Google Plus is on the rise and many consider it to be the best of both worlds when comparing it to Twitter and Facebook. It is simple and easy to use like Twitter and you can follow anybody you want. At the same time, it is more personal and integrated which allows you to stay more connected with friends like Facebook.
The most interesting and important feature to Google Plus is the circle.
What are Circles?
Circles are similar to “lists” with Twitter or Facebook, except much, much better. When you add a friend or simply want to follow someone interesting on Google Plus, you automatically add them to a circle.
With circles it is easy to filter what goes in and what comes out. Say you have a “best friends” circle, but you are following concourses of people. All you need to do to see your friends’ updates is click on the “best friends” tab on the left and voila, your feed is filtered.
If you only want your friends to know you broke up with that ex-special-someone, you can change your outgoing status to “best friends” rather than public.
Adding Companies into Circles
With Google’s new page feature, you can also follow companies. Just find a company or product you like and add it to a circle. I have a brands and a pages circle. “Brands” are for companies like Evernote and Google, while “pages” are for other things like religious pages or hobbies.
Be creative and open minded when you look for pages. Even if you are not a huge fan of McDonald’s, you may want to add them to your circles anyway. You never know when the next time you’ll be craving a Big Mac and having McDonald’s in your circle could mean instant and otherwise hidden deals.
Share Your Circles
Finally, you can publish your circles with the rest of the world. You may not want to publish your family or personal friends circle, but say you are a huge fan of college football, like me. You would probably have a circle that consists of interesting college football fanatics. Why not share your compilation of interesting college fanatics with the rest of the world?
You can also find already published circles by searching in the Google Plus search bar. Keep the searches broad. I have found the most popular public circles are for photography which has been a joy to have in my feed.
Be Creative
Unlike Facebook, you can follow anybody and they don’t have to accept. Use that to your advantage. Look for photographers, comedians, politicians, celebrities, anything that you think you’d be interested in you can find someone to add to your circles. Don’t limit yourself to just friends and family.