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By maria jose giavedoni

How to create and manage a google plus community

Type

Who can

join

Who

can

see

memb

ers

and

posts

Who can

find

commun

ity

through

search Best for...

Public - Anyone can join Everyone Everyo

ne

EveryoneMeeting people on

Google+ who share your

interests.

Examples: black and

white photography,

fanclub for your favorite

sports team, current

world events

Public- Moderator approval needed to

join

Anyone can

request to

join, but

moderators

need to

approve

membership

Everyo

ne

EveryoneSharing content publicly,

but limiting who can

create it.

Examples: alumni from

your university, your local

neighborhood

businesses, running club

Private- Let people find through search

and request to join

Anyone can

request to

join, but

moderators

need to

approve

membership

Only

membe

rs

EveryoneCreating closed

communities for specific

public organizations.

Examples: a jazz band,

dance troupe, parent

teacher association

Private- Hide community from searches Only invited

people

Only

membe

Not

shown in Small groups to have

more private

rs search

results * conversations.

Examples: Johnson

family, Economics study

group, party planning

committee

Note:The name and photo of a private community that’s hidden from search will still be visible to people who type in or directly visit the community’s web address.

If you choose not to have search engines index you community, your community itself won't appear in Google search results. However: Your community will still remain visible to anyone with your community URL. Other pages and content (including websites, blogs, and Google products such as Picasa Web) that link to your community can still appear in search results on Google and other search engines.

1. On Google+, hover mouse over the top left to expand Google+ main navigation.

2. Click the   communities icon.

3. Click the Create community button at the top right.

4. Decide whether or not you want your community to be Public or Private and click the corresponding box.

5. Enter a name for your Community.Pick a unique name that clearly communicates the purpose of your community. If you also have a Google+ page, try to avoid choosing the same name as your page so people aren’t confused which is which when searching.

6. Whether you choose Public or Private, there’s one more choice to make. See the table above to see which option is best for your community. If you want to change your community’s visibility type, you’ll have to delete the community and create a new one.

Create a community

7. Click Create community.

8. Keep up with your community on the go with the Google+ mobile app.

9.Add a photo

Your photo will be the first thing people see. Pick a photo that represents the purpose behind your community.

Set a community photo in the "Edit Community" section under the Actions menu

10.Complete the About section

The About section is the primary place for new members to learn about your community, so use this opportunity to:

Describe the purpose of your community Set clear expectations around posts and discussions Add any additional information or relevant links

11.Invite people to join

Follow the steps and share with your circles to invite people to join:

1. While in your community, click Actions to open the drop-down.

2. Select Invite people.3. A share box will open. You can write a message to include

with your invitation.4. Add names, circles, or email addresses of the people you’d

like to invite.5. Click Send.

This article is intended only for Google Apps users. You're probably a Google Apps user if you're using Google+ with a work or school account. If you're using a personal Google account, see Create a Google+ Community instead.

Use communities to start conversations around specific projects, interests, or particular groups. For example, you might start a community for your expanded work group, a class project, a charity drive within your organization, or a joint initiative between your company and outside contributors.

Community privacy options

You can restrict communities to only your organization (that is, restricted to only your company or school), or you can choose to include people outside your organization. When setting up a community, think about who should be able to find and join the community, who should be able to see the content and members, and whether people need to request to be a member.

Create a Google+ Community at work or school

There are eight types of communities, as described in the tables below.

If you restrict the community to your organization:

Type of community Who can join

Who can see posts and members

Who can find community via search*

Open within your domain- Anyone in your organization can join

Everyone in your organization

Everyone in your organization

Everyone in your organization

Open within your domain- Moderator approval needed to join

Anyone in your organization can request to join, but moderators must approve membership.

Everyone in your organization

Everyone in your organization

Private in your domain - Moderator approval needed to join

Anyone in your organization can request to join, but moderators need to approve membership

Community members

Everyone in your organization

Private in your domain - Hide community from searches

Only people in your organization who are invited

Community members

Not shown in search results**

*Restricted communities might not yet be searchable in your domain.

**The name and photo of a "private in your domain" community that’s hidden from search will still be

visible to people in your organization who type in or follow a link to the community’s web address. The

name and photo will not be visible outside your organization.

If you choose not to have search engines index your community, the community itself won't appear in

Google search results. However, your community will still remain visible to anyone in your organization

with the URL. Other pages and content (including websites, blogs, and Google products such as Picasa

Web) that link to your community can still appear in search results. If someone outside your organization

follows a link to your organization, they will see an error and won't be able to view the community.

If you don't restrict the community to your organization:

Type of community Who can join

Who can see posts and members

Who can find community via search

Public - Anyone can join

Everyone Everyone Everyone

Public - Moderator approval needed to join

Anyone can request to join, but moderators must approve membership

Everyone Everyone

Private - Let people find through search and request to join

Anyone can request to join, but moderators must approve membership

Community members

Everyone

Private - Hide community from searches

Only invited people Community members

Not shown in search results*

*Note: The name and photo of a private community that’s hidden from search will still be visible to people who type

in or follow a link to the community’s web address.

If you choose not to have search engines index your community, the community itself won't appear in Google search

results. However, your community will still remain visible to anyone with the URL. Other pages and content (including

websites, blogs, and Google products such as Picasa Web) that link to your community can still appear in search

results.

1. Before you create a community, review the privacy options above, and choose which type of community you need.

Choose your privacy options carefully, as the only way to change them later is to delete the community and create it again from scratch.

2. On Google+, hover your mouse over the top left to expand the Google+ main navigation.

3. Click the communities icon.

4. Click the Create community button at the top right.

5. Decide whether to restrict your community to people in your organization and click the corresponding box.

If the first options you see are Open and Private, it means your organization has chosen to make your communities restricted, by default. If you want to let people outside your organization access your community, and you know that your organization is ok with that, click change at the top of the dialog box. Otherwise, just go on to the next step.

6. Decide who can see members and posts:

If your community is restricted to your domain, choose whether it should be Open (anyone in your domain can see members and posts) or Private (only approved members can see members and posts).

If your community is not restricted, choose whether it should be Public (anyone can see members and posts) or Private (only approved members can see members and posts).

7. Enter a name for your Community.

8. Pick your final option:

If your community is Open or Public, choose whether or not a moderator must approve members.

If your community is Private, choose whether to make it findable via search. Members of Private communities must always be approved; if a Private community is not searchable, only invited people can join.

9. Click Create community.

Add a photo

Your photo will be the first thing people see. Pick a photo that represents the purpose behind your community.

Set a community photo in the "Edit Community" section under the Actions menu.

Complete the About section

Next steps

The About section is the primary place for new members to learn about your community, so use this opportunity to:

Describe the purpose of your community

Set clear expectations around posts and discussions

Add any additional information or relevant links

Invite people to join

Follow the steps and share with your circles to invite people to join:

1. While in your community, click Actions to open the drop-down menu.

2. Select Invite people.

3. A share box will open. You can write a message to include with your invitation.

4. Add names, circles, or email addresses of the people you’d like to invite.

5. Click Send.

As a manager of a Google+ community, you can organize discussions by categories, remove offensive content, highlight great posts, and add moderators to help you keep the conversation going.

How to manage a community

Making changes to your community works best on a desktop computer. Not all edit features are available on mobile devices.

Getting started

1. Open Google+and select Communities from the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner.

2. Click the gear icon in the left corner.

3. You’ll see a drop-down menu that helps you invite members, edit basic information in your community, and manage membership settings.

View, search for, and invite people to join your community.

Once someone has confirmed their membership, owners and moderators can manage their membership settings.

Change basic information like the community’s photo and “About” section.

From here, owners and moderators can also add or remove categories. The categories you add will guide discussions, and help members find the topics they’re most interested in. For example if you have a band community, you might want to

Invite people

Edit Community

have a category for each section type (brass, percussion, strings).

After making changes, click Save in the upper-right corner.

To edit a person’s membership settings, hover over their name and click the arrow.

o Owners can:

Add, remove, or ban community members

Add or remove moderators

Pin or remove posts

Add or edit categories

o Moderators can:

Add or edit categories

Pin or remove posts

Add, remove, or ban community members

Manage Members

Leave community

Remove yourself from the community. You’ll no longer see the group in your communities, and you won’t see its posts in your home stream.

Owners and moderators can choose which posts to highlight, and which posts to remove.

1. Open Google+Google+ and select Communities from the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner.

2. Click All Posts in the lower-left corner.

3. Hover over the post you want to edit and click the arrow in the right corner. You’ll see a drop-down menu that lets you pin or remove the post.

o If you pin a post, it will remain at the top your community’s home page until an owner or moderator removes it. You can only pin one post at a time.

o If you remove a post, you can also report or ban the member who posted it.

Manage Posts

Delete the community

1. Open Google+Google+ and select Communities from the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner.

2. Click All Posts in the lower-left corner.

3. Click the gear icon in the left corner, then click Edit Community.

4. Check the box confirming you’d like to permanently remove the community, then click Delete Community.

Check on your community daily, and encourage members to have conversations and share ideas. You can then participate in their conversations by posting, leaving comments, and +1’ing posts.

Tips for managing the community

Try posting different types of content like pictures, questions, or general updates. The posts that get the most comments and +1s will help you learn what your members like best.

When you create a community, write a post to set expectations and welcome new members.

Keep information in your community’s profile up to date so new and prospective members have the latest information.

Add moderators who can help you manage content and share regularly. They can also add new categories to help guide discussions.

If I post to a public community, does that mean all my friends and followers can see it?

No, the posts you share to a public community will not show up in your friends and followers’ Home streams, unless your friends and followers are also members of the same community.

Frequently asked questions

Your public community posts will be visible to people who navigate to your profile page unless you have set your settings for them not to appear. Visitors will see text indicating that it was shared to a community.

Remember that your private community posts will only be visible to people in those communities, regardless of whether or not you show community posts on your profile.

How can I control whether my public community posts appear on my profile page?

While in communities:

1. Open Google+. Place your cursor in the top left corner for the Google+ main menu.

2. Select Settings.

3. Scroll to 'Profile'.

4. Check or uncheck the box next to Show your Google+ communities posts on your Google+ profile

How do Google+ Communities work with Google+ Pages?

Google+ Pages and Profiles are a great way to share content and start specific conversations with people interested in your content. Google+ Communities allow people with shared interests to talk to each other by starting new conversations around the interests they share.

Additionally, Google+ Pages can participate in Google+ Communities. Pages can create, moderate, join and participate in

communities. This makes it easy for Google+ users to join conversations with the brands and organizations they care about.

-Can I change my community from public to private, or vice versa?

A community’s privacy settings currently can’t be changed once it’s been created. Please pick your desired setting from the start.

-How can I control how many community invitations I receive?

You can control who is allowed to send you invitations as well as whether you receive invitations via email / mobile.

To control who is allowed to send you community invitations, visit the Google settings page and adjust the “Who can send you notifications” control.

To turn emails and mobile notifications for community invitations on or off entirely, visit the Google settings page and toggle the “Invites me to a community” setting.

Note: Even if you have community invitations enabled via email / mobile, you won’t receive any invites from people you haven’t allowed to notify you.

-Are community names unique? If someone else has a “Basketball” community, does that prevent me from making a “Basketball” community?

No, names do not have to be unique.

-If I moderate a post out of my community, is it deleted?

No, the post stays on the profile of the person who authored it.

-Why aren’t people seeing my invites?

They may not see your invites if they don’t have you in their circles, or if they’ve limited the “Who can send you notifications?” setting. Learn more about who can send you notifications.

-How do notifications in communities work?

You can turn your community notifications on or off by clicking on the icon on a community’s page.

Community members can use notifications to know when new things are shared with their communities. If notifications are On you’ll get a notification by email, on your device, and by the Google toolbar when someone posts something new.

Notifications default on in communities where the membership is moderated - that is, private communities, or public communities where you need to ask to join. It's also on by default for any community you create.

Notifications are default off in communities where anyone can join - that is, most public communities. They also default off, no matter what, when a community is large.