Are You Non-Plussed About GooglePlus?

Have you joined yet? Are you a Google+ member? What's taking you so long? Don't you know that everyone has joined? Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a member! And Google is his biggest competition! So if Zucky is there, why aren't you?

A few weeks ago, Google+ invitations were like Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets. They were as sought after as a Gmail account when they first came out, even though it was in Beta testing and the majority of Google+ users were tech people. And even if you got a coveted invite to use Google+, chances are that you couldn't find any of your friends (online or otherwise).

Now that the doors have finally been opened up and invitations are sailing across the web faster than you can shout Yahoo!, users are furiously adding each other and are being added to circles. They are offering virtual "hangouts" -- the equivalent of a chatroom only with videos. And networking abounds. (Both Ashton Kucher and Justin Timberlake are in my circles, though they haven't included me in theirs yet. Still waiting for those boys to extend an invitation.)

So basically, Google+ is a mash-up of Facebook and Twitter. You "follow" people like you do on Twitter and you can communicate with your friends like you do on Facebook. Instead of "liking" something, you give it a +1. Not sure what the online vernacular will be for that. I'm assuming that instead of "liking" something, you will be "plussing" or "plus one-ing" a post that meets your approval.

There are new ways of tracking people down on Google+. For instance, a quick way is to go to http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/ Several authors and illustrators have created links to fellow authors and bloggers. Here are a few links to those lists. (I'm not sure if those lists are accessible until you become a Google+ member, so make sure to join today!)

Also, don't forget to add links in your profile to your books. That way, when someone does a Google search for you, links to your books will appear under your name. If you Google my name: Megan Kelley Hall, you'll see that Sisters of Misery, The Lost Sister and Dear Bully all come up right under my name. Now people can click over and buy your books easily and hassle-free. (It all comes back to selling books, doesn't it?)

In any case, join Google+ and add me to your circle. I'm not sure what we'll do once we've all joined each other's circles, but it should be fun figuring it out together.

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