Google+ for Team Collaboration

Google+ is the newest, coolest social network, and there are probably people in your social circles who are tugging you to join it. But who needs another Facebook or Twitter, right? Honestly, Google+ adds some features and controls that make it worth your consideration, but more importantly, it adds some tools that are perfect for collaborating with a team, whether it’s your staff team or student leadership team.

A few features and ideas on how to use them:

• Circles: Facebook groups are perfect for group collaboration, but they’re also a free-for-all with everyone having an equal voice. If you want to have a group of people where communication is more one-way (imagine something like a newsletter or an email listserv), you can create a Circle for the people you want to communicate to, and then send updates and links to just them.
• Google Hangouts: Although the name implies it’s for casual use, this is the best (and the only free) web-based video chat option available today. The opportunities for this, especially among distributed teams, are endless.
• Huddles: There are many group texting services like GroupMe and txtBlaster, but if you have a group that all have smartphones, Huddles are much more powerful and don’t eat up students’ text messages.

Follow