Setup A Blog For A Google+ Page

The popularity of Google+ continues to grow. Some blog owners would like to have a Blogger blog publish to a Google+ Page, instead of their personal Google+ stream.

This is not difficult. You first make a new Google account, to own the Google+ Page.

Everything that follows is normal Blogger blog management. Don't overlook the details of blog management, though.

The process of making a Google+ Page a blog owner is not so complicated - but it has to be done, carefully.

1. Add a password, to the Page.
2. Setup a GMail email address, for the Page.
3. Make the new Google account a blog owner.
4. Add blog and page relationships.
5. Add blog content, using the new(?) Google account.

Add a password, to the Page.

See Google My Business Help: Set up a password for your Google+ page, for this step.

Note: In some cases, you may have been previously instructed to setup a Google account to manage the Page. If you already have a business Profile setup, skip straight to Step #3, and make the existing Google business account a blog owner.

Setup a GMail email address, for the Page.

Setup a new GMail email address, while logged in to your new account - if this has not already been done.

Make the new Google account a blog owner.

Once you have a new Google account with a unique email address, transfer control of the blog, to a Blogger account based on the new Google account. And make sure that your new Blogger account uses a Google+ profile.

If you want, put the blog under team ownership - though as always, know the risks of team ownership.

Add relationships between the blog, the Google account, and the Google+ page.

Add appropriate links, from the blog to the page, and back. And add the appropriate accessories to the blog - the Google+ badge, or maybe the +1 Button, are good, to start.

Then, add automatic sharing of posts - and maybe Google+ hosted comments. If you add the latter, be aware of one known peculiarity of Blogger and Google+.

Add blog content - while using the new Google account.

Finally, login to Blogger, using the new Google account. Then, start publishing content - and add value to your blog.

Anything you post to the blog, using your current Blogger account, will still be shared to Google+ under your personal profile. You need to be actually using the new account, to share to the Google+ page.

Be aware of possible complications, depending upon how you publish and share.

Sharing to a Google+ page is most reliable when you use the "Share" menu link, in the dashboard Posts page. Automatic sharing, and scheduled posting, may or may not produce the same results.

Automatic Sharing Of Blogger Posts, To Google+

Today, we see, in Blogger Buzz: Connect to Google+, a long awaited announcement, from Blogger.

Starting today, if you have linked your blog to your Google+ account you will be presented with a prefilled Google+ share box immediately after publishing a post. The share box will contain a +snippet of your post that you can share with your circles on Google+.

So, this is my test of the new feature.

This was first a live test, using my main Blogger account. I spent the better part of one hour migrating my Blogger account to use my Google+ profile. Having done that, I now compose my first Blogger blog post, while using my Google+ profile - and now, I will see how well Blogger and Google+ are integrated.

From looking closely at the picture in the Buzz post, it looks like the promised popup window, "Share on Google+", is a feature that's built into The New GUI. Since I remain underwhelmed by the New GUI, this Blogger account remains under the Classic GUI. And, having hit "Publish Post", I saw no new "Share on Google+" popup window.

To use the Blogger to Google+ Automatic Sharing, you must do three things.

1. From your Classic GUI Dashboard, or Settings wizard, select "Try the updated Blogger interface".
2. From the gear icon, select "Connect to Google+".
3. In Settings - Posts and comments, set "Share to Google+" to "Yes".

Fortunately, it's possible to use the Share option in the Posts list, for the post in question, and share this post from another Blogger account that is in my main Google+ account's circles. Using the "Extended Circles" target, from my test Blogger account, got the job done. Looking in my Stream, I see the new post snippet, shared as promised.

You'll note that "Share to Google+" will, by default, share to the main Google+ profile name. If you have created Google+ Pages (alternate identities) attached to your Google+ Profile, you can share to a Google+ Page.

This process is not truly automatic. If completely automatic, there should be some mapping of a Label in the post, to select one or more pre chosen Circles. When this post was published, FeedBurner redirected this post, from the posts feed, to my Twitter account. Surely, Google+ could provide the same possibility.

But, what we have today is an excellent start.

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