If you’re an active blogger, I’m sure you’ve seen the Google Friend Connect widget on the sidebars of blogs and sites. I finally put one under the “subscribe” section of the Tip Junkie sidebar, next to the TJ Community widget.

I vividly remember when the widget first debuted. All of a sudden having “followers” was a strange concept.  Women were confused about what it meant and it shook up the blogosphere for a short while.

Some were very uncomfortable with having such a visible rating system.  Before that, a bloggers popularity was a state of mind.  If you adored a blogger, they were elite in your eyes.  It didn’t really matter what their stats where or how many “followers” they had.

Personally, I believe it helped propel what I see as the “class system” in blogging.  I waited over a year to put the widget on my blog because I straight up didn’t understand it.  I also didn’t want to encourage the competitive nature that can sometimes rear it’s ugly head in our beautiful online community.

Over time, I have come to understand the idea behind the Google Friend Connect widget.  It was designed by the Google guys to help strengthen our online communities and get our readers communicating with each other.

I hope you’ll forgive the length of this post and join with me in learning how to harness the power of the widget and not use it as a popularity tool but as a connecting tool.

Laurie’s quick rant:  Rest assured, how many Google Friend Connect members you have does NOT prove that you are or are not popular.  Some could argue that it may show “influence” in social media, but that does not influence your online or offline popularity.  So PLEASE do not feel uncool or undervalued if you don’t have as many “followers” as another blogger.  I promise you’re just as fabulous!  {{stepping off soap box}}

Ok. Are you ready? Let’s first get up to date on watching this quick overview video of the purpose of the Google Friend Connect widget.  In a nutshell with the widget you can:

• Invite new people to join and “follow” your site.
• Add interest questions to get to know your readers as well as help them find like-minded members.
• You can then use the interest answers and it automatically show up site pages that are most relevant to your followers.

Those are just some basic features and an overview.  Now let’s get into the fun stuff!  How to get started:

• Sign in using your Google, Twitter, or Yahoo account.
• “Follow”  Tip Junkie  {{hehe – you know I had to put that in there}}
• How to add a members gadget to your website
• Add special interest questions to help your members get to know each other.  Here are some suggested questions to ask.

Here are some advanced features you may want to check out:

• Brief introduction to some advanced social features {{video}}
• How to add a social bar to the top of your website or blog {{however I don’t see them as being effective – I would waste your real estate}}
• Recommendation Gadgets
• Newsletter subscription
• Interests Polls
• List Comments
• Featured Content

The perks I see for actively using it:

• You can tailor your new posts according to what the answers are to the “interest questions” your followers fill out.  This will not only give your readers what they’re looking for but also help you further niche your blog.
• By using the “newsletter” feature you can quickly e-mail your followers and announce giveaways and any other fun things you’re doing that they’ll want to be apart of.
• Your readers can get to know each other and start to for their own community.
• You can have a lot of fun with it!

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