A Guide to Social Sharing & Fair Use: Part Four

By Clayton Stobbs Director of Account Management

Part Four: Google+ (via John Joseph @plaidjj)

Google+ is all about connections, and the goal of it service is for it’s members to share all sorts of content with specific groups of connections. This service can be an extremely powerful asset in regards to exposing your message to a large audience. When it comes to sharing on Google +, you must make sure to abide by the Terms of Service that you agreed to when setting up your account. It is important to note that you cannot display any advertising for a third party on your Google+ page.

By utilizing the Google+ service, you are inherently agreeing to abide by its stated Terms of Service stipulations. Of note in relation to blogging is the following Content and Conduct Policy’s, as outlined in the agreement you accept when setting up your Google+ account.

Malicious Products - Do not transmit viruses, malware, or any other malicious or destructive code. Do not distribute content that harms or interferes with the operation of the networks, servers, or other infrastructure of Google or others.

Personal and Confidential Information - Do not distribute other people’s personal and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, confidential national ID numbers, or account passwords, without their permission.

Spam - Do not spam, including sending unwanted promotional or commercial content, or unwanted or mass solicitation. Do not aggressively add people to your circles.

Ranking Manipulation - Do not manipulate ranking or relevancy using techniques like repetitive or misleading keywords or metadata.

Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior - Do not use our products to impersonate.

User Profile Name - To help fight spam and prevent fake profiles, use the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you. For example, if your full legal name is Charles Jones Jr. but you normally use Chuck Jones or Junior Jones, either of those would be acceptable.

Account Hijacking - Do not access another user’s account without their permission. Do not use our products for phishing scams.

Google is looking to incorporate its social networking aspect (plus) into every aspect of its Google offerings, thus the power and utility of Google+ is still increasing as Google grows and matures. Because Google is always adding more services, it makes the Plus functionality far more than another simple social networking site. Google+ has been created in a simple way that not only encourages, but rewards, its users for sharing content. Content Marketing can be easily leveraged on Google+, as long as the terms of service are adhered to.