We all know that Google has been making some major changes to its Google + pages over the past several months. And, we know that navigating this sea of changes can be a bit challenging.  It can be overwhelming for many small business owners to identify which Google changes will impact their company.

People who are avid users of Google+ said they wanted a place where they could keep up with people and talk about their interests, and the new Google+ allows them to do exactly that. Two key attributes of the new Google+ that are important to your business are Collections and Communities. Collections will appear on your business’ new Google+ profile page.  They are set up to look more like a Pinterest page and are designed to allow you, the business owner, to group your social posts into “topics”. Communities are meant for networking and sharing information with other Google+ users that share a common interest.

Why We Think Collections are Cool

Collections can provide important networking opportunities for your business. You can post information to your own collections.  You can follow personal and business collections. And, you can share content from these other collections to yours.  These three options allow you to post and to interact with the creator of the collection and other people who follow it.

To make a collection for your page:

• Go to your business’ Google+ page
• Under the “Interests” header, click “Create a collection”
• Make a name for the collection
• Make a tagline if you want… it could be a hashtag for your company or a catch phrase you have
• Add a cover picture for collection and a color
• Click save
• Once the collection is made, go back to the Google+ page to make a post to add to the collection

To post to a collection:

• You can post directly to collections when you make a new post
  • When posting, the default setting is to post to “Public”
  • To post to a collection, click on “Public” and change it to the collection you want to post it to
• Or, you can share an already existing post to a collection
  • Click the share icon on the post then choose the collection you want to post it to

Why We like Communities

Communities are a place for discussion and interaction about a certain topic. They are similar to groups on Facebook.

Communities are key to networking on the new Google+ and getting more views on your posts. You can actually post directly into a community, which allows all the members of that community to see what you have to say, even though they may not follow your page. Communities are an important resource for gaining more followers. Some communities have several thousand followers, so when you make a post in that community, those several thousand people are going to see it.

To join a community…

• You simply use the search bar to find them & click on the “Join” button
• If you need help figuring out what communities to join, the “Communities” tab on the left sidebar will give you recommended communities to join based on the communities you are already a part of

To post to a community…

• You can post directly to communities when you make a new post like you can post directly into one of your collections
• When posting, choose the community you want to post it to at the top
• You can also share an already existing post to a community the same way you would share a post to a collection

Start building your Collections and Communities today!  We know you will love them as much as we do!  Or, contact us for Social Media Marketing management and we will be happy to do it for you!