Google Help (Google Plus Help)

Currently, the only way to get a new Google+ account is to be invited by someone you know. Fortunately, I have 150 invitations to give away! If you don't have a Google+ account, get one today by clicking this link:

>>> Click here for your Google+ invitation

Connect with us on Google+! Please visit and circle these profiles:

Alex Potash on Google+
Andre Morris on Google+

Alex Potash from seenBEST Web Design helps clear up the confusion surrounding Google+, Google's new social network. She demonstrates basic features and helps users get started using Google+.

Table of Contents:
1) How to sign up
2) How to log in for the first time
3) Editing your profile
4) Inviting friends and family
5) Circles and friends
6) Populating sparks with interests
7) Suggested friends
8) Streams and content
9) Posting links and information
10) Sharing pictures
11) Closing

STEP 1/2: HOW TO SIGN UP and LOG IN
At the moment, Google+ is set to inventation mode only. In the near future, you will be able to go to plus.google.com and create an account from there. In order to use Google+, you will need a Google account. If you are currently using Gmail or Adwords, you already have a Google account that you can use. The easiest way to create a Google account if you don't already have one is to go to gmail.google.com and click the create account button.

Let's walk through signing into Google+ for the first time. You probably received an invitation via email. That email would contain text stating something similar to the image in this transcript. When you click on the "learn more about Google+" link, you're going to arrive on a page that contains welcome text for Google Plus. Sign in to this page with your Google username and password.

STEP 3: EDITING YOUR PROFILE
This is the first step to creating your Google+ profile. What you do is enter your first name, last name, and select your gender. Then click on the photograph and add a picture of yourself. You can select an image file from your computer to upload. Click on the Join button to continue.

Next, finish setting up your profile. Click on the "complete your profile" button. You should enter as much information into your profile as you possibly can so that your friends can find you easily.

Now let's make sure that your profile is complete. Click on the "edit profile" button. On your profile page, click any of the areas where you would like to add or edit information. For example, if you have a website that you would like to link to from your profile page, click the links area and add your links. You can add your nickname, update your relationship status, and more. When you're finished, click on the "done editing" button to continue.

STEP 4: INVITING FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Now that you've completed your profile, it's time to start connecting with your friends in Google+. The more friends you can connect with in Google+, the better your experience will be. I recommend that you send everyone you know an invitation to Google+. The way you invite or connect with friends is to click on the Google+ home button. Once you are on the Google+ homepage, click the "invite people to join Google+" link.

In order to connect with someone, all you need to know is that persons email address. You can get this from your email client. Whether it's Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo or something else you can usually copy an email address. For example, I have a couple of friends saved in a Yahoo account. To connect with them, I go into my Yahoo contacts and find the two friends that I want to connect with. It's very important that you copy the email itself, and NOTHING else. Sometimes an email address will have () characters around it, quotes, or other characters. Just copy the text of the email address itself. Once copied, take the email address over to the Google+ invite box, paste it, and hit enter. When the contact turns blue that means they are ready to be invited. Once you have done this for a group of friends, click on the "invite" button to send the invititation to your friends through Google+.

STEP 5: CIRCLES AND FRIENDS
Now that your invites have been sent, we are now going to discuss circles. Circles is the most powerful feature of Google+. With circles, you are able to group your contacts. Grouping contacts allows an amazing level of control over who is able to see posts that you make on Google+. I recommend that you choose a circle for everyone that you invite to Google+.

After you send the invitation, you are prompted to select which circle that friend will belong to. Try to do this right away in order to streamline workflow. To assign contacts to a circle immediately upon inviting them, hover over the "add to circles" button with the pointer and then place a check in the circle or circles you would like them to belong to. When done, click "Finish".

Now, check that your contacts have been added correctly by clicking on the Circles button from within Google+. The Circles button is near the top and looks like several circles interlaced. On this page you will be able to see who is in any of your circles, and clicking on the name of a circle will show you the existing members.

Once you get a good number of friends and family connected to your account in Google+ the system gets a lot more interesting.

STEP 6: POPULATING SPARKS WITH INTERESTS
In addition to inviting friends, there is another great way to connect with people on Google Plus. It is based on your interests. In order for Google+ to know what your interests are, click on Sparks from the Google+ homepage. Sparks is where you search for topics of interest and add them to your account. Get started by either browsing the categories suggested or type your interest into the search box.

For example, I really like music.so I am going to type music into the search box. You will see that a lot of interests have already been pre-popluated into sparks, based on the results that appear. Click on the interest, or spark, that most appeals to you. Once it has been selected you want to click on the "add interest" button to list it under sparks. Be as thorough as possible when adding interests as these will help connect you with other Google+ users who share interests similar to your own.

STEP 7: SUGGESTED FRIENDS
A good reason to fill out your interest in sparks is that Google+ suggests new friends for you based on those interests. From time to time, click on the circles button then select the "find and invite" link. Any suggested Google+ users based on your sparks will be shown and you can drag them into your circles. By adding suggested users to circles you can help populate your Google+ streams with interesting, new content based on your likes.

STEP 8: STREAMS AND CONTENT
Now we are going to talk about streams. You can find them on the Google+ homepage to the left. Streams list content from users in your circles and you can choose from which circles you wish to view. You can either view all streams together as one, or just view individual streams. To view a selected stream, click the circle name you would like to filter by.

Using streams is a smart way to keep track of what individual groups of people are doing, without getting updates mixed in all together. For example, in one stream you can keep track of what you family is doing, and in another you can follow only what your colleagues are doing at work. When you click on a stream you see updates from those stream members and no one else.

STEP 9: POSTING LINKS AND INFORMATION
Now that you know the basics of Google+, we can get to the fun stuff. Let's talk about viewing and interacting with content that other people have shared. That's the value of Google Plus, reading updates from your friends and other circle members and interacting with it. You can interact with content in one of three ways:

LIKE: When you click the +1 button, it is similar to saying you like that content. You can plus one any post or comment you like to give it more visibility.

COMMENT: When you post a comment, you leave your opinion or thought about that content in the thread for other users to see, including the original author. You can thank them for posting the helpful information, add additional information, or contribute in some way.

SHARE: You can also share posts from other users directly to your own Google+ account. This is good when you have friends or users in your circles that the original poster does not. By sharing that content, you allow the members of your circles to participate with the content as well.

Whenever you post or share on Google+, you have an opportunity to control which of your circles can see that content. For example, a post from one person may be interesting to your friends, but maybe not your family. When sharing, you can select only the circles that you feel may be interested.

STEP 10: SHARING PICTURES
Sharing pictures on Google+ is just as easy as making posts. You can upload a picture by clicking on the pictures link from the top navigation, browsing to the picture on your computer, and selecting upload. Once a picture has been added you have the same control over it as any other content. You can choose to share it with just one circle, all circles, or select "public" and share it with everyone - circles or not.

And that's about it! By now you should know how to sign-up, log in, invite your friends, edit your profile, manage your circles, select your interests in sparks, find suggested friends, view posts in streams, interact with other Google+ users, and post and share your own content and photos. I really hope you liked my video! If you did, please connect with me on Google+. Visit my profile and circle me.

My profile is: plus.google.com/103368866189680641933

As the video mentions, if you don't control your email settings you can find your inbox full of a lot of emails from Google+. Fortunately, Google+ gives us a lot of control over the types of emails generated by the system. Here's a quick list of the current email settings and what they are for:

Posts and mentions of my name: You will be notified any time someone mentions your name via the + tag in a post. Enable this if you would like to be immediately notified when your name is part of a conversation.

Mentions me in a post: You will be notified any time you are mentioned in a post.

Shares a post with me directly: You will be notified when someone shares a post with you.

Comments on a post I created: You will be notified any time someone comments on a post that you created.

Comments on a post after I comment on it: You will be notified any time someone comments in a post, whether you created it or not, so long as you have commented in that post at least once.

Adds me to a circle: You will be notified every time someone adds you to one of their circles.

Wants to tag me in a photo: You will be notified when someone requests to tag you in a photo.

Tags me in a photo: You will be notified each time you are tagged in a photo.

Comments on a photo after I comment on it: You will be notified every time someone makes a comment on a photo that you have already commented on.

Comments on a photo I am tagged in: You will be notified every time a comment is made to a photo that you're already tagged in.

Comments on a photo I tagged: You will be notified every time someone comments on a photo that you have tagged previously.

Starts a Huddle conversation with me: You will be notified any time someone attempts to start a video chat with you.