Artists are raving about Google +. So I thought I'd take one for the team and try to get into the spirit of things. I'm reluctant to do so. If you've signed up for Google + and then not set foot back there since - then you're probably like me. I'm resistant for three reasons, though I'm giving it another college try.

1. Facebook has trained me to use it's service and so why would I take the time to learn something new. As far as I knew Google+ was similar to Facebook so why double my work?

2. I hold a grudge. One day I got really annoyed at how I was forced into interacting with the service when I just wanted desparately to check my email. Yes, I can be petty, and I bore a grudge about this episode for a while. But I'm not alone in this feeling toward Google +'s marketing methods.

3. This is just my opinion here, visually oriented as I am, Google + is just not that intuitive. I just want to add photos - why can't I add photos! I don't like feeling like a dummy, and that's how I feel when I have to google "Why can't I add photos to Google+?" LOL

Still, I'm hearing great things from some of my friends using Google + and I want to find out for myself (and for you) if it was just a bad first impression and if the learning curve is worth it.

Here are some great things about Google+:

1. Artists are smitten with the size of the image for the cover photo as it is quite large and shows off their art nicely at 2120 x 1192 pixels. So you'll want to be using larger images or create a file in Photoshop to collage a few images together. You could even get sneaky and use the image you create to highlight the  Follow and +1 buttons.

2. Personally I think Google + has an asset in it's search function in comparison to other social networks. I mean Google has this down so it should be of no surprise that they "bring it" with the search feature on their social media platform. To take advantage of this you can fill in out the information in your profile and can help people to search for you by adding keywords into the info area called tagline found in the "Story" field. For example, I used the words artist, illustrator, author and Vancouver. Try out the search bar, you can enter two words to search in order to narrow your search. I tried Vancouver and artist and found a bunch of artsy folks that I know in Vancouver - this search function is pretty awesome!!!

3. Clutter-free interface! So sick of the bombarded visual information on Facebook. Google + looks good - lots of nice empty space!

If you are on Google+ already join us here: https://plus.google.com/+Artistrunwebsite