Is recruiting community members from G+ a good idea? What are everyone's experiences?

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Is recruiting community members from G+ a good idea? What are everyone's experiences?

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Answer 1

From my experience it's a great idea. I wasn't a fan of G+ until we thought about using it for bringing people into the Blurtit community. However, since using it for work my perception of the platform has completely changed, and I would thoroughly recommend it.

This is because I think it strikes a great balance between some of the other popular social media platforms out there. It's personal, but not as personal as Facebook, it allows you to have a voice like Twitter, and like LinkedIn it has great groups (called communities on G+).

The G+ communities are the best way to recruit your members. People in these groups tend to be more up for chatting and networking than people are on Facebook, also the platform makes interacting and feeling a part of these groups engaging. I would suggest you network on communities in G+ about a particular subject or interest of yours then try to convince them to migrate to your community.

All in all, I find that if you put in the hours on G+ it is a far better networking and recruitment tool than most other social networks. What are your thoughts on recruitment? Do you have any good tips?

Answer 2

Of the four main social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+) I think Google has the best balance.

It's not (yet) overrun by spam, fake profiles and aggressive marketing - but the network is still professional and engaging.

I think there are pros and cons to using Google Plus to recruit users to a community.

Recruiting users from Google+

On the one hand, it can be easy to distinguish people's interests on G+ based on what they say about themselves and what communities they already engage in. It can also be a great way to filter quality and determine what kind of contributions the user is likely to make.

The difficulty with getting people to migrate from G+ is that a lot of their "community needs" may already be met by their involvement with the G+ community itself.

The key to sourcing new members from G+ is being able to answer the question, "what value am I offering them?".

If your platform clearly sells a feature or advantage that members of a G+ community aren't getting already, then you should be fairly successful in encouraging people to check out your community.

However, if you're not offering anything overtly unique - I think it can be difficult to communicate what value being part of your community encompasses.