Last Thursday, Google introduced Google+ Communities.
It's more than a year ago since they introduced Google+ Pages.
Pages are great for companies that want to control their brand.
Topical pages were created, but languished, partly because Google+ isn't as busy yet as FaceBook is,
but mostly because Google+ Pages were not designed for the group, but for the page owner.
Google+ Pages are like FaceBook Pages, and Google+ Communities are like FaceBook groups.
Communities provide a platform were all members can start a discussion.
The past few days has seen the creation of many genealogy communities, and many have been growing fast. One even surpassed hundred members on the first day of its existence. Remarkably, groups with specific topics, such as Genetic Genealogy, or Family History Writers, have grown much faster than more general groups. Perhaps that's because Google+ is already pretty good at connecting genealogists with each other, while the more specific groups create more curiosity by promising to fulfil an hitherto unsatisfied need.
With many users creating groups independently of each other, there is duplication. There is likely to be a shake-out, and picking the right group is not easy. It is tempting to simply go with the biggest one, but it may only be the biggest because it was started first, but will its owner keep developing it? Look further.
One general genealogy community has a single owner who has hardly been active on Google+ the past year,
has only a dozen friends, and has not appointed any moderators.
Another superficially general group is owned by MyHeritage, and should really be considered a vendor-specific community.
There's nothing wrong with vendor- or product specific communities, they can be very useful,
but their name should already identify them as such.
There is a FamilySearch community simply called FamilySearch, but it was not created by FamilySearch itself.
There is at least one community associated with a specific genealogy blog. I doubt that Google+ genealogy communities are going to be very successful if every blogger tried to have their own community. Really now, if you want to promote your blog, surely the best way is to create discussion in the existing Google+ genealogy communities, not to create an isolated community and expect users to come by. Focus on writing great content and the existing genealogy communities will find it.
There is only group for Dutch genealogy, and it was started by Bob Coret, a well-known name in Dutch genealogy circles. I might join a community started by the Central Bureau for Genealogy or the Dutch Genealogy Society, but until they create one, the choice is clear.
There are at least two groups about genealogy and genetics.
One has a three-digit member count, while the other one has a one-digit member count.
The larger group, Genetic Genealogy has attracted some well-known names,
and members are already posting more than the stream of Thanks for the invite.
messages that many communities start with.
The choice is not always that clear.
There are three or four genealogy technology communities.
The Genealogy Technology community is for experts to discuss among themselves,
but that still leaves most users with multiple groups to choose.
Two of them are fairly large, and both have hundreds of members already, so how do you choose?
Call me partial, but I recommend Tech for Genealogy & Family History Researchers,
not merely because it is already double the size of the other one,
but because it was started by Caroline Pointer,
an active genealogy blogger and author who's been on Google+ since its early days.
If she brings the same energy to this community as she brings to her other endeavours, it is going to be a great success.
I wonder how much sense it makes to have a separate Genealogy Conferences community.
I think it makes more sense to have a Genealogy Conferences topic in a general genealogy community,
where discussions will be seen by larger group Google+ users, but it already has more than a hundred members.
That Preserving Family Heirlooms and Memories and Organize & Archive Family Keepsakes & Genealogy
are communities of their own makes more sense to me.
These are valid topics in a general genealogy community,
but a separate community allows members to really focus on the subject without being distracted
by other genealogy discussions, and in more depth; these groups have subtopics of their own.
While these two communities may be different, they certainly overlap, making it hard to choose between then.
There is yet another Google+ community dedicated to organising and archiving your genealogy stuff, but that is a closed group.
Organize & Archive Family Keepsakes & Genealogy was started by Denise Levenick, of The Family Curator blog,
Preserving Family Heirlooms and Memories was started by Lorine McGinnis Schulze of The Olive Tree Genealogy.
Right now, I have no idea why I would recommend one over the other.
Perhaps you should join both and implore them to merge the communities.
Google+ communities is brand new, and new genealogy communities keep being created.
As I write this, Elyse Doerflinger, evangelist for WikiTree,
has just created the Collaborative Genealogy community.
Perhaps some of the communities mentioned here will be gone,
but they're likely to be many more to choose from.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.