One of my colleagues here in Colorado, Kat Mindenhall, MSW, LCSW, is particularly savvy when it comes to mentoring and networking online. When she decided to share publicly her own learning curve with Google + as a venue for networking, I jumped at the opportunity to have her talk about it right here in a guest post!
(If you are interested in writing a guest post, check out the guidelines here.)
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A Guest Post by Kat Mindenhall, MSW, LCSW
I am probably like many of you because I have found it difficult to get into Google+ (the supposed “next big thing”). I log on and it seems like a party with not many people there yet that I know. I stay for a few minutes and then decide to go back to my friend’s basement (Facebook) where I’m comfortable.
Getting Comfortable with Google+
Here in Denver we have a small but vibrant community of therapists, many of whom belong to several local networking groups. I decided to create a Google+ community for Colorado Psychotherapists and invite all of my friends (or as my toddler would say, “mah fwends”) to join me there so we could all be uncomfortable on Google+ together.
Many of mah fwends showed up, and we have been chatting away about things that we might not put out to a larger and more intimidating group. One thing that I love is that we are able to talk about our confusion with Google+ on Google+. This has been wonderfully validating for us all.
We also talk about social media in general, show our practice videos, share thoughts on good books and ideal clients, and make lunch plans. It feels like a party that is really getting started. I have gotten a lot of feedback that folks are happy to have a way to explore Google+ in good company. I think that’s one reason this has been a success so far.
A Gracious Host
I encourage you to create your own community on G+. The most important thing is to be a gracious and available host. Be conversational, authentic, and warm. Give everyone the green light to jump in and interact comfortably. Ask people to introduce themselves.
I had previously joined a community for therapists in Colorado, but guess what? There wasn’t much interaction there, so I actually forgot about it before I created the new community. Oops. I think this underscores the fact that social media is about relationships. Otherwise, you are literally out of sight and out of mind.
Create Your Own Community on Google+
If you want to moderate a community as a way of getting your G+ party started, here are some tips:
- Think about what kind of community you want to create and why. I made a local community because these are folks I know. I also knew that most of us weren’t really rockin’ the Google yet and might like the practice. Your community doesn’t have to be the end all, be all. A small niche community such as local professionals may be much richer with engagement.
- Add people to your circles liberally. It’s like Twitter in that respect. Search for other professionals in your geographic area or who share your interests. Circle who they circle. Don’t be shy. Make some fwends. Create circles to organize these people. I have a “Peers” circle indicating professionals that are from Colorado. Then, when I created our community, I had a bunch of people to invite right away.
- Create your community with a descriptive title, and make the settings fit your needs (public / private, etc). There is a great moderator’s community where you can find links to awesome community guidelines that you can copy. Think about how heavy on the rules you want to be, and be prepared to enforce them if necessary. Especially in a public group.
- Tell folks about your community on other forums. It may encourage people to become active on Google+ to know that they have a party to go to. Announce it on your LinkedIn page, your Facebook page, wherever!
- Most importantly, don’t be a wallflower if you are the moderator. When there are questions I feel personally responsible for pointing members in the right direction. Now that the party is started, I don’t have to necessarily respond every time someone comments. However, as a moderator I don’t want anyone’s comments to go unnoticed.
This has turned out to be a great way to get comfy with G+ and help others do the same.
If you happen to be a Colorado Psychotherapist, come on over and join us! What’s your experience with G+, communities, or moderating?
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Kat Mindenhall, LCSW is a counseling therapist in Lakewood, CO that specializes in helping people 
get unstuck in their lives and relationships by increasing their psychological flexibility. Get a free 30-min video on psychological flexibility at A Peaceful Life’s Blog.
Kat! Thank you so much for writing this post. Every therapist I talk to is trying to figure out the best place to be doing their networking online so that they can streamline their efforts and time while maximizing their returns.
I especially like that you talk about hosting a community. You’ve done a fabulous job of welcoming and putting forth the effort to actually engage us in our Google+ community ! You are the example I am using to show other therapists what online hospitality looks like and feels like. And, you know what the evidence is? It’s that with our tiny little group (because you only created it a few weeks ago) the dialogue is daily and the content is rich, useful, inspiring, and – above all else – it’s supportive!
Thank you for modeling what can be achieved by a social worker with a clear vision, initiative, and a willingness to share and pave the way!
Thanks for the post, and creating the G+ community, Kat! I have loved interacting with folks and it helps me feel connected and like I always have a community I can turn to for advice/support/questions/sharing. Looking forward to learning more about it. I also am a newbie so am trying to embrace the learning curve 🙂
Have you noticed if interacting on G+ has increased your SEO stance at all?
Hi Kate!
I’m glad you feel that way about our little group, too! I like how we can all be newbies there and ask questions that are on each other’s mind anyway.
As far as the SEO stuff, I personally don’t really know how to evaluate my own SEO rankings outside of seeing what my traffic is like. Any time you communicate more with people, your traffic could increase, so from that perspective I guess it has helped a little bit, not much. Google allows you to tie your authorship to things, and I don’t know much about it but you basically claim your authorship for your professional page (not personal profile), and then when you write something on your blog you can insert authorship info in it so that Google recognizes Kate Daigle as the same person all across your stuff. Personally I haven’t done much with this, and I don’t even know if it applies to your personal comments on G+. I don’t use my professional page as much as I do my profile because profiles are more easily used for networking. (I’m not a store that posts sales, I’m a person that wants to add you to my circle!). The big thing that Google is selling here is that you’ll be more visible by connecting everything together. How exactly you track that is beyond me and perhaps could even be protected by Google’s algorithm fairies.
Anyone else know more about G+’s benefit to your overall online presence? Good question Kate!
There are lots of ways to evaluate your SEO rankings beyond traffic. I’ll be spending a whole class on this as part of a longer, in-depth series I’m launching on blogging later this year. However, two of the easiest to observe (and access) are (1) where you fall on a Google search i.e. page 1 or 2 or beyond (It doesn’t really matter if you are on page 5 or 50.)Anything below page 2 is pretty much useless. And, (2) how active or inactive the conversations are on your blog. Lots of conversation = A healthy website.
I swear that’s one of the best things about social media, in general! Back in the dark ages i.e. pre-internet, therapists had to work a lot hard ( spending a lot more time and money) to connect with other therapists. These days, we can hop on and off Google+ or Twitter or whatever to get support, find resources, connect with clients and referral sources, etc. I get that there’s a learning curve that has to be undertaken in order to strategically use any of these tools. But the fact that I can 24 hours a day . . . at my convenience . . . in my pajamas! . . . do all of that and more . . . that’s absolutely divine!
Bahahaha! At your convenience in your pajamas is my middle name when it comes to computer (anything)!
OK, Kat – I’m really looking forward to meeting you – for many reasons – not the least of which is I want to hear if you really have a creepy Halloween-y sounding laugh! That “bahahaha!” of yours is so incongruent with who I have made up that you are . . . that it wigs me out!
You are too funny – I think of that has my spit-out-a-drink and slap my knee kind of laugh… but I guess it could be line the count from Sesame Street… ahahahah!
Yes, I can relate! When I was in junior high school I went through this phase of cackling when I laughed. I don’t think I cackle any more but it’s definitely not a quiet little snicker.
Have a good night!
Hi Tamara!
Thank you so much for letting me share this with you and your readers. It’s truly been great to get to know our little community in a less formal way. I continue to be inspired and honored to dialogue daily with our community, it’s truly a group effort. I must say that being a warm host is something I learned from you! So I guess it’s a mutual love fest going on!
The funny thing is that I don’t even THINK of our G+ community as networking anymore, even though I know it is. To me it doesn’t feel like work, and I check it with the same interest I do my FB page. It has become my go-to place for news and support! That’s why I think it would be so wonderful if others tried this out and were able to create the same kind of feeling in their circles. Transform networking in your mind from work to relationships. Thanks again Tamara!
🙂 Networking is just building a net with colleagues who have each others’ backs! YES!
Kat, I appreciate your tips about getting started on Google + with inviting your fwends and being an available host. One of the advantages I see with Google + is it can be specific to a particular interest. Unlike Facebook it can be more niche focused as a go to place for like-minded people.
Tamara, I enjoy the guests you invite to the party to share their knowledge.
Oh, Brenda! That’s right! Being able to focus on a specific niche or interest group really IS a benefit over Facebook! I hadn’t even thought about that! I wonder what other differences people notice between the two platforms . . . .
Yeah Brenda that’s a good point. I like how you can separate your circles into different groups of people, and the communities make it easier to find certain kinds of groups. I find that with FB there are plenty of groups, but I usually don’t sign up for that many because they clutter your newsfeed or are completely out of sight and out of mind.
Thank you for sharing this. I have to be honest I am still a little itimidated by Google + and I have not ventured on there to start connecting with therapists. But I can see how it would be useful. It sounds like I can create my own group for Therapists in Minneapolis and just ask some collegues to join? Was it easy to get people to be part of your network? What kind of topics do you discuss?
Hi, Lyndsey! Welcome back! You absolutely can create your own group for Therapists in Minneapolis and when you do . . . I would love a quick guest post from you announcing it. I’ll be happy to spread the word by sharing your post right here! (I’m trying to collect networking opportunities for all locales right here so that therapists can easily find them.)
Hi Lindsey,
You sound like you are in the same place I was and still find myself with G+ a lot of the time. I was able to circle a lot of my peers because I knew them from other online places, so once I created a group I just clicked on the circle of my peers to invite them. That part was easy, but I think that’s because I had already connected with people. Whatever your path, if you add people to your circles liberally you can then invite them to your community if they have added you back. Just search for things like therapist, counselor, and your area or state. Please let us know how you fare!
Very helpful intro article. Kat was my “model” when I joined G+ communities just a couple of weeks ago. My latest question has been: how do I manage my time doing this? And guess what? I went into G+ communities and asked it there! Ours is getting to be a real small world. I like your website too, Tamara!
Hi Johnben! Nice to see you here! You are one of the friends I have made on G+, and I appreciate your willingness to share your struggles. Did you find out any good time management tips from the G+ community? Thanks for stopping in!
Enjoyed your guest post… inspired me to get on google +!
Thanks for sharing
Hi, Melany! Thanks for dropping in here! I look forward to networking with you on Google+ and here, too!
That’s great! Please let us know how it goes!