Google Shares Tips Using Google Brand

At SXSW Google took over a couple streets near the downtown Austin Convention Center to create the Google Village, which was designed to provide an interactive "glimpse of Google’s view of the future." Among the many demos, discussions and musical performances taking place in the Village was a Google+ 'bootcamp' where product managers touted the rapid rise of Google+, showed off its full range of features and took questions from an eager audience.

Time to explore the Google Village at #sxsw twitter.com/AccessPR/statu… — AccessPR (@AccessPR) March 11, 2012

One feature that many may not be aware of is Ripples. Ripples provide insights into how links are shared across the entire Google+ network. For communications professionals, the tool could be invaluable as it provides a quick and visual way to determine who the influencers are that are talking about a particular topic. Ripples also provide data such as how many shares per hour a post received, which languages it was shared in and more. Here's an example of the Ripple caused by Whitney Houston's death.

To start exploring Ripples for yourself, go here and enter a URL. If you want to learn more, the Google+ team recently shared a complete breakdown on Ripples.

Google+ Hangouts were another hot topic of discussion. Hangouts allow users to quickly create live video conversations with other users. Within Hangouts, people can talk, share documents and videos and more. Brands looking to host a Hangout will do well to heed the Google+ team's short list of tips:

• Pick a host or moderator (and ensure that person is super engaging and energetic)
• Choose the participant selection method (how are you going to choose who to involve?)
• Outline your 'run of show' (having an outline of topics should keep things relatively on track)
• Create 'magical' moments (think about having surprise guests join after the Hangout has started. This is especially easy since the guest can be located anywhere in the world)

There you have it--how is your brand using Google+?