Why a community centric organisation should use Google+

This blog will explicitly refer to use within Students' Associations however it should be appropriate for any non-profit looking to learn about the people it represents or even any business wanting to know its customers with a little tweaking.

Is Google's latest Social Experiment just what you need?

So, originally this is the blog post I was going to write last week - but I got a little side-tracked never the less here I am. That said if you haven't read my blog post from last week, "Is Google+ a failed project or simply looking ahead?", then I'd urge you to look at it first - especially if you're coming at this from a business point of view, it explains why you should be on Google+ anyway and the key features of Google+ from Google's perspective (The idea being put your energy into what Google is putting its energy into.)

Look for the Pages icon to get started

Assuming you agree with me the first step is to establish your Student Association/non-profit/company presence on Google+, unlike Facebook there aren't many options on Google+ you're either a Personal Profile or a Business Page - needless to say you're going to want to pick business here, though you need a personal profile to create a business one anyway.

Circles, it's like friend lists just more intuitive or something

If you've stumbled across this you've probably already done some research on how to use Social Media effectively so I'm not going to repeat the basics, however what you should have already noticed is the similarities between a Google+ Personal Profile and Business Page.

They're both designed to be social, Google+ is made for conversation this is why rather than having "Like's" or "+1's" as the exclusive way of interacting with your page a business page uses the same Circles system as any other user.

The idea being that you'll Circle people who regularly interact with your Association and sometimes share with just them.

This approach is just beating around the bush however - what Google really wants you to harness is Hangouts, one of the more unique features of Google+ is it's Hangouts system allowing massive video conferences to take place using a simple system, a Google+ Hangout is video chat with multiple occupants, whoever is being most active will get the big screen.

Face to face communication with those you represent

Before I go into some of the uses of that I'll also briefly mention Google+ On Air - this most recent addition to Google+ provides infinitely more uses for Hangouts. The key to this one being anyone can watch a live stream of a hangout without actually participating - this can be useful in 2 ways. Most obviously, if someone doesn't want to participate they can just observe.

Secondly you could make a Hangout that isn't public - invite some seasoned experts to discuss an interesting topic whilst your followers watch it via Live Stream without being able to interrupt it.

A few examples to back this up (again this is from a Students' Association perspective)

Votes at 16 - A big issue here in Scotland is the moment is the suggestion that people should be able to Vote from the age of 16 in elections, referenda etcetera, NUS Scotland's official stance is for Votes at 16 however Aberdeen University Students' Association recently launched a Facebook Question asking their members opinion - the result so far isn't quite the same - with 58 votes against it and 27 for. Does this paint the whole picture though, what we see is a straight Yes or No - nothing to say why people feel the way they do. If you were to get this in a Google Hangout - discuss the issues then you could get a much clearer idea of whether AUSA should be pulling from NUS or educating their members.

Accommodation - If you followed my election campaign you'll know that Accommodation is one of my big four - which makes it a brilliant one to discuss. A Students' Association is not generally an expert on accommodation - nor should it try to be but that doesn't mean we can't work to educate our members. So, imagine being able to invite a volunteer from Shelter to speak to your students but over the computer, some students could join the chat and ask questions others could just watch from the live stream and pick up useful info, Shelter could cover every University in Scotland in just a couple of days at most and you're reaching out to your members in the most direct way possible.

Hustings -  Finally, you've had a good year - your students are happily homed and voting at 16... or not. It's time for your elections but you really want to think of a way to increase turnout at your hustings - it's a dry event and the promise of free sandwiches doesn't seem to bring people in but why not bring it all online - there are multiple ways of doing this of course. You could have an alternate online only event with questions coming in via comments, twitter, Facebook or whatever live to the chair and each participant logged in at their computer. Alternatively, stick a webcam pointing at everyone at the front of the hustings, participating may or may not be more difficult (you could give the chair a tablet with a twitter feed on it?) either way you're members are able to make an informed decision without taking to long out of their schedule.

So that's it Hangouts, in my opinion the key to forging strong engagement with your membership in the future, my last tip would be - why not try incentives the first couple of times, easiest if you run a business of course. "Later on, we'll be revealing a voucher code for 10% off an order at our webstore." Just to get them listening.

Let me know if you agree, if you've done it and how you got on.