Yesterday I had a walk-through of Google+ and got the real understanding of what circles can do to my personal social circles, plus what it would mean for the brands. Remember the Juliani album launch Hangout? That and much more. Google plus gives these features for one to use, circles, hangouts and On Air Hangouts. The circles enable you to segment the way you share information. You can decide to add colleagues and share work info there, including google docs that all of you are working on. You can also have circles for sun, or choose to share the fun across the board. Hangouts are a way of adding interactivity to sharing, by including videos in the conversation, you can invite your friends, and they can also join on the conversation if they have access to the hangout. The person talking currently automatically gets the screen, google detects that via the mic.
You can record the circles and can also see if another is recording it. Once done with the recording the video is saved in your youtube account privately, its your choice to change the privacy settings. On Air hangouts are not reeealy publicly. It has been turned on for public figures, still happening, so if you are a public figure, make Google plus know you, you might just get it. This feature allows you to broadcast to all who have added you to circles on a live cast. See the video below of an On Air hangout that the Dalai Lama had with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Here are 5 elements that came out for the Google+ the enterprise way:
1. Put your fans and members into Circles
Different people have different interests, and on Google+ the way you talk to them can reflect that. Circles let you group fans and interested parties by location, interest and more, which in turn lets you send the right messages only to the right people, and make all your content more valuable to all your followers.
2. Engage with your fans with face-to-face Hangouts
Hangouts let you set up one-click video conversations with colleagues, fans or members alike. Now you can get face-to-face feedback on news and issues, help people solve problems or simply get to know them better, and collaborate with remote colleagues on shared documents in real-time – all over high quality, easy to use video chat.
3. Recommendations can benefit your organisation
People like to turn to people they know and trust for recommendations. When someone clicks the +1 button on your Google+ page or other web pages, their friends can see their recommendation and comment on it, spreading the word about your content and starting some good conversations as well. So be sure to put the +1 button anywhere you’d like your fans to be able to recommend your organisation, your updates and your services across the web.
4. Notifications help you keep up with your customers
Notifications alert you whenever someone’s +1’d your page or post, shared or commented on a post, added you to a circle, or mentioned you in a post. Your notifications panel lets you know when people are engaging with your brand on Google+ so you know when to jump in.
5. Help people find your page
We offer a few ways to let people know about your page. Available today, the Google+ icon is a widget you can place on your website that will link directly to your page. Google+ users on your website can click through to your page, and then add it to their circles. Coming soon, the Google+ brand badge will be a widget you can place on your website that will allow people to +1 your page and /or add your page to their circles without leaving your website. People can also type the + symbol into Google search and find your page directly.
Here is The Dalai Lama lauging all through an On Air hangout with Desmond Tutu:
