For the new year we tried out several new social media networks so you don’t have to! This is our review of Google+ for nonprofits.

Google+, Google’s answer to a robust social network, debuted during the summer of 2011 with a whole lot of sexiness. People were quickly clamoring for their invites and jumping on the Googs train to Facebook doom town.

And then they left. Google+ didn’t have as much functionality as Facebook and had odd rules like having to use your real name and not having a pages function for brands.

Fast-forward to November 2011 with the announcement of pages for businesses and nonprofits. Then in December, Google released information that they surpassed 49 million users. So I jumped on the banwagon and dusted off my account, set up some pages and gave it a week-long try to get me addicted to Google+.

Get a great tutorial on how to set-up your Google+ page from the awesome John Haydon.

Here are some examples of how we’re using Google+:

• Autism Science Foundation – nonprofit page
• BC/DC Ideas – small business page
• Dawn A Crawford profile – personal profile

Quick lingo:

• “1+” = same as clicking the “Like” button on Facebook
• “Share” = same a retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook
• “Hangout” = live video or text chat with up to 9 people
• “Circles” = fans on Facebook or followers on Twitter

What I love:

• Clean switching between accounts – This site is built to have multiple personalities. I like that. It’s very easy to switch from page to profile. I am sad that when I’m using Google+ as a page that I can’t 1+ or comment on posts from the people in my circle. I can share, but that feels like a heavy endorsement sometimes.
• Saved searches – John does a how-to here. This is powerful stuff for social media managers. Now you can quickly click into the hive and see what is worth sharing with your circles or on other social media. It pulls from both Google+ and makes recommendations from the web. Totally brilliant.
• Organizing contacts into circle – I know this will be endlessly useful for message segmentation, but it’s also useful for filtering the chaos. There is something satisfying about putting people into different buckets, just limit your buckets or you’ll have a tough time making taxonomy decisions with new contacts.
• Getting baked into Android devices – Soon most Android mobile phones will have Google+ added automatically. It’s nice to have a built-in user base.
• Easy sharing & collecting 1+ – I love the tab that curates all your 1+s from the web. I also love the ease of adding articles from the Internet. Just as easy as Facebook or Twitter, but it’s a nice feature.

What I hate:

• Lack of vanity URLs – This is an ugly URL = https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/108467061867459465466/108467061867459465466/posts. This would be a pretty vanity URL but we can’t do it yet https://plus.google.com/autismsciencefd. Why? My biggest criticism of Google+ is that they essencially launched a 2007 version of Facebook. Whoop-dee-doo. Why doesn’t it have all the same bells and whistles of Facebook with a 1+?
• No integration – Hootsuite is quickly working on an integration tool (but only giving access to Enterprise clients for now), but that is all that is on the horizon. If you want to update our Google+ account you have to do it manually. Soooooo 2010, seriously.
• Missing the magic – I feel this is a mash-up of Facebook and Twitter. It is just as much of a deluge of information as Twitter only with more characters to put my personal critique on the article I’m not seeing the connecting and conversation I see on Facebook. I don’t totally understand why this is an advance in social media. Please, if you have a good case study – send it to me!

Which nonprofits should use it:

• Strong information-sharing nonprofits – If you share lots of information on your Facebook page, this is a perfect venue for your information. This community is expecting a downpour of information because they can filter as needed.
• High percentage of tech-savvy donors – If your nonprofit has a tech-savvy audience, make this a platform of choice. Early adopters will appreciate that you are meeting them in this new frontier.
• Sector leaders – If you want to be on the cutting edge and leading your sector, be on Google+.

Did I miss the magic? What has been your experience? Do you have a great way to use Google+ for your nonprofit? Share it with us!