Just made the switch to +Google+? We've laid out some how-to guides for our readers to quickly get started on setting up and getting around Google's social offering.
In this post, we'll show you around one of the core parts of Google+, your profile.
Getting There
Getting to your profile on Google+ is easy, just roll your cursor over "Home" and click on "Profile" from the navigation menu which will slide out from the left. Alternatively, just type plus.google.com/me into your browser's address bar.
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| Just look for this icon in the navigation menu |
Setting Up Your Profile
Spending a little bit of time on setting up and filling in your profile correctly is vital to having a quality experience on Google+. More people will be more inclined to check out your profile when you've uploaded a photo of yourself and filled in your profile.
Let me show you around:
Profile and Cover Photo
These are the images that you'll see at the top of your profile, the huge picture is your cover photo and the small circular image found at the lower left is your profile photo, which overlays your cover photo.
Adding images to both of these is really simple:
Profile Photo
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| Click the camera icon in the middle of your profile photo to change |
It's simple, just roll your cursor over your profile picture and a link will be displayed, just click "Change profile photo" and you will be greeted with a window where you can choose to:
- Upload a new photo
- Select a photo from your photos already uploaded on Google+
- Select a photo that you've been tagged in
- Choose to take a photo straight from your web camera
Selecting a Cover Photo
Changing your cover photo is similar to the steps you have took to change your profile photo, you'll see a link to change your cover photo to the right.
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| Look for the "Change cover" button |
There is a variety of cover photos for you to choose from, just select what you fancy and click the save button. Or if you wanted to really make your profile your own, upload something that suits you.
The Profile Tabs
See the tabbed bar above your profile and cover photo? You can click on each tab which will take you to different parts of your profile.
About
Cards
The sections in your profile are usually referred to as 'profile cards'. To add information to a card, just locate the 'Edit' button found at the bottom of the card.
These are your cards:
- Story - Introduce yourself to visitors of your profile, and potential followers.
- People - Displays a list of people you've added to your circles, and the people who've added you to theirs.
- Work - What line of work are you in? And where do you work?
- Education - What schools/colleges/universities did you go to?
- Places - Where have you lived, and where do you live currently?
- Basic Information - The usual: Gender, relationship status, date of birth, other names.
- Links - Link to your other profiles on the web, what you contribute to and your favourite websites.
- Apps - Displays a list of websites and apps that you've signed into Google+ with.
Editing
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| Changing the visibility of the Places card |
Posts
This is the default landing tab, which displays a stream of posts which you have published. It's a good way to look back at what you've posted, and is a good opportunity to edit or remove posts, as well as review what other people have commented.
The Share Box
At the top of the stream you'll see the Share Box, which you can find out more on that in our Getting Around Google+ How To. But putting it simply, this is where you'd go to publish text, photo and video posts. You can also use the share box to create events and add links, it's pretty nifty.
Photos
The really cool thing about Google+ is that you can easily view what albums are shared with who, just by looking at the icon at the bottom of each album. You can learn more about the awesome features of Photos in our how-to.
Is This You?
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| Approve and remove photo tags straight from the Photos tab on your profile |
YouTube
There's not much to be said about this one, and it's all pretty self-explanatory. A list of videos uploaded to both +YouTube and Google+ will be displayed in the YouTube tab in your profile.
+1's
Google says it better than me:
"Your +1's appear here. +1 the things on the web that you like, agree with or want to recommend to others."
Because the +1 tab is visible to others by default, you should be careful with what you plus. You can always switch to this tab and remove your +1 on a website. It is also wise to look over your privacy settings, to control who can view this part of your profile.
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| Contents of the +1 tab |
Reviews
The Reviews tab lets you and others see what places you have reviewed through Google+ Local, in the form of cards. To the right, you'll see a map where the location of businesses that you've reviewed will be shown as placemarks.
Profile and Tab Settings
You can choose to hide some tabs if you'd rather not have them displayed publicly. Posts and About can't be hidden, but you can choose to hide Photos, YouTube, +1's and the Reviews tab if you desire so.To do this, just head to Google+ settings. Just go to your account switcher (your profile photo on the top right) and click on 'Account'. On the sidebar, select 'Google+' and scroll down until you're at the 'Profile' section. You can then uncheck the tabs you'd like to be hidden to visitors.
Wrapping Up
You should now know the basics of your Google+ profile, how to fill in and edit your information, as well as changing the settings and other bits and bobs. Let us know if you've got any questions, or if you just found this useful!