jfestrada

January 07, 2012 at 8:45pm

I can't explain beter than this:

This Is Not Facebook

I've been noticing that over the past few weeks that quite a few people have been migrating to here from Facebook, which is great! Welcome to all of you! To help your experience here, I'm going to help you by explaining what G+ is and, most importantly, what it is not.

I'll start with the latter. As you guessed from my title, this isn't Facebook. What I mean by that is that Google+ isn't the place you come to reconnect with old friends, people you knew (and didn't give a shit about then either) in high school, or people you hung out with in college. For the most part, those people aren't here. They're on Facebook, and despite the fact that Zuckerburg and company regularly disregard their privacy, think they're too stupid to make choices for themselves (EdgeRank), and show a general disregard for anything they'd want to see done with the service (instead catering to advertisers), they're comfortable there. They're not going anywhere.

So, if you come here, try to find some of these people, maybe find a few, make a few posts and don't get any feedback, you're going to go right back to Facebook complaining that G+ is boring.

You will also have missed what Google+ is about. To sum it up as simply as I can, Facebook is where you connect with old friends. Google+ is where you find new ones.

See that search bar at the top of your screen? Unlike the site on which you're accustomed to spending your time, the one here is actually useful. Interested in poetry slams? A quick search up there (https://plus.google.com/s/poetry%20slam) will show you who else shares those interests. Photography? No sweat (https://plus.google.com/s/photography). Harry Potter? Twilight? True Blood? Pottery? You'll find it here.

Take a few of those people that share your interests. Add them to your Circles. Interact with them. Post things here about the things you're interested in. The more you do that, the more you'll start to see where G+ shines, why it can do what no other network before it could do so very well.

And for God's sake, fill out your profiles! Really can't stress that enough. If you circle someone, chances are they're going to check your profile (I always do). If there's nothing there telling them why they should circle you back, it's likely that they won't. It really doesn't take all that long to type a few lines about who you are and what you're interested in. Feel free to see mine as an example (someone can see that and know exactly what I'm about without ever having to see a single post from me).

Oh, and don't be afraid to comment on the post of someone you don't know. People make posts public for a reason; to encourage interaction with as many people as possible.

Let me give you a couple of people to add to a Circle to get you started. +Natalie Villalobos is a given; she's a Community Manager here on G+, and will always keep you in the loop on cool things that are happening around here. +Daria Musk is another one to keep an eye on; she's practically the Official Singer/Songwriter of Google+.

The more you're here, the more you'll meet people that you find interesting and decide to add them. The more you interact with them, the more fun you'll have here.

Edit: Oh, can't believe I forgot this one. DO NOT ASK HOW TO WRITE ON SOMEONE'S WALL! There is no Wall. This isn't Facebook. Leave that mentality behind. You cannot post anything on someone's page. If there's a post you want them to see, tag them in it, and it will appear in their notifications.

That's all I got for now, so again, welcome to Google+, and I'll catch you all later.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/100035762233109552669/posts/gGiEfjsgXkk