If you are new to Google Plus or just starting to learn the platform, you might be wondering what Google+ Communities are.

google plus community logo

What is a Google Plus Community?

A Google Plus community is a place where plussers (Google Plus users) can go to discuss a specific topic. If you’re familiar with reddit’s subreddits or classic forums online, well, you’ve got a good idea of what a G+ community is.

What kind of communities are on Google Plus?

There are a wide variety of communities on Google Plus. Clean eating recipe communities, sports communities, Android app communities, iPhone communities, communities dedicated to the Chevy Camaro, etc., you name it.

Who can own a community?

So maybe you weren’t going to ask this, but at the moment anyone can create a community. Better yet, Google+ Local Pages can create Google+ Communities. In fact, we run hundreds of communities! If you have a specific niche you can create a community around it. Communities can have multiple owners and moderators.

What other benefits are there to using a community?

Google Plus Communities can be private or public. They allow users with the same interests to gather together and have rich conversations. They allow people to explore their interests and meet other people with the same interests which leads to users circling (following) each other.

If you own a community, it gets a static URL. Vanity URLs are not available for communities (yet) although we have suggested this. Since a Google+ Community has a static URL it can have SEO value and build pagerank just like any other page on the Internet. We often create communities around niches for brands which we are managing under our Google Plus Marketing Packages.

Having ownership of a community on this rapidly growing social media platform could be of tremendous long term value.

Google Plus Communities used to affect a brand page’s total +1 count. This was an irrelevant number which Google replaced with Content Views.  Occasionally multiple brands would gather together and purchase ownership in larger communities to make their +1 count look larger than it would have been organically. Content views fixed this “mildly deceptive” tactic. But, to each their own.

Why doesn’t Facebook have communities?

This is a question I’ve asked myself a hundred times. Facebook could really destroy the competition if they allowed people and brand pages to create communities. Why they don’t do this, I have no idea. It is ok with me though, as I love Google Plus Communities.

Community Examples:

To see some great examples of Google Plus Communities, please visit this page which shows the Google Plus Communities that we manage.

Len
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On June 4, 2014   /   Social Media   /   Leave a comment

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