How to Create a Community on Google+

Where do you spend most of your time? Ugh... It's none of my business. Well, on what social network do you spend most of your time? Social Media is about connecting people. People start leaving one social network and start loving another if it offers competitive and brilliant features. Of course, you can be on multiple social networks if they have different exclusive features. However I'm not here to tell you what social network is the best. We find like-minded people online as they interested in same topics as we are. We see them at places we go, hear about them via friends, sometimes they come and knock our doors or vise versa, and most possibly there will be an extraction point. But it may be a long story. Do you like hanging out with many like-minded people online? AND are you on Google+? Oh... One last question - Did you just say "YES" for both?

Google+ Community

Can you recall we discussing about creating a group on Facebook? It was really a great feature on Facebook to meet like-minded people and start endless conversations. Now a similar feature available for Google+ users - Google+ Community. But there are some features identical to the Google+ platform too. Before I step into more details, let's take a look at Google+ Community introductory video to know what you can do with Google+ communities.

Categories, Events and Hangouts

Google+ Community is a great way to find and interact with like-minded people. I hope now you are familiar with how it works. It's about talking what you love to talk about, with people who love it. However I'd like to mention exclusive features that Google+ communities offer. Unlike Facebook groups, Google+ communities can be organized through categories. So it makes easy for community members to find posts they are most interested in by navigating through the favorite categories. Also Google+ allows community members to plan events too. Don't you love events? Furthermore, my personal favorite is Google+ hangouts. Google+ hangout is a really cool feature and I love the fact that it's available for Google+ communities too. Now you can talk face-to-face with community members using Google+ hangouts. Don't you love having a community enriched with these productive features?

Google+ Page vs Community

Now don't fall for it. If you already have a Google+ page, let's say for your blog, it doesn't mean you don't need to think of creating a Google+ community. Google+ page and community are two different features. On Google+ pages, it's more about broadcasting stuff relates to representing cause, brand, business or such and users follow to notify new updates or stories. It's much of a controlled space and only people behind the page can share posts. Followers only able to interact with whatever content shared on the page. Google+ community is to get together and talk about interesting stuff that matters to the community. All members can contribute to the community by sharing posts or engaging with existing posts. The members engage and drive conversations there. So it always matters having right people in the community.

More Productive

One thing I really hate on Facebook groups is that it allows to add friends to a group without having their permission. Don't you? But here on Google+, first off invitees send to view the community they have been invited and invitation need to be accepted. So it mostly prevents letting in people who don't wanna be on such a community. It will leads to a community with more active members, than idles. Thinking of creating one for you and start connecting with interesting people through Google+? If you are a blogger or own a blog, I'd like to invite to the Google+ community I have created too. Now you know background information to jump on and I'll let you know more information when you proceed with the steps. Let's find out how you can create a Google+ community and manage it to make most out of it. Are you ready?

Steps:

1. Navigate to Google+ Communities page.

2. Click on Create a Community button.

3. Now you will prompt to set up your community by starting off with the privacy of your community - Public or Private. The privacy matters as it defines the scope of your community and let's take a look at both.

Note: You can't change the privacy of your community after creating it.

Public

Public communities will be open for anyone to view content, join in and share interesting content or start conversations relevant to your community. Google+ let you decide whether anyone wanna join your group needs an approval or not.

First off, enter your community name in the given space and select whether people need permission to join with your community.

No, anyone can join - This option will let Google+ users to join with your public community instantly and they can share posts and start conversations rightaway.

Yes, a moderator needs to approve - Setting this option will need an approval for newcomers to join and interact with posts in your community. But it doesn't prevent showing content for non members.

Private

Private communities are dedicated to construct a private space on online social world. The posts in private groups are not visible to anyone except for existing members. Google+ has given the opportunity to manage the visibility of your community when you create a private community too.

Enter your community name in the first field and specify the visibility of your private community.

Yes, people can find it and ask to join - This option makes your group searchable and someone who interested in your community can request to join too.

No, hide it from searches - This option hides your community even from the Google+ search and only invited people will be able to join in.

4. Now click Create community button and your community will be live in next second.


More Information:

* Click on Actions drop down button beneath community photo and select Edit community option to edit your community and add information.

There you can easily change your community name, add a tagline for your community and set a custom community photo. The community photo needs to be at least 250 pixels of width and height.

You can also create categories to organize your community, using Add category option and encourage community members to post on relevant categories.

Note: Removing a category will delete all the posts shared in that category. You can rename categories instead of deleting them too.

Further you can fill up information about your community - Description and Location. Use Edit link corresponds to each to edit information. It will help newcomers to know what is your community about, where is it originates from and its main purpose. Make use of description wisely.

Once you done with editing your community, click Save button to save changes.

* You can promote most engaging and trusted members as the moderators of your community and let them manage your community too. You can find community members by clicking on Members link beneath the community photo.

Then locate the member you wanna promote as moderator and click Member options drop down menu (Circle with up down triangle inside) corresponds to the member. Now select Promote from member to moderator option.

* You can start hanging out with community members easily via Google+ hangouts. Click Start a new hangout button to go live.

* You can create and manage events for your community on Events tab.

Just switch to Events tab and click Create Event button to start creating a new event for your community.

* Further, you can use Actions menu to invite interested users to your community and spread the word by sharing on your Google+ profile or pages.

* If you wanna delete your community, find Delete this community option from switching to edit view using Edit community via Actions drop down menu.

You will need to confirm deletion after clicking on Delete this community link.

Note: You will not be able to recover your community or undo this action. The deletion is permanent.

* You can view all your communities at Google+ Communities page.


Enjoy :-)