Screenshots: Internal networking with Google+ Communities
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Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities
Embrace enterprise social networking with Google+ Communities
By David Politis
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Thisrngallery is also available as a TechRepublic article.
At BetterCloud, wernusually consider ourselves to be on the bleeding edge of adoption when it comesrnto all things Google, so it was slightly surprising that up until last month,rnwe were still using email distribution lists as our form of an internal socialrnnetwork. It wasn’t until we fully realized the power – and privacy – of Google+rnCommunities that we saw this feature as a viable replacement for those outdatedrnlists.
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Enterprise social network
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For any business operating on the Google Apps platform,rnusing a Google+rnCommunity as your enterprise social network (ESN) should be a no brainer.rnEmployees already spend the majority of their work day in their inbox, so whyrnnot give them an interactive tool with notifications surfaced in Gmail – andrnelsewhere like Google Calendar, Google search results, and Google Drive? Whilernother providers like Jive and Yammer require users to get used to yetrnanother new product, Google+ integrates seamlessly with the rest of the GooglernApps suite.
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Moreover, we’ve found that the actual Community fostersrnsharing. In the past, we experimented with domain-only sharing on Google+, butrnfound that internal posts were getting lost in the Google+ feeds of ourrnemployees. Instead, the Community provides a singular place for all updates,rnmilestones, announcements and news items to be shared, commented on andrncelebrated.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
To get started
To get started
Set up
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To get started with Google+ Communities, simply visitrnGoogle+, either by clicking +Name atrnthe top of your inbox or by visiting plus.google.com.rn
rnrnOnce there, click the Home tab, then scroll down to and click Community.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Community
Community
Next,rnclick the button marked Create Community.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Private network
Private network
Choosernwhether you’d like your Community to be public or private. Of course, if yournplan to use the Community as an ESN, make the Community private and then chooserna name. We also suggest hiding the Community from search results. This is arnprivate network that may contain sensitive company information. It’s importantrnto keep its contents as well as the actual Community private.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Categories
Categories
Nowrnthat you’ve created the Community, you can begin to customize it by adding arnprofile picture, description, and topic categories. Categories are veryrnimportant as your users will be able to filter posts in the Community later on.rnYou should consider creating different categories for different officernlocations or departments.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Promote member
Promote member
After customizing the community, invite your employees. Oncerna member has joined, you can upgrade their status from member to moderator orrnowner if you wish. An owner can:
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- Add and edit categories
- Remove posts
- Remove members from thern community
- Ban members from thern community
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A moderator has all of the aboverncapabilities except they cannot add additional moderators or delete thernCommunity. You might consider giving additional rights to your CEO or an HRrnmanager.
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To make a member a moderator wait until they’ve joined thernCommunity, then view your members. Select the desired member and choose Promote from member to moderator fromrnthe dropdown menu. Once a member has been promoted to moderator, you canrnpromote them again to owner if you wish.
rnrnYour Community is now up and running. Kick thingsrnoff by sharing your first post.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Get social
Get social
Get social
rnrnTo post in the Community, you have a fewrnoptions. You can go directly to the Community and post there. To do so, go tornyour Google+ profile then click Home,rnselect Communities and click intornyour organization’s ESN. Next, write your message and select the appropriaterncategory, then hit Share.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Share
Share
Yourncan also post from your Google+ feed, which will save you some time. To postrnthis way, head to Google+, then hit Sharernat the top of the page. Next, write your post, select the Community you’drnlike to share with from the drop down and press Share.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Notification
Notification
Regardlessrnof how you share, once you do submit a post, Community members will receive arnpost notification and hopefully visit the Community to join in.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Notification settings
Notification settings
Usersrncan also alter notification settings to change the number of notifications theyrnreceive: standard, more or fewer. Note that users can turn off notificationsrnaltogether. There is no way for a Community owner or moderator to enforce arnspecific notification rule.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Link
Link
Keeping employees up to date
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Now that your employees are hopefully sharing and visitingrnthe Community regularly, make sure you’re taking full advantage of everythingrnCommunities have to offer.
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For instance, you can directly share and embed GooglernPresentations in a Community post. This ensures that your employees have accessrnto and view the presentation.
rnrnTo share a Google Presentation in a Google+rnCommunity you need to first publish the Presentation to the web. To do so, gorninto File | Publish to the web, and thenrnselect Start publishing.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Widget
Widget
After you hit Start publishing, a window with embed codesrnand options will appear. Click the Google+ link where it says Share this link using.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Presentation
Presentation
A Google+ sharing widget will pop up giving you thernopportunity to add a custom note and select where you’d like to share thernpresentation.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
Final thoughts
Final thoughts
Once you press Sharernthe post with embedded Presentation will appear in the Community.
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Communities also offer new employees great insight into yourrncompany’s culture and past milestones. Encourage new hires to scroll throughrnthe Community to gain a sense of your culture, past achievements and events. It’srna great way for a new employee to get up to speed and settled in quickly.
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Final thoughts
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While it’s always hard to institute something new, we’vernfound the transition from email lists to a Google+ Community to be fairlyrnseamless. Of course, if you need to share something extremely urgent that yournknow will be read almost immediately, there’s really no replacement for email.rnBut, if you’re looking to create a collaborative environment to bring togetherrndisparate offices or teams, Google+ Communities is your answer.
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David Politis is thernfounder and CEO of BetterCloud, the maker of FlashPanel, the number one management and security tool for cloud-enabled organizations, and thernGoogle Apps resource site AsktheGooru.com. Follow BetterCloud on Google+ at bettercloud.com/plus.
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Credit: Images byrnDavid Politis for TechRepublic
