Keeping Your Plus Mentions Alive Across The Web
If you spend a lot of time on Google+, you often find yourself wanting to reference your influencers or the authors/publishers of great material. Okay, a lot.
This can pose a problem. When you're composing a large post in which you want to mention a lot of people, the compose box is not the best platform to write an ode to the masses.
Google Docs is obviously the first choice for many to draft out their post in long-hand. But you do want to add your +mentions in as you go.
So, you +[name] in Google+ to activate the live "mention" and then copy it across to your document.
Great. The URL remains active. Click the +name you've just pasted and the familiar "https://plus.go.... change/remove" box pops up as normal.
However, when you copy that live +[name] back into Google+, it pastes as plain text only. When you're mentioning 20-30 people, this can be a ball-ache of the acutest intensity.
The amount of posts and comments I've personally lost after inadvertently clicking off a G+ compose box, either because of hitting the ALT button when composing, sneezing (#truestory) or just because the browser has jumped, well, it drives me into a tizzy just thinking about it.
G+ is many things, but the one thing I wish it wasn't was such a drain on your processor. Prestigio Android tablet? #fuggedabourit
Mentioning people in Google+ via Social Sharing Tools
The other problem is that a +mention doesn't remain "live" when you share one via Social Sharing Tools.
Using the + symbol in front of the person that you want to mention's name won't translate into the required Ping! when it lands on the Google Plus page.
You know, if you've taken the time out to mention someone, you want them to know that you've given them the kudos they deserve.
Or perhaps prompt them to either add to your post for additional context or put you right if you're uncertain about a certain aspect of it.
Well, awesome news. There is a workaround!
Between them, Stephan Hovnanian & Michael Bennett have come up with the answer. And it's simple.
Rather than try to explain it here, the guys have put together two very short videos, one attached here, the other on the accompanying GPlusGeek post.
In said vids, they explain how, by using a person's long Google+ numerical ID - getting it is easier than you think - you can compose a long post in a document after copying all the live names from Google+ and back again yet still make the mentions work when they lands on G+.
And, yes: it still works even after the change to vanity G+ suffixes this week.
If you don't compose long posts, no matter; this info is still relevant.
The ability to mention someone via Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Buffer when sharing directly to G+ will save you oodles of hours.
Seriously. Michael proved it to me. Well worth a watch of both videos (about 7½ minutes in toto). ☺
Take it away, +107290419352782290509 & +105076725141939280120...