What NOT to Share in Google+ Communities
I know that some people dislike rules but the reality of life is there are rules and guidelines to make things flow. Google+ communities are one of those places.
When you decide to join or participate in a Google+ community, please review the guidelines prior to posting. Each community has it's own rules that the moderators follow when deciding to remove a post or a person from a community.
Some common rules
1. No link litter.
What is link litter? (And how to avoid it.)http://bit.ly/VFT3D3
Short version: link litter is dropping just the link or only one sentence.
2. Use the proper category when posting.
3. Be respectful of the community and it's members.
4. Add value to the group by posting quality content and engaging with other posts.
5. If you don't follow the community guidelines, your post may be removed and you may be banned from the community.
6. Creating off topic posts. Communities have a focus that you should stick to.
The moderators are friendly, lovely people who are there to engage with community members. They don't want to spend all their time deleting spam and people. But they will.
Some thoughts from other Google+ moderators that I respect:
Stephan Hovnanian “we are also volunteers that have real jobs, and took on the responsibility to moderate and guide the community because we enjoy it. Be respectful of that.”
Chef Dennis Littley Bans”plussers that think it's necessary to post the same thing to every community they belong to whether its relevant or not. I don't even give requests a second look if I go to their profile and all they do is share to communities, I want good plussers in my community. I think my only other point might be not to whine about your post being taken down, and not to blame the moderator for taking it down.”
John Skeats “Key additions are: off-topic posts, promoting other communities, self-promotion, and creating posts in the wrong category.” John wrote a detailed post about this which has great points.
I hope these tips will help you understand how communities work a little better. They are one of the very best features of Google+. Enjoy them!
Please share this post if it helped you and help other's be good community members as well.
Need some more tips? +martin shervington has a wonderful Google+ Communities Quickstart Guide http://bit.ly/165wkSC
Photo credit: Big Stock Photos
Article by Peg Fitzpatrick
Peg,
Off topic comments, or threads that have nothing to do with the group objective, drive me crazy. If you want to post something different, start your own discussion. Begin your own blog. It’s not that hard.
Cheers,
Marc
MZazeela Excellent point! This happens on popular posts frequently and in communities.
Thank you for these great tips. I’m still trying to get the “hang” of Google+ so I very much appreciate your suggestions! I’m still a little confused about how to only post to some communities and not others but I think I’ll probably learn more as I go along. Thanks again. ~Kathy
Kathy @ SMART Living 365.com Hi Kathy! You select the community when you post in the bottom.