Must Have Blog Resource: Google + Circles

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Last week, I brought you a general, informative overview of Google + and it's benefits.  This week, I'm focusing on Google + Circles, a key tool of Google +.  

What Are Google+ Circles?

Think of Google + Circles as a way to organize lists of friends, business contacts, and the like.  Google will populate your Google + profile with some pre-made titles for your circles; you can use these or make your own based on what your intentions are.  Hey, if you want a circle focused on "ladies who are really good pinners", you can do that!

How Do You Create Circles?  

Within your Google + profile page, look at the left menu bar and click on the "Find People" icon. This will bring up a page that will pre-fill with suggestions and people you may know.  There is a convenient "Add" button below each person if you would like to add them to your circle.

If you need to edit existing circles or create a new one, there is a small menu bar across the top of this same window with three options:  Find People, Added You, and Your Circles.  Click on "Your Circles". This will take you to a screen that will populate with people you regularly email or interact with.  Some of them may be in circles, some may not.  Below these icons are your circles.  It will list existing circles.  Hover over the circle that says "Drop Here To Create A Circle" and it will let you click on it to create a circle.  

You can use this portal to add people to your circles.  You can also add people to your circles within Gmail, from a user's profile page, and from a widget on blogs and websites that let's you quickly hover and click someone into your circle.

How Do I Share Information With My Circles?

This is the most important part of using Circles, sharing!  Most of it takes no effort!  If people have you in their Circles, anything you share within your Google + profile will be seen by them (depending on their personal settings, they may get an email notification or an alert in their red notification box within Gmail and Google +).  They will also see your new post in their feed on Google + (it's very similar to how you would see status updates on Facebook by your friends).  

When you share, users that you have added to your Circles that have not added you to their Circles will not see your post in their news feed.  But they will receive a notification that you are sharing with them and that they should add you to their Circles.  

You may want to friendly remind people in your Circles of something you shared.  Or, you may come across an article that you want to share.  This is where the +1/G+ button comes in handy.  You will see it within individual posts within your Google + news feed, as well as a sharing tool at the end of article, on web pages, on your blog posts, etc.  Simply click on it and you are sharing with your circles; you can also choose whether to send an email notification with your share.

I highly recommend checking your settings for your Google + account.  You can specify how you want to receive notifications in regards to Circles, as well as other features of Google +.  If you don't want to receive a lot of email notifications, for example, you can adjust this within your settings.

Good luck and have fun!

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