A lovely post by +Sean Cowen on how to write great content and find inspiration here on Google+. Some great suggestions.
Sean Cowen originally shared:
The Art of Discovery, or 10 Things I Use to Find What I Post On Google+
I've been re-reading fantastic comments today that were posted a while back on my post The Circle Monsters, and How To Be a Good Google+ Citizen. http://bit.ly/1dQHSyy
After talking recently with so many new faces, and talking with friends off-network, it seems that I''m long overdue for discussing some of the ways I find, and have found, topics to write about on Google+. I think it might have been +Cheryl SaavedraĀ or was it +Kyla MyersĀ who told me a long time ago that I was good at finding content to write about on Google+. Well, I did have some help along the way. Having a good education helped; but so did some useful tools I've stumbled on over time.
Let me start by saying that I have discovery in my blood. I'm pretty sure I was born to be a curator, teacher, or world explorer of some sort. In my mind, oftentimes here on Google+, I feel like a Sherpa. I'm a guide that enjoys teaching others what wisdom and great ideas I've picked up along the way here, for over two years. Great people like +Mark TraphagenĀ +martin shervingtonĀ +Dustin W. StoutĀ +Yonatan ZungerĀ +Denis LabelleĀ +Mike AlltonĀ +Jaana NystrƶmĀ etcā¦ Ā are Sherpaās as well. They put out fantastic, helpful content, and they help guide you through the uncertain waters of G+ in so many great ways. Look to those sorts of guides when youāre exploring Google+ on your own and could use help and guidance.
I traveled the world in my earlier days, and those experiences framed who I am today, and how I see our world, and our community here on Google+. It canāt be any other way. The genieās out of the bottle, as the saying goes. All of my experiences and traveling have made me into who I am right now, and they have certainly helped me to be a better curator and seeker of knowledge. My world-view has opened my eyes to possibilities I hadnāt even considered in my younger days.Ā
Google+ admittedly can be daunting to many people who may not have started here in the beginning. Yes, you may be a "Newbie" today (or Goobie as +Jaana NystrƶmĀ puts it. ha! Love that!) but you won't be that forever! Our community makes friends at a fast pace. We're connecting with people we share like interests and passions with. You don't have to be anything you don't want to be here (Aunt Rose will not jump into your post and scold you for sharing family secrets, as is done on FB and elsewhere).Ā
What you'll see is like-minded people talking about things they enjoy. They are talking about those topics with people all over the world, and theyāre actually having adult conversations for the most part. Sure, some of the kids have left their seats at the Kids Table and are trying to wrangle a seat at The Adults Table, but for for the most part, we have a pretty cool community that is full of life and not shy about speaking on topics that many of us share.
Look, this community is vast and varied and there are factions and cliques here as youād see anywhere else on the planet. Knowing that, and knowing how this UI works, gives you a great starting point for your journey within this world.
So, sit back and let me play Sherpa for you a bit longer. I promise that this journey will be worth it, and hopefully, youāll pick up a pointer or two that you hadnāt considered. Some of these tips and tools may not appeal to you at all, and thatās absolutely fine. I simply want to make you aware of them; I want to give YOU some possibilities you might not have considered! As always, comments are most welcome and be sure to tell your friends if you see something you like. Now, on with the show!
10 Things I Use to Find What I Post On Google+
1. Visual sites like Pinterest, This Colossal, and Notcot can be good starting points for discovering topics to write about.
http://www.pinterest.com/Ā http://www.thisiscolossal.com/Ā http://www.notcot.org/
Iām a very visual person, and I find that these content aggregation sites stimulate my mind into thinking about new topics. I can quickly scan their boards and posts, and almost always something will jump out at me. An image, a thought, a connection to my life. I consider each of them to be a good starting point for new posts I write. Now and then, the image itself may be the entire post (since all pictures tell a story, or a thousand), and thatās what I may post.
But more often than not, they are a great tool for getting me to that next step of writing my post, adding my thoughts to that image, and putting my post into the stream. These sites, in of themselves, cannot provide you with your entire output of posts on Google+, but they can get you started on those days when youāre sitting there at your computer, unsure of what to write about.Ā
2. Google Calendar can be a great time saver, and can help you stay organized.
I use Google Calendar frequently as it is simple, well organized, and is easy to pop content into. Itās actually pretty powerful when you see it in action. Hereās an example. I like to write about movies. Iām addicted to Old Hollywood, I look at Box Office totals religiously, and I like to know what movies are coming out, and when.
By posting upcoming film release dates directly into my calendar, I can instantly have content to write about years in advance. I can do that with movies since Hollywood schedules things far into the near future. By using this tool, with one click I can add the release dates of all movies directly into Calendar, and boom! I now have a ton of topics I can post about and discuss.
I can add notes and reminders for myself to talk about the next Hobbit film near its release date, and with Google Drive, I can even write those posts now if I like. You can take this a step further and use another powerful tool like +Do ShareĀ to auto-post these at the appropriate time. +Mark TraphagenĀ discussed this recently here:
http://gplusgeek.com/doshare-guide-scheduling-google-plus-posts-advance-much/
It really is a powerful tool, and one that Iām still desperately seeking for some of my pages. For instance, for +Helping OthersĀ Iād like a one click link for all āWorldā days in the future. Things like āWorld Water Day.ā When I do discover this, imagine how incredible it will be for our page!
Look at this: http://195-241-212-57.ip.telfort.nl/www/imdb_releases.html
If youāre not using the free Google Calendar and Drive, consider doing so. Theyāre incredibly easy to use tools thatāll help make your life easier. And those are the hallmarks of good tools, right?
3. Google Alerts can do all the legwork for you and will give you timely notices about news and any topic.
For my page +I Am SherlockedĀ (where I am a manager and do a great deal of the posting there), we have a community thatās been on pins and needles all summer long. We collectively have been dying to hear any news about the release dates of Series 3. Itās been torturous, and rumours have been floating everywhere. So, suffice to say, our page followers are clamoring for updated, fresh news - any news - that surrounds that event.
This is where Google Alerts has worked well for me. I set up a news alert for the word āSherlockā as thatās the name of the BBC show I discussed above. Any time āSherlockā is mentioned in their vast collection of news aggregators and contributors, I get an ALERT sent to my Gmail. You can stay current and find fresh news using any keyword or words.Ā
Theyāre simple to set and you can use as many as you like. Add them at: http://www.google.com/alertsĀ
A second tool I use in this area is organizing my Google News feed. I can customize and personalize what I see on the news page.Ā
Go to the Google homepage. At the top, youāll see a link for ānews.ā Click that and youāll be taken to the news page. Once there, at the top right, youāll see a gear symbol. Click that to personalize your news. You can personalize your entire news stream in many ways by adjusting your sources and letting Google know what topics interest you the most. This is very useful if you like to write current events posts and want the most updated news on any given topic. Iāve used it for years, and it has helped with with posts in so many ways. Again, itās another useful tool you should considering having in your own Toolbox!
4. News Sites, Tech Sites and Blogs can provide you with ideas for content and posting.
Iāve been addicted to sites like http://arstechnica.com/Ā and http://www.cnet.com/Ā (and even http://www.wired.co.uk/) for many years. They are well organized and always get you to fresh topics and ideas to consider for your posts. They show you relevant and updated news, and they do a great job at expounding on their subject matter.
Iām a fan of long form journalism, that is, the longer posts - not the quick 150 word posts we frequently get spoon-fed now by many a site. So for me, I find myself delving into topics on sites like these. They give me a great deal of content to either share in a link (which I do infrequently, saving that for Twitter mostly) but moreso, they give me good background on topics Iām considering writing about, and they give me a bit of a push with Ideas for topics. They fuel my enthusiasm for my subject matter and always provide a source I can add to my posts to support what Iām writing about. One site may help you further in this area as well. Itās done by +Guy KawasakiĀ and itās is a treasure trove of post ideas all on its own. Itās kind of the King of Aggregators. Take a look and marvel as how intensely cool it is. Youāll get hooked like I did! Ā http://alltop.com/
5. Joining Communities can give you many a topic to write about.
When you join communities on Google+, youāre entering into new worlds of like-minded people. You know you love Star Wars. But you donāt always know what to write about. By joining a Star Wars Community (https://plus.google.com/communities/105293481108015270231) suddenly there are 92,000 fellow fans in the room with you, all talking about a topic you love! Being in these communities gives you a sense of belonging and offer you a place to explore all the areas of your passion for that topic!
Many communities are public, many are private. You choose which ones to join, and how involved youād like to be in them. One thing is for sure - you will now have plenty to talk about in your posts, and youāre likely to discover that youāve made a ton of new friends! Iām in quite a few communities and Iāve been surprised by how many posts Iāve written started from a conversation I had within the community.
Caution: some communities can be quite addictive, so plan accordingly! ha!
6. My Past History Gives Me Most of My Best Posts.
When I look back at the thousands of items Iāve posted to Google+, most of my best ones (and best received) have been ones with a personal connection to me. To my life. To my past. All of us have a history to tell - things weāve experienced, places weāve lived, people weāve laughed and loved with. Life, our lives, can give you endless material to post about on Google+ - if you are willing to share that with us.
Thatās the big choice you always have to make: how much do I really want to share about 'me' here? For myself, Iāve been an open book from the beginning. You could start reading my first post to my last and have a complete sense of who I am, what I love, where Iāve been, what hobbies and interests I have - pretty much my entire life.Ā
I chose to reveal that to you all. I made a decision, early on, that I was comfortable here in this community, and comfortable with public posting. You might choose to share your life stories privately, or just with your circles, Thatās the coolest thing about G+ - we have that CHOICE to do that. But make no mistake - the best and richest posts you ever will send up to the world from here are the ones that involve you and your life. They interest us; weāre intrigued by your tales and travels throughout life, and we frequently find commonality between what youāve experienced, and what we have experienced. These are the posts I love the most on this UI - the ones from the heart; the ones that allow us to see who you are. You will find great success with these personal posts if youāre willing to put yourself out there and show the real you. I talked about that in my Circle Monsters post: Ā Ā and it still holds true.
7. Keyword Searches Can Be Your Best Friend on Google+.
Letās say youāre interested in writing a post about Orbital Sciences reaching the International Space Station today. But youāre uncertain what to write about, or even where to start. See that big, rectangular box at the top of your screen. The one with the magnifying glass off to the right? Type in āorbital sciencesā into that box and hit enter.
All of a sudden you instantly see what the Google+ world is saying on this topic. ALL posts that have that keyword are put in front of you. Itās such an incredible, powerful search tool, and one I use daily. From the results, you can display the ābest ofā or āmost recentā matches to that keyword.
But even more, you can save your searches (which is very cool) for those times in the future when youād like to write about that topic again. This is incredibly useful for seeing what the worldās saying on a given topic, but it also does something I havenāt heard many people mention before: it can stop you from posting something a million people already have. Itās right here that I often decide whether to create my own post on a topic or reshare someone elseās post.
Especially with current events and news, I donāt feel the need to be the 1,000,001th post out there when I could simply share work already done. This is one area where youāll have to decide if you have fresh perspectives or content to add to the conversations. Here also, I often find links to add to my own posts. You see that even within this post; I used search to find the urls of posts from writers whom I used to illustrate some points here. Yes, itās a powerful tool and one thatās definitely good to get used to.Ā
A Not-So-Secret Tip: I find myself forgetting some of my own posts now and then, but Iāll remember the topic I wrote about. See that search box again? Look above it. Now Iām going to really open up your eyes. You can further search for that keyword by: everything, people and pages, communities, Google+ posts, photos, and the final option, more, opens up a third tier of searching for you. Using that pull-down menu, you can keyword search all mentions of that word from hangouts, events, from your circles, from you, or to you.
Wow. Cool, right? The one I use most, as I mentioned above, is āfrom you. ā For example, I know I wrote a post a long time ago asking people to tell me two things about them that I didnāt know. It was wildly successful but I could search for days trying to find my post. Using keyword search, I type in ātwo thingsā and then I choose āfrom youā on that pull-down menu, and voila! I found my post!
https://plus.google.com/103333429938529668020/posts/dGTBdCvPgnf
One more example: I know I did a post a long time ago on vintage lunchboxes but I have no idea at all where to look to find it. I remember it had a Scooby-Doo picture for one of the lunchboxes. I type in āscooby dooā and search by photos. Then I use that pull-down menu again and choose āfrom me.āBOOM! Itās now right in front of me!
https://plus.google.com/103333429938529668020/posts/79eFGp52hwi
I think this will be one of the best ways for you to discover (and re-discover) content to write about on G+. I find it to be my best tool, and it has often kept me from writing many a post that other people have done much better than I ever could have. Decide if it works for you, and experiment a bit with it. I think itās one of the best parts of our UI experience!
8. Video Discovery with Vimeo and YouTube can be eye-opening.
I used to post animated short films on Saturdays. I often would spend a great deal of time on Vimeo and YouTube, using keyword searches to find great new videos to post. Like the searches I mentioned above, you have many search options available at these sites to find interesting and cool videos, too.
Videos are popular and give you a quick way of adding content to your stream.
They can be informative, illustrative, funny, sad - they can say whatever you want to say and adding them to your stream has never been easier. When youāre at those sites, simply copy [Control +C] the entire url of that video, like this: Oktapodi (2007) - Oscar 2009 Animated Short Film to start a new post, and [Control +V] that entire url directly into the text box, or choose the link option, add some of your own commentary and titles if you like, and thatās it.
Itās an easy way to add content and people all over the world can immediately start sharing your funny/sad/happy/brilliant videos! Our entire content at +FRIDAY NIGHT SESSIONSĀ is music videos, and I started that mini-dynasty simply from sharing videos! Thereās a reason billions and billions of videos are viewed each day - theyāre powerful, easy to use, and they quickly get to the heart of any topic. I might not choose to only use videos as my content in my own stream, but I do use them liberally, and Iāve had quite a few become very popular. Experiment a bit and see if using videos now and then for your content isnāt something that works for you.
9. Posts From People In My Circles Often Give Me Content to Write About.
I often reshare friends posts on G+, as Iām a huge fan of indie artists and musicians, Heck, choose any topic and Iāve likely reshared someoneās post on that topic. I try not to constantly reinvent the wheel.
Here's an example: If I want to write about the new approach to commenting on YouTube (Codename: Distiller) I could, of course, write my own post on the topic. But I donāt know the topic well enough yet to write about it. But I know someone who does! +Yonatan ZungerĀ worked on the project and he wrote about it here:
https://plus.google.com/103389452828130864950/posts/ToW83LPx9Ef
For me, this is a no-brainer. Iām not ready to share my own words on this topic, but he has written some great words, so I would reshare his post and add my own commentary above the post. I might add some additional links or #hashtag Ā keywords and I even might ping some fellow Plussers so they see this as well.
Now, with little work, Iāve added content into my stream, Iāve given credit to the original poster by using the share button (see Circle Monsters for my thoughts on this), and Iām remaining active on Google+. Many people I know are great about resharing; some people arenāt and donāt follow the rules. My simple rule is always give credit where credit is due and use the tools - they make sharing easy and thatās the name of the game for some of us when it comes to posting: time management.Ā
10.The Plus Awards Page Gives You 150 Categories to Instantly Consider Writing About.
Okay, full disclosure: I started the +Plus AwardsĀ and during one fast afternoon, I came up with a ton of categories to post about on Google+. I based my organization on the Dewey Decimal System as thatās how the worldās libraries organized themselves, and I think I did a decent job of giving you many a category to choose for your topics.Ā
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/107984185936335158835/communities/106720194518736065836
Go to the page: see those menu options on the left? Each one is a macro category and each subpage has a list of categories to nominate writers in. Have you seen an amazing post on G+ and thought that it should be recognized as being great? So did I! Thatās why I started the Plus Awards, and with that I also created a list you can use to find your own content to write about. Itās a free tool from me to you, and itās my last item I have to offer you for finding great content to post about on Google+.
Hopefully, one or two of these ideas will appeal to you, or at least will get you thinking about what we post on G+, and how we find that content. If you apply some of these ideas, I imagine you will become one of the newest Sherpaās on Google+, and I may be coming to you for guidance on my next how-to post! If you read this to the end - congratulations - you get a Gold Star in my book, and you are definitely someone to watch in my circles. Thank you!
#findingcontent Ā #content Ā #whattowriteabout Ā #googleplustips Ā #googleplus Ā #circlemonsters Ā #rulestoliveby Ā #contentcreation Ā #contentcuration Ā #contentcurator Ā #googlecalendar Ā #googledrive Ā #doshare Ā
Image: Ā http://bit.ly/1hdezpM
https://plus.google.com/+JasonMayes/posts/Bu6opo8yV5B
