Google+ (Google Plus) Circles help you control what information you see, and who sees your content. Here’s how.

In the previous post we talked about how to manage your privacy in Google+ and how you could control and limit access to your information through Circles. Today we’re going to take a closer look at circles and how to use them.

One of the core concepts in Google+ is Circles. Circles are like Groups on Facebook or Twitter lists: they’re a way of organizing your G+ life.

Although Google+ gives you some preset circles, you can feel free to edit or delete them, or create your own. Since no one but you can see the names of your circles you can name the circles whatever you like, from Friends to Frenemies to Loudmouths. People won’t even know how many circles you’ve put them in.

As your organizing the people in your life into circles, there are two things you should keep in mind: who’s content you want to see, and what content you want to share with others. Let’s start with who you want to hear from.

The default view when you log into Google+ is the stream (similar, if not identical to Facebook’s News Feed). Anyone who you’ve added to a circle will appear here. Down the left hand side you’ll see all the circles you’ve created, so you can filter your stream by circle. For example, during the work day you may only want to see updates from “Business Associates” or “Networking Buddies” so you can choose that circle. After hours perhaps you want to see what your friends are up to, so you choose that circle. People can appear in as many circles as you want to put them in.

One nice feature of Google+ is your ability for you to selectively share your content. At the end of every update you can choose who you want to share that particular piece of content with…from a single person, to a circle, to your extended circles to the public at large. Personally, I put most of my stuff up to the public, but that’s only because my stuff is so good.

Nah, just kidding. I do it because with the exception of private stuff (my daughter’s 7th birthday party pictures for example) I don’t have much I need to keep private.

I’ve created a video called How to Use Google+ Circles to show you how to do all this cool stuff. You can watch it on YouTube if you can’t see it down below.

Don’t forget to subscribe to flyte’s YouTube channel for more great videos!

Next up: How to Start a Google+ Hangout (Group Video Chat.)

Rich Brooks
Join Me on Google+