What’s So Great About Google +, Part 1: For Readers

Hey look! I’m doing a cooking show, thanks to Google + Hangouts on Air

Friends, I want to make a case for using Google+. 

First, I want to let you, my lovely readers, know what’s in it for you. And then next week, I’ll talk to any Bloggy Folks who might be reading. Because I want to let my bloggy friends know what a powerful and useful tool G+ can be for reaching readers and fans. And each other.

Okay friends, so why should you wander over to yet another social network? In a word: connection.  There is nowhere else that I know of out in the Hinternets where I can interact face-to-face with my readers. Utilizing the powerful G+ Hangouts and Hangouts on Air (HO and HoA in Googlespeak), we can visit face to face and do everything from a casual chat about mixing methods to chef interviews to a What’s for Dinner talk to a full-on cooking demonstration or cook along.

In a regular hangout, up to ten people can all visit together in a video chat. In an HoA, however, the hangout is simultaneously broadcast to the public and then saved as a YouTube video so anyone can access it later.

I invite you all to join Google +, and if you have a gmail account, you automatically have a G+ profile page. That means you’re in! Once you’re there you can hook up with me on my personal page, and you can alsojoin the Pastry Chef Online G+ Community over there. I envision it as being a place where you can go not only to post questions and pictures and what not, but mainly to suggest hangout topics and check the schedule of upcoming hangouts.

I want your ideas to drive these hangouts. Do you have a specialty that you’re known for? Why not come into a hangout and show it off?  Do you love a particular blog and want to get to know the blogger a bit better? Let me know and I’ll see if I can line up an interview. Want to learn how to make a particular thing? Either I’ll demonstrate it,  or if I don’t know how, I’ll find someone who can. This will be You Driven.

Of course, I also will be holding spur of the moment hangouts that won’t be broadcast at all. Rather, those will be times when you can just pop over and say howdy or ask a question.  A way for me to get to know you better, a way for you to get to know me better, and especially a way for you guys to get to know each other better and foster community. Hooray!

I really do hope you guys will come over. Using the hangout features on G+ will make the  existing PCO Community on facebook closer and more interactive than ever!

Are you interested in testing the G+ waters at all? If you have been over to Google + already, tell me what you like or don’t like. If you’ve been in a hangout, either a regular one or a Hangout on Air, what did you think?

Read Part 2, for Bloggers, here.