This document discusses Google+ and provides guidance on establishing a social media strategy and using Google+. It begins by emphasizing the importance of having an overall social media strategy and evaluating effectiveness before deciding which technologies to use. It then covers setting goals, choosing a platform, content creation, management, and iteration. Specific guidance is provided on using Google+, including profiles, circles, streams, hangouts, promotion, and case studies. Both cons and pros of adopting Google+ are presented.

1. Google+
Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, ScM
Dept. of Public Health and Community Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
l.gualtieri@tufts.edu / @lisagualtieri
February 15, 2012
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2. Any social media Select goals
• Patient education
decision starts • Crisis communication
• Community outreach
• Customer service
with overall • Public relations
social media
strategy
Evaluate social media Decide which social media
effectiveness technologies to use
• What are meaningful metrics? • Who are you trying to reach?
• How can they be measured? • What do they use?
• What do your competitors use?
Use social media
• How to use appropriately?
• How to integrate?
• What content?
• Who manages/participates?
• How much time?
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3. Iteration is necessary
• Internally
– Your needs and expertise change
• Externally
– Social media technologies change
• Example: Facebook profiles, privacy, and timeline
– How people use social media changes
– Which are popular and demographics of use change
• Examples: Second Life, MySpace, and Pinterest
– Health situations and needs change
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4. For each social media technology
• Who chooses? Are any policies necessary?
• How to use a specific technology appropriately?
• How a technology is integrated with others and with
a website?
• How to select, create, and curate content?
• Who manages a technology? Who else participates?
• How much time does it take to set up, use, and
monitor and does it involve off-hour?
• What are the risks and how can they be mitigated?
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5. Types of social media
1. Twitter campaigns
2. Facebook 18.Virtual hugs and gifts and other
3. Google+ indicators
4. Blogs 19.eCards
5. YouTube and video sharing 20.Online and permission-based
6. Podcasts eNewsletters
7. Flickr and photo sharing 21.Icons to share content
8. Pinterest 22.Social bookmarking
9. Wikipedia 23.Contests
10.LinkedIn groups 24.Crowdsourcing and collective
11.“Like” intelligence
12.Ratings and reviews 25.Games and gamification
13.Comments 26.QR codes
14.Q&A or Ask the Expert 27.Location-based technologies
15.On demand chat, scheduled chat, 28.Holidays (day, week, or month)
and other online events 29.Realtime, specialized, and social
16.SMS, messaging, and texting media search
17.Buttons and badges for health 30.Website integration 5

6. Google+ 101
• Circles control information sharing, supporting
– Mutual relationships where personal information can be
shared, Facebook-style
– Unidirectional model of Twitter
• Stream
– View incoming information, like Facebook news feed or
Twitter stream
– Circles gives control
• Hangouts (think local bar)
– Audio/video meetings with group up to 10
– Anyone from selected circles can drop in and out
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7. My Profile – Light User
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8. Will the circle be
unbroken…
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9. Google+ 102
• “Vanity” urls
– http://www.gplus.to/
– Example: http://www.gplus.to/mariahcarey
• Hovercard or mini-bio
– What someone on Google+ has in front of them for
quick decision
– Mine says:
Lisa Gualtieri (you)
Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
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10. Google 102+
• Look at how Google+ page looks to others
• Promote it – an art into itself
• Capitalize on Google+ search, social search, and
other Google products
• Get in circles, think segmentation
• Use imagery
• Share content, create polls, etc.
• Play with hangouts
• Check which features are added/changed
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11. Case study 1: Anatomy of a Google+ page
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12. Case study 2: Hospital use of Google+
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13. Conclusions
• Cons for adopting Google+
– It takes time to set up and connect to others
– It takes time to craft appropriate messaging and not
just reuse Facebook and Twitter posts
– It is one more social media to monitor
• Pros for adopting Google+
– It is pervasive because Google is pervasive especially
with social search
– Despite Facebook copying innovative features, it is
not dying a slow death and seems to have potential13