What the Plus!
Guy Kawasaki
McGraw-Hill (2013)
If Google+ is right for you, here’s what you need to know to take full advantages of what it offers.
The abundance of information, insights, and counsel that Kawasaki provides is well-worth knowing even if you decide not to become involved now, unless (of course) you have no interest in either the Internet or the Web. (Not everyone does.) I have read and reviewed all of his previous books and realize that, since childhood, he has had an almost insatiable curiosity about what works, what doesn’t, and (especially) why. Moreover, At least since joining Apple in 1983, he has been determined to share whatever he has learned with as many people as possible. He moved on four years later, seeking new adventures in the vineyards of free enterprise and continues to be an evangelist for helping people to achieve personal growth and professional development.
Plus+ offers an excellent case in point. As is his style, he immediately establishes and then sustains a direct, personal rapport with his reader. It is especially revealing that all but one of the book’s 15 chapter (Chapter 1, “Why I Love Google+”) titles begins with “How to,” with an implicit “How Not to”:
o Get Started
o Master Circles and Streams
o Make an Enchanting Profile
Comment: ESPECIALLY important, including photo
o How to Achieve Trustworthiness
o Comment
o Share Posts
o Optimize for Social Search
o Share Photos
o Respond to Comments
o Hang Out
o Chat
o Get More Followers
o Be a Little Fish in a Big Pond
o Deal with Bozos
o Thrive in the All-Boys Club
o Avoid Cluelessness
o Get Google+ to Help
o Master Google+
o Evangelize Google+
Kawasaki makes skillful use of the sequence (step-by-step) format. He also includes hundreds of Google+ page exempla to illustrate as well as explain various options to consider when creating and presenting content, correlating it, and promoting it…and yourself. Many readers will take full advantage of dozens of Quick Response Code (QRC) links to additional resources on Google’s website.
Before concluding his book, Kawasaki observes, “The word `evangelism’ comes from the Greek word that means `good news.’ With this list of tips and ones that you perfect on your own, I hope that you’ll go forth and spread the good news about Google+.”
I am now hard at work on preparations to become actively and productively involved with Google+ and take this opportunity to thank Guy Kawasaki for all that I have learned from him about what to do – and what NOT to do – as well as how to do it well. Among his other books, Reality Check remains my personal favorite and I strongly recommend that portions of that book be consulted in combination with what then becomes Google+++.