Completing Your Google+ Profile
When you finish adding some basic information, you are taken into the Google+ website and can begin using the service. Before you start to use Google+ to find and communicate with people, you should complete your profile.
The basic information you added during sign-up (your name, your gender, birthdate and a photo) is enough to get started, but it’s often better to add more information so people can get a better understanding of who you are.
Click the account icon (the profile photo thumbnail). The first time you click the account icon, a Welcome page appears that makes it easy to add several pieces of information to your profile, as shown in Figure 2-4.
FIGURE 2-4 The Welcome page enables you to flesh out your personal details.
You can add information to these boxes:
+ Tagline. Type a short description of who you are. Mine says “Macworld UK Editor in Chief, book writer, all-round tech monkey.”
+ Location. Enter the city in which you live.
+ Employment. You can add current and previous employment using the Employer name, Job title, Start, and End text boxes. As you fill out the boxes, another set appears underneath, enabling you to fill out more than one position. Select the Current box next to any jobs that you are presently working at.
+ Education. Add any history of your education using the School name, Major or Field of study, Start, and End boxes.
+ Scrapbook. Click Add Photo to add an image (or images) to your Scrapbook. This is a short collection of images (typically of you or things that relate to your life) that appears at the top of your profile.
Below some of the options is a drop-down list marked Anyone on the web. This means that anybody viewing your profile is able to see that information. You can also choose to share that part of your profile with just limited Circles (or even individual people). Click the Anyone on the web list and choose from the following options to limit visibility:
+ Anyone on the web
+ Extended circles
+ Your circles
+ Only you
+ Custom
Click Continue to my profile when you’re done.
You’ll be taken directly to the About section on the profile page (as shown in Figure 2-5). From here it’s possible to fill out more detailed information. Click Edit Profile in the top-right to get the following options (you need to click on each part of the profile page to edit the information contained within it):
+ A brief description of you. This field is the same as the tagline you entered during sign-up. It’s easy to overlook, as it’s just below your name at the top of the screen. You can click on it to edit the brief description.
+ Introduction. This field enables you to add a further description of the things you do. In here, I’ve outlined all the different magazines and websites that I write for, the books that I’ve written, and some other personal information. You don’t have to do this if you think the brief description is enough, although you can format the text here; for example, you can add bold, underline text, and create lists. You can also add links to web pages, so if you do a lot of different work on the Internet, this is a good place to promote it.
+ Bragging rights. You can use this field to outline any other achievements you’re proud of. I have “Run the Brighton marathon” as one of my bragging rights.
At the bottom of the screen (below Occupation, Relationship, and the contact information boxes) are two other fields that you might want to note:
+ Other names. Here you can include any other names people might know you by. If you’ve changed your name or have a maiden name, then this is a good place to include it.
+ Nickname. If you are known by any other name (nickname, alias, or simply a different name that you go by sometimes), then this is a place to put it. Remember that Google insists that the name you are commonly known as is used as your main name and that using any other name could lead to your account being suspended.
FIGURE 2-5 Editing the About part of the profile page.
That’s an awful lot of personal information to be handing out online, so only put information on Google+ that you’re comfortable having in the public domain. Take a look at Chapter 15 for more information on Google and privacy if you’re concerned about having so much information online.
Editing your occupation, employment, and education
Once your personal information is up to snuff, think about adding some professional data. This is particularly useful if you plan to use social networking on a professional level — you can use Google+ to promote yourself.
And you shouldn’t underestimate the power of social networking (for both good and bad) when it comes to your career prospects. A survey by CareerBuilder.com in 2009 showed that 45 percent of all employers now check social media sites of prospective candidates during the hiring process.
So I think you should always include your occupational and educational information in Google+ and other sites, especially if you’re proud of your achievements. The following fields are available:
+ Occupation. You can type a brief job title in this field and follow it with the company you work for. My occupation is listed as Editor in Chief at Macworld, IDG UK. You use a drop-down list to choose who can access this information: Anyone on the web, Extended circles, Your circles, Only you, or Custom (which enables you to choose specific Circles).
+ Employment and Education. Here you can fill out, or edit, your employment and education history. These fields may contain the information you entered when signing up for Google+.
You definitely need to be careful about what you post on social networking sites when looking for a job, but Google+ can be an incredibly powerful tool for conveying to employers your capabilities, personality, and positive attitude. Just be cautious.
What Should I Do with Google+ If I’m Job Hunting?
Here’s some good advice on using social networking if you’re job hunting:
+ Clean up your act. The first thing you should do if you’re looking for work is go through your current Google+ profile and remove any information that you think portrays you in a negative light.
+ Be positive. Make the effort to come across as a generally positive person to have in the workplace. Keep any gripes out of your social network.
+ Check your Circles. Make sure that you’re only sharing personal information with the right Circles. Only friends and people you trust should be in your Friends Circle.
+ Don’t advertise your job hunt. In general it’s considered bad form to announce on a social networking site that you’re looking for a new job while working for a company. Both current and prospective employers might not look too kindly on this kind of behavior.
Mapping the places you’ve lived
Another really neat feature of Google+ is the way it uses Google Maps and Google’s pretty extensive knowledge of world geography to map the places you’ve lived. If you’ve moved around a lot, this is a great way to keep in touch with people in the different areas where you’ve lived.
Rather than pinpointing locations on a map, just type the name of places you’ve lived into the Type a city name text box. When you type in the information, a new empty box appears beneath it so you can add more locations.
As with the other options, you can choose which Circles of people you share this information with.
Next to each location is a green pin; you can indicate your current location by clicking one of the pins. At that point the location moves to the top of the list and the pin next to it turns blue, as shown in Figure 2-6. Click Save when you’re done.
How Do People See My Map? When people view your About page in Google+, they see a map of the world with your locations on it as well as the list of places (as long as you’ve given them permission to view that part of your profile).
FIGURE 2-6 Use Google+ to create a map of all the places you’ve lived.
Adding contact information
You should also consider adding your contact information on Google+. You can add a variety of information that enables people to get in touch with you, including the following:
+ Phone
+ Mobile
+ Address
+ Fax
+ Pager
+ Chat
There are two sets of contact information fields, one for Home and one for Work, so you can add different details for both areas of your life. As you type information into each field, a new text field appears beneath it, enabling you to add multiple phone numbers, email addresses, and so on, for both Work and Home.
Don’t feel you have to add all the information for each text field; you can pick and choose what information you want to enter and what you want to keep private. (I keep my cell phone number off social networking sites, for example.)
For each option you can also set which Circles of people can access each piece of information. If you’re going to add personal contact information — especially your cell phone number — I generally advise you to pay close attention to Circles and make sure you’re comfortable with the people you’re sharing it with.
Setting up your personal relationships
It’s also possible to set information about your current relationship using Google+. The following options are available:
+ I don’t want to say
+ Single
+ In a relationship
+ Engaged
+ Married
+ It’s complicated
+ In an open relationship
+ Widowed
+ In a domestic partnership
+ In a civil union
Oddly, at the moment you can’t add the person you’re in a relationship with, only that you’re in a relationship, although I imagine Google will add this capability as time moves on.
You can also describe the sort of relationships you are interested in. Click the Looking for text field to bring up a set of four check boxes (as shown in Figure 2-7). You can select multiple relationships that you’re interested in from the following list:
FIGURE 2-7 Listing the relationships you’re interested in.
+ Friends
+ Dating
+ A relationship
+ Networking
As with other options, you can select which Circles are able to view this information. Click Save when you’re done editing your Looking for status.
Adding more photographs of yourself
One final thing on the About page is that you can edit the photo that you added during the sign-up procedure and add more photographs if you think one picture of you just isn’t enough. Click the Add some photos here link to start adding photographs.
Click in the gray box marked Add Photo and choose the source of the photograph (in the same manner as when you added your profile picture). It’s possible to add multiple pictures of yourself, as shown in Figure 2-8. They will appear below the brief description field.
Chapter 8 has more information on managing and uploading photographs to Google+.
FIGURE 2-8 It’s possible to add multiple pictures of yourself to your About page.