Four Reasons to Use Google+ Communities

Google+ has an enormous amount of functionality, some of which you might not be aware of. Like other social media sites, you can create a profile and share your content to a feed that people in your circles will see.

Google+ allows interactions among its members to go even further with their “Hangouts” and “Communities”. While hangouts definitely have their place – they’re great to organize a video chat among multiple people –communities are another way for people, even ones you have never met, to interact and discuss shared interests.

To access communities, choose the drop-down menu in the left rail. You can then search out your favorite interests, whether they’re general like “movies” or more specific like “the food network”. In order to fully participate in a community, you must join the group to post and comment. Many communities are public, but if they’re set to private, you’ll have to ask permission to join the community moderator. Once you’ve joined, you can post to the community just as you post on your own personal Google+ page.

Why spend time in Google+ communities, particularly, when there are so many different social media sites to participate in nowadays?

Find What People Care About

Since communities are all about sharing your interests, the primary reason to take part in a community is to share what your passions are with other people. By taking part in a Google+ community, you’ll find other people who care as much about “fashion photography” as you do. Then you can share tips and tricks of the trade through text-only updates, as well as photos.

In the same vein, if you’re a fashion blogger, for example, you can see what other people in the industry are talking about. This may give you some ideas on what to write about in your next blog post.

Discover Keywords

Just as you can discover some ideas for blog posts while interacting with other like-minded people, you can drill down and discover the specific words they’re using to talk about certain topics. Once you see the different topics they’re talking about and the words you’re using, it might give you an idea of different hashtags to use in your own posts. This will make your content more easily findable for others, whether you’re posting your content on your page or within the community.

Easily Organise Content

Unlike your Google+ profile page, where your page is organized by whatever you posted last, communities allow users to drill into specific categories (which are accessible in the left pane of the specific community page). This means content is better organized. If you visit the Mustang Enthusiasts community, they feature a “discussion” category, as well as “your Mustang & its story” category.

Each category has its own content that isn’t found anywhere else. So, if you visit the “projects” category in this community, visitors and users will find everything from tips and tricks about installing mustang air filters, to photos of cars and other auto parts. This functionality makes it easy to find the content you care about most.

Become an Expert Industry Insider

By participating in communities, you’ll be learning about all sorts of things related to your industry. But you can also take it a step further. If you create your own new Google+ community, you can be the moderator. You can drive discussion and you can become a go-to person with the knowledge and the know-how. In other words, you become the resource. Also, since it’s a community rather than a business page, it’s a “safe” space of sorts. Anyone who cares about the topic can join and anyone can participate. It can also drive traffic to your other Google+ pages and in turn your website or blog.

Don’t just post to your own Google+ personal page. Get the most out of the social media site by interacting with and building a community.

Courtney Gordner

Courtney Gordner is a passionate blogger with a love for social media and all things internet! Follow her on her blog, talkviral.com and on Twitter!

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