So if you’ve been following me for a while online, you will know that I am a Google+ fan.
Today, however, the fan in me had the look on that monkey’s face – Confusion!
You see, I had scheduled a Google Hangout on Air on the topic of Health and Well-being for Virtual Assistants following a group of us VAs that are interested in this subject. This would be the 2nd time I was to host a hangout. The first time went well. The first hangout was between myself and Marketer, Leah Hoppes of Vision Force Marketing from the USA.
So following from that experience, I thought I had things covered. Boy, was I not covered! So to help you avoid doing the same thing I did, I am giving you what not to do so you don’t get the same confused look on Mr Monkey up there.
TIPS ON WHAT NOT TO DO!
1. Don’t expect the same experience of a future hangout to be the same as a previous one. Always allow up to an hour to get online and test the hangout before the real event. This gives you time to get all your “Live” links tested and working and your youtube links on to the main Event page.
2. Don’t host a hangout with more than 5 people invited without having someone on backup to help with any technicalities if you are new-ish to Hanging out. You just can’t be on the hangout and also answer any messages pinging through your hangout window…unless of course, you’re feeling superwoman-ish today 😉
3. Don’t create a Hangout on Air Event and click on the “On Air” button as shown below. THIS IS WHAT I DID! I found out later from the Hangout Helper Guru, Ronnie Bincer that this is a No No!! What a way to confuse a Google+ Hangout Host. So what does it mean really? Exactly! (See Ronnie’s post below)
4. Making the assumption that buttons with text that spell out “On Air” mean just that. I know, I’ve already covered that in 3. Haha…you see, on Google+ Hangouts, it is understood that if you’re Hangout is “On Air” then your Hangout will automatically be uploaded to Youtube at the end of it. So as you can see, we did not have a recording of our hangout. Feeling guttered!
5. Don’t start a new Hangout on Air event when the rest of the people invited are already hanging out in a different room. I don’t have the answer on how this happens but I know that as a guest in a different hangout, you are presented with a “Join Hangout” option when the hangout is about to start. As the Host for today’s hangout, there was no option whatsoever for me to get into the room that the rest of the guests were already in. (Please feel free to comment below if you have the answer to this as I’d love to know)
6. Don’t be afraid to try again if it doesn’t work the previous time. We will be doing another test hangout next week. Come and join us if you’d like to!
If you’re a fellow Google+ user, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Google+ HOA and if you have any extra tips to add. Please leave a comment below and I’d love it if you can share this post with your friends on your favourite social media platform.