Making a great Google+ post

There are many components to a Google+ post. Here is a run down of all the neat things you can do.

Formatting posts

Surround text with these special characters to make things bold, italic or add a strikethrough.

Code	Result
*Bold text*	Bold text
_Italic text_	Italic text
-Strikethrough text-	Strikethrough text

You can combine all three if you really want.

Although I would recommend using formatting sparingly for greater impact. Give your posts a heading by making the first line bold. Emphasise important information by using either bold, or italic text, etc.

Add a photo

It has been proven that a good picture gets more engagement than words alone. Google+ is fantastic for sharing pictures, so why not take advantage of the fact?

You aren’t limited to static images with Google+ either. You can post animated gifs to make a really eye catching experience. Delve into your catalog of auto awesome photos that Google+ has created and have some fun!

Edit: Hot off the press! Google released a new update just after this blog was posted. Now if you share a link to a web page with a decent sized image, the image will appear as a huge graphic that links directly to your post.

Add a video

Animated gifs is one thing, but adding a video to your post is something else. You can quickly and easily embed a YouTube video within a post. What is more, since YouTube got the Google+ treatment and now sports the Google+ commenting system, any time you comment on a YouTube video you can share it to your Google+ stream.

Embed a Google Drive document

Google Drive allows you to share your creations directly with your contacts via your Google+ stream. You can embed a deck of slides, which viewers can watch right there in the Google+ stream, or you could send out a survey for people to answer, like in the example below.

Summary

There are so many ways to make your Google+ posts eye catching and attention grabbing. They each have their uses, so explore them at your leisure and see what works for you.