that make sense? When he says he ‘started at zero’ I take that to mean that anyone can do what he’s doing – it just comes down to how bad you want to do the work to get there. Or if you really want that experience in the first place.

      Of course lots of folks start with larger audiences outside of Google+, but again, I think the same rules apply.   Anyone can do what gets those big platforms, it’s work, time and going beyond what most of us are doing. Neither is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ it’s just a different way of leveraging what we’ve got.

      I can see what I’ll need to do to pull more engagement. And I don’t want 500 replies, so I’m on my own personal track in meeting my goals. Just got to know what you’re in it for and how to use the platform to move it forward.

      • http://www.margieclayman.com Marjorie Clayman

        Fair point, of course. Although I think that the way Google+ sent out invites also gave an advantage to people who already had big communities, but I could be wrong about that – that all seemed hazy at the time and seems hazier now :)

  • http://www.webvisible.org/ Web Visible

    It is dead easy to create an RSS feed for a Google Plus profile. All you need is the user’s Google profile ID and the url that you have to add it to to create the feed. 

  • http://www.seoconsultantz.com Alan Cliffe

    Hi Chris, I’ve seen that you’re very active on Google+, but can’t seem to find a “Plusone” button on this page, so it got me wondering if this is an oversight or is there a reason for this. Could it be part of a cunning plan? :-)

    • http://jeffkorhan.com Jeff Korhan

      I use the Wibya bar on my site.  It’s an easy way to add the +1 button for those of us that are not expertly technical.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

      Just haven’t redesigned my sharing options. Nothing major. : ) 

  • Rachel Velarde

    I want to be able to +1 this, yet you don’t have a button for it…

  • Rachel Velarde

    I want to be able to +1 this so I can send it to my G+, but there’s no button…

  • http://jeffkorhan.com Jeff Korhan

    … coin of the realm?  I’m so completely lost on what that means that I’m curious about the intended meaning. :)

    • http://www.copyblogger.com Brian Clark

      Yeah, ‘ pretty sure the coin of the realm is still coin.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

      So “coin” is just a representation of value. So, the term “Coin of the Realm” means that x = something of value to that economy.

      In baseball, maybe base hits are the coin of the realm. 

      Does that make sense? 

      • http://jeffkorhan.com Jeff Korhan

        Yep, makes perfect sense.  I I had never heard that expression before.  Interesting. 

  • Christos vareloglou

    For me the most innovatite thing that i observed in Google+, is the “Circles”.

  • http://www.bestcarry-onluggage.net Best Carry On Luggage

    I don’t know; I may just be challenged but I really feel lost in this.  Maybe I’m just old.
    Jimmel

  • http://ajleon.me ajleon

    Dude, I know. It’s weird to be at the beginning of something again. Feels like the Wild West in there. :)

  • http://bitoftech.mkronline.com/ Michael Robinson

    I said something inciteful about NASA before the shuttle launch, got linked by Scoble, and found myself in the circles of 50 more people. I think what works on other social networks works on Google+, but you get more out of the effort.

    It just seems like it works differently because we’re not used to seeing so much reaction.

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  • Anonymous

    Yes, G+ is different but different in a good way, indeed.
    The sheer ease with which you create circles and share things makes hanging in there a blast.
    If there’s one tip I would add to your post is that all the social engagement tips that apply to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn would work like charm with G+.
    I have read a very interesting G+ user-opinion poll done by mashable and one of the answers was: “It could be like a LinkedIn and Facebook in one place…but..where is the farmville?”
    On the one hand, this comment shows that G+ has the best of both worlds: LinkedIn and Facebook. On the other hand, it proves that Facebook is hard nut to crack.
    Welcome to the world of G+ :)

  • http://photocontestinformation.com/ photo contest

    G+ look good with circle and more user privacy .. G+ have the good part facebook and twitter both…

    • http://itrafficgeneration.com Internet business

      Perfect! Thank you

    • http://ibusinessprofessional.com video marketing

      Agreed..

  • http://twitter.com/WebOutGateway Outsourcing Gateway

    I haven’t really tried google+ but I think it quite potential specially for onlilne marketing

  • Philipstrange60

    Tried to get into this but Google says “membership closed” – I’m relying on you to keep me up to speed.
    Regards, Philip.

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  • http://www.seo-smo.net/ Social media News

    Good post. I appreciate google plus. I like everything in google plus, It will be a biggest competitor for all the social networking sites like facebook and twitter.

  • http://ideaapps2cash.com App Developers

    Google+, getting to know it better! I have you in one of my circles and I appreciate all of your posting! Glad we are all learning it together……

  • http://chapmanintexas.com Chapman

    It is a different sharing environment and it is taking me a while to get used to it. Keep the google plus articles coming !

  • http://www.incomeishere.com/ IncomeatHome.com

    Well Google+ is different from other networking sites…In it  People  share interesting things can get more follows, get added to more circles, and end up having more engaging conversations…It is good..

  • http://thesis911.com/ thesis

    thanks for the psot! very interesting!

  • http://www.r4-carta.com R4 DS

    Agree with this” Don’t just share what you’re seeing inside of Google+. Definitely don’t
    just share links to your blog posts. Share interesting things that open
    up new conversations.”

  • http://www.perfumewithpheromone.com Max@PerfumewithPheromone

    I haven’t tried this Google+ although many of my friends have told me to get one. Is it similar to Facebook?

  • http://www.handles4doors.co.uk/ Window Locks

    As I have said to people in the past, I look at Google + and it reminds me of the way in which I would expect to use and run a presence on a business forum.

  • http://www.key-logger.ws/ Key logger

    thank you for this article is very interesting, 

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