Google+ User Report: Circles

As social networking changes slowly to becoming Social Search more people are starting to move over to G+. Going back to when I came to G+..over a year ago..I can remember the high frustration level I had from not grasping what G+ does that is different than other more popular social spaces.

It didn’t take but posting… Hello G+, What is the deal here? … to find out.

I remember receiving over 20 responses from people (Plussers as they have been fondly named) who pointed me in a number of directions to find out what G+ can do the others social networks cannot.

Needless to say, this reception clearly showed me what G+ offers the other spaces cannot touch… honest responses, true concern and interest to help.

Now that more people are on G+ and more newbies are joining in each day there still has not seemed to be any let up of helpfulness from Plussers who clearly understand what social media is all about. That in itself is the main difference in what G+ has the others seem to be lacking.

Still there are some very confusing mannerism of G+ that for even the veterans of G+ like me still causes some frustration. So, I am sure the level of frustration from someone new to G+ today is amplified somewhat. I want to do my part in helping the newbies of G+ grab on to what I have found to help understand G+.

Circle Mania

One of the most confusing features of G+, yet the most simple, are the Circles. What are they and how are they used seems to be the most frequent question I have about Circles and I am asked the most about. So here is my take…

Circles are communities. There is the Public Community which includes everyone on G+ and then there are the communities you create that are also part of the Public Community but also are private to you. Confused yet?

If you have never been to G+ you probably are confused but more than likely would have not made it this far if you were not interested so hang on..there is more.

Basics

There are two things to keep in mind about Circles. You have Circles to place Plussers you have found of interest, or know personally, and they have their Circles to put you. So, on your G+ Profile page you will see in the right hand column the number of people in your circles and a few avatars of the people you have placed in your circle. Then you will see the number of people and their avatars who have placed you in their Circles.

What this means is, the Plussers you have placed in your Circles you will be able to see their Posts, Photos, Videos. The Plussers who have placed you in their Circle, but you have not placed them in your circle, will be able to see Your posts, photos and videos, but you will not be able to see theirs. Yes, this is confusing, but make sense to a certain point.

There are many people you probably are not interested in what they posts. Nothing wrong with that. That is why the circles are there.

Right now there is no way to control who puts you in their circle. Maybe with more and more people offering G+ feedback on why it is important to control who puts you in their circle this will change soon. But for now, anyone can put you in their circle which means they can see what you post.

Personal Circles

The personal Circles, which are all other circles other than the generic Public Circle created by G+, are there for you to communicate only to those Plussers you place in those Circles. Nobody outside the Plussers placed in that Circle will be able to see what was posted. So for example;

You have a group of people you have found all like Cats..you can create a Circle named Cats and place all of these Plussers in the Cats Circle. Then whenever you have something that would be of most interest to the people in the Cats Circle you can post whatever content..blog link, video, photo, Events, Hangout Invites or just text… to ONLY these Plussers. The general population of G+..or those in the Public Circle or whoever is NOT in the Cats Circle, will not be able to see the post.

Posting to Circles helps clean up your Public stream everyone sees and keeps from posting content that is of no interest to others..like Cats.

This is just an example of one way to use Circles but is the most simple to understand and is one of the most powerful features of G+. This is also why many of the naysayers of G+ see G+ as a Ghost Town. Many posts are made to private circles and cannot be seen by the tire kickers who come to G+ to find it’s faults.

Manage Streams

Circles can also be used to manage the volume of content from a particular Plusser or group of Plussers. Again, if you have never been to G+ understanding how Circles are used to manage your content stream will not make sense, so here is the basic 411 on G+ content stream management.

The G+ content stream…the posts from people you have placed in your Circles…can sometimes be rather noisy, especially if you have a few people who post one thing after another. Many of them are of the Old School social media tactics established for Twitter and Facebook and post from a Third Party platform like HootSuite or Tweetdeck. These Plussers are generally less caring of their professional or personal image than the Plussers who are adapting to the change in social networking. Still, there might be a tidbit of the posts they make on G+ of interest so you want to keep them in your Circle.

To reel these Chatty Kathy’s and Jabbering Jims in G+ has put a volume control on Circles. So, you can place these Plussers in a circle you created for high volume posters and turn the volume down to the level you choose. The volume control is located at the top of the Circle page.

The volume control on Circles is very powerful and can help you keep a friend, or someone you know who posts large volumes of post all day, in your circle.

Sharing Circles

One of the most interesting and risky options G+ offers is the ability to Share Circles. The concept of sharing a circle is admirable but concerning. There still are many people who are out to build empires of people who keep thinking that gathering up as many people they can to broadcast information to improves their chances of making a sale or becoming even more popular. Those people have come to G+ with that attitude and gather up anyone to put in their circles. This means they may have people in their circles who are not out to be social but are out to be more of a predator or enjoy being a stalker, spammer, bully, prankster, gangster or worse.

That is OK if that Plusser is tolerant of those people’s activities. That is until they feel they want to Share those circles with others in their circles.

Accepting someone else’s circle or circles is a good way to build up a following of people quickly. The feature of Sharing Circles is simple and straight forward. However, once you accept someone else’s Circle you accept the people they put in that circle and that most of the time develops into having to perform one of the biggest hassles of G+ which is Un-circling Plussers who are not out to be social.

Whenever you accept someone’s circle you immediately let those people in that circle you have Circled them. This is good if the person you placed in your circle is someone you would like to have them place you in their circle. But it is not good if they are a person you do not want to have anything to do with.

It is prudent to be cautious of accepting someone’s circle, especially if it is someone you do not know or trust. As I mentioned, sharing circles can really help get the ball started to having a great time on G+, but it can also cause you a lot of trauma

Un-Circle/Block

If you do put someone in your Circle who offers information of no interest or posts content you are not comfortable in viewing, you can always take them out of your Circles. UnCircling is a benign function and the person you UnCircle does not receive a notice you UnCircled them.

Remember, someone who is not in your Circles you do not see any of their posts, videos or photos. However, if they have you in their Circle they can see your posts, videos and photos and make comment or share your posts with others.

For the more rank or offensive people who are out here in La-La-Land, there is the Block feature, which is not part of the Circle feature but worth mentioning at this point because most of the time when you run into one of the social predators you first UnCircle them and then will want to Block them. So you understand the Blocking process better, her is what Google+ has provided for how the Blocking process works.

The following are the results of blocking someone. Keep in mind that the limits placed upon the person you’ve blocked are only enforced when they’re logged in. For instance, if someone you’ve blocked is signed in, they won’t be able to see your public posts, but if they aren’t signed in, they may be able to see those posts. When you block someone:

You won’t see their content in your stream (even though you’ll remain in their circles).

They’ll be removed from any of your circles that they appear in.

They’ll be removed from your extended circles, even if you have mutual connections.

They won’t be able to add new comments to your content. However, comments they made before you blocked them will still be visible and can be deleted or reported.

They won’t be able to see your comments on other people’s posts.

They won’t be able to view any of your posts that you share after blocking them.

They won’t be able to mention you in posts or comments.