What is Google+?

As I’m sure you are aware, Google has launched it’s very own social network to rival the likes of Facebook and Twitter. The slick and simple profiles allow you to separate your contacts into circles consisting of people in similar areas in relation to you. People are still finding their feet in this site, so we have decided to produce a list of the most important facts for setting up your Google+ account! If you read and comment on this post, you will get an invite to Google+ from us at Xposure! So enjoy the post!

When joining Google+ you will have a profile, similar to Facebook where you are permitted to put all your personal information.

You will then notice that the way your “friends” are arranged within the site. They can all be put into different circles.

These circles can be for whom ever you wish, one for friends, colleagues, family and following.

Within each of these circles you can place your contacts in the correct area with a potential of up to 5000 members per circle.

You are unlimited to the number of circles that you can create, so go mad!

You can remove or block anyone in your circles.

You can remove or block anyone in your circles.

People who are in your circles do not necessarily have to add you to theirs.

To bookmark interesting posts from other people, create an empty circle and share the post with it, where it will be stored for future use.

You can add all the users within your Gmail address book to your Google+

You can add photos, videos or web pages to your posts simply by dragging their links directly to the share box on your profile.

You can upload multiple photos and videos at any one time.

If you are posting something that you wish to keep private from certain people on your profile, then you can click on the Limited link to see who else can see the posts.

Like Twitter, you can reply to friends or mention then by using the @ sign or +.

A similarity to Facebook, comes in the form of the +1 button that is similar to the “like” button and you can +1 or take it off at your own will.

By clicking on the photos on other’s profiles, you can enlarge them for a closer look and read the comments that other’s have made.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, that has a different system for private messages, Google+ allows you to send a private message merely by sharing your post only with them.

When it comes to using Google+ on mobile devices, you can view the site as normal, but you cannot add photos or videos.

You can invite anyone with an email address to Google+ .

You can create hang-outs, where you can chat with up to 10 people, who have similar interests.

As well as text hang-outs, you can chat directly to people with the video-chat function.

You can’t use Google+ if you are under 13 years of age.

The geo-tagging feature is useful to allow your friends to see your journeys.

If you want to make bold, any of the words you write on Google+ simply put *s in front and at the end of the word or phrase.

Google+ allows you to extend your sharing, to incorporate your other social networks.

If you have a particular connection on Google+ that is taking up your stream talking about unrelated items to you, you can click on the small drop down arrow next to it and “mute this post” which will stop that feed from being anywhere near your profile!

When it comes to your own work, if you don’t wish people to share what you have written, you can go to the same drop down arrow and shut down comments and prevent others from re-sharing.

Similar to the bolding tip, if you wish to put your text into italics, merely insert and underscore _ like this_ at the start and end of each phrase you wish to italicize.

To strike through your writing use dashes in the same manner -like this- .

If you wish to look at a few people at once within your circles, press CTRL and – to zoom out and view them all from a distance.

On a circle that has atleast 30 people within, leave your mouse hovering over it and you will be able to scroll through those within the circle like a carousel.

If you want to find new people to connect with, search through topics and locations, and those who have a word matching your search criteria will come up as a result.

Make your profile look unique with a row of photos along the top of the page, do this by clicking “edit profile” and clicking on the large blank space below your name and bio.

Every time you +1 a story on the web, it will show up on the +1 section of your tab.

Pressing the letter J when on your feed, will move you down one post.

Pressing the letter K when on your feed, will move you up one post.

In less than three weeks Google+ has already achieved more than 10 million users due to it’s comprehensive network incorporating all the features of social networking into one arena. Although it will be hard to influence people to change to yet another social network, the inclusive nature of the site with maps, Gmail, Adwords, Analytics, Chrome, Android, Blogger, Youtube, Picasa and the standard search is an extremely important aspect to attract users.

For your invite to Google+, comment on this post with your email address and we’ll send your unique invitation. See you there!