Can you name a network that promotes collaboration, and global collaboration at that, more than Google Plus? I can’t, and this project that myself and graphic designer Elena Montes were involved in with Martin Shervington prove it definitively. This is the story of an infographic which was born of and made for Google Plus. Read on!
A few months back, after our first serendipitous infographic, Martin got in touch to see if we’d be interested in helping him out with a new infographic which was based on an infographic that Barry Feldman had done for branding, Martin wanted to give it a G+ twist and the title of “The A – Z Guide to Personal Branding Using Google Plus” was decided upon. That was the easy part :)
Once the text content and visuals were in place on the infographic it was now time use the Google Plus as an incubator to finesse and caress the infographic to its finished form.
Remember I said that Google Plus was good for global collaboration? Well the few names mentioned thus far in the post hail from Wales (Martin), Spain (Elena), USA (Barry) and Ireland (me, Paddy last, ba dum tish) but as we entered this phase we really see how Google Plus can be used for global collaboration.
Martin shared the draft of the infographic to his stellar Plus Your Business Level 3 community to get their feedback on it and to help with proof reading and typo spotting. This process was also co-ordinated with the help of Teodora Petkova (Bulgaria) This yielded excellent feedback from all over the globe with special mentions going out to Mick Sharpe (UK), Troy Mc Laughlin (USA), Ana Hoffman (hailing from Russia) & Monika Schmidt (Germany) for their suggestions and typo spotting. As the infographic was entering the final stages Reymalyn A. (Phillipines) then got involved to make sure the graphic was ready for web and to add to PYB site. After that the first wave of shares came. And what a wave it was.
Born of and Made for Google Plus – Story of an Infographic
The net result of all these shares and this collaborative approach using Google Plus is that a great resource has been compiled that will be useful to people for years to come. On top of that, there is a lot of good in those plus 1’s and shares as the screenshot below shoes. In logged out search using Internet Explorer (which I never use) on Google.com the search for the term “A-Z Guide Google Plus” shows that Martin’s post is no.1 for the query with the other results pointing to Martin’s post, all in all SERP glory.
As well as that by taking this collaborative approach to the infographic a lot of other people got to benefit and learn more about the actual Google Plus strategy that the infographic describes. And, I guess, that is one of the key things that holds (and held) the whole project together – behind all the fancy graphics and collaboration there was some substance, some bona fide good, actionable useful content that people will benefit from and share on. The proof of that pudding is that some commenters on some threads about the infographic have suggested that it might look great as poster. I’m not sure if a poster will materialise but if it does rest assured you’ll hear about about it in a post along the lines “Born of and Made for Google Plus – Story of a Poster” or similar ;)
Anyway, you can check out the full infographic and accompanying video on the Plus Your Business site and if you’ve any tales of Google Plus collaboration then feel free to comment below, would love to hear them. And, at this juncture if you’ve read this far I think it’s worth pointing out that you should join my mailing list, just scroll down and sign up – it’s free today ;)
Also, if you’d like to collaborate with me on a project then get in touch!