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(Mon01) This was the first post of the EvanG+ list. Join the list here:
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This is the inaugural post of the EvanG+ list. First, a little history. When I became an Apple fellow in 1995, the company was in trouble (yes, it was that long ago), and Macintosh was:

1. Better.
2. Less used.
3. The object of derision by "experts" who "knew" it would fail.

To combat all this negativity, I started a list server called EvangList. 44,000 people subscribed to it. I posted three kinds of information:

1. Good news about Macintosh and Apple
2. Product announcements and special offers of Macintosh developers
3. Negative Macintosh and Apple press

Subscribers used #1 and 2 to spread good news to their friends and families. They would read #3 and often ignite flame wars against offending journalists. (As you can imagine, telling 44,000 people raging evangelists to go read something made me quite a few enemies in the computer press.) 

Fast forward to 2012. IMHO, Google+ is:

1. Better.
2. Less used.

Déjà vu. And so I decided last week to start  Google+ mail list called EvanG+, and this is what you subscribed to. For sure, I will post good news about Google+ as well as product announcements and special offers of Google+ developers. I am undecided whether I'll unleash Google+ evangelists on journalists, but the temptation is probably too great to resist.


Two suggestions when you post this material:

2. Add the hash tag "#EvanG+"

Incidentally, in case you're wondering, Google is not paying me to do this nor did it come up with the idea. This is something I'm doing out of my love for Google+. 

If you ideas for stuff to post, please send them to me at 


Guy Kawasaki

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Suggested posts. (This list is probably longer that the typical email. It's because this is the first post, so I had a backlog.)

Angle: Show that Google+ sure isn't a "ghost town"--contrary to what the "experts" say
US unique visitors up 82 percent from 11/11 to 6/12
Worldwide unique visitors up 66 percent from 11/11 to 6/12
And these numbers don't include mobile and tablet access

Angle: Show the diversity of interests on Google+, and let a 100 flowers blossom: knitters have a thriving community on Google+. Google+ is for people you don't already know who share your passions. Facebook is for people you already know who don't necessarily share your passions. If you join Google+ and search for the keywords that describe your passions (instead of people you already know), you're bound to find interesting new acquaintances. 
Google+: Christina Blount Presnell's Knitting Circles

Angle: Show another passionate community on Google +. Here's a circle with approximately 400 brewers.There's probably a circle for people who love beer and knitting too!

Angle: Show a non-business use of Google+. In this case, to connect with your kids--and draw caterpillars!

Angle: Show how you people are using Google+. Teenage pop sensations use Google+ and other social networks to achieve success.

Angle: Discuss why Google+ is too big for a business to ignore and why.

Angle: Show celebrity adoption. In this case, how a famous Olympian, Usain Bolt, uses Hangout on Air.
Hangout On Air with Usain Bolt before the Olympics

Angle: Show a totally cool use of Hangouts and a partnership with a cool publication. This is a series of projects done in partnership with Make magazine utilizing Hangouts on Air.﻿
Dustin La Mont's profile photoJeff Kolberg's profile photoHolly Homer's profile photoRachelle Doorley's profile photo
Love what you are doing pointing out the + of Google+﻿
Great idea! Keep the post coming. I will do my part by spreading the word.﻿
merhaba Guy seni çok beğeniyoruz TÜRKİYE ye de gel . . .﻿
It's great to hear how history, surprise, repeats itself. I love reading posts like this =)﻿
+Felice Linder I agree with you... sometimes I am saddened by what has become of the trending list. StopPlasticBieber??? That is one of the abominations that have found its way on to that list. What is a collective of people bitching about what someone says online going to do? Nothing. Action is not taken by words but what should follow them.﻿
+Joe Bolin Yeah, I learned that last night. I'm not sure I want any of the links translated at all. ﻿
Those "Experts" saying that G+ is a ghost town, make me think we need a new definition of Expert?     Just because you have a blog, or even a job writing.....doesn't make you an expert.      ﻿
"Google+ is for [...] Facebook is for [...]" is precisely why I think G+ is better than Facebook.  Facebook becomes redundant: all I see are similar posts by the same people.  The "fan pages" of things on there? Please.  G+ allows me to actually find and follow new and interesting people who share my interests.

It helps that the interface is much more clean and visually appealing.  +1 to Google.﻿
Question: Is there a way to save this post for future reference? For example, save to Pocket? Or to Google Drive?﻿
I was on your original EvangeList and had good times there. Glad to see the flame burning on here.﻿
I've been interviewing lately and therefore spoken with a LOT of companies about Social Media.  I've actually gotten interviews with big brands simply because I had a great G+ strategy to offer and most companies aren't clear what to do with it. The G+ comparison to Macintosh is great way to convey the importance of G+ to brands.﻿
+Felice Linder the way to do that is by managing your circles. Here you are in control. There is no such thing as 'wall' here. If I share something with you, no other person (in any of your circles) can see that post(unlike facebook wall). They will see only those posts that you share publicly and if you share something with a particular group and don't want that post to be reshared, you can disable reshare and comments too. So total privacy here without having to block anyone. So to keep away the junk, just be selective of who you add to your circle. Your profile or rather say stream will always remain clean and beautiful as you want. G+ is a fullproof system and no one can invade my territory unless they hack my account. It's like a world you own and manage and no one can litter it unless you allow them to. So the idea is who you want to add to your world to make your world better. Rest leave it to google.﻿
+Barbol Nicmìchael Thanks for the suggestion. I would still have to scroll through all my other posts though. I was hoping to find an easier way. :-)﻿
+Coreen Tossona the best way to do that is by creating an empty circle. Name it like interesting articles(like I do) or read it later or bookmarks(whatever suits you). You can share any post u like to that circle. Will always be there. Easy to manage and to reshare in the future.﻿
Interesting that you use MailChimp and not a Google Group...﻿
THanks for all of your tips, info, that's why @ was created for...
pierre-maurice C.V﻿
+Guy Kawasaki  can you add me as html. I'm getting your post (mailchimp) as text mail. and that's just crappy! :-) ﻿
+Guy Kawasaki Thanks for the history.  It makes a difference to know about the EvangList.  Proud to be on the EvanG+ list, even though I would call my self an advocate, not an evangelist.  Getting busy spreading the word, in my own way!  Great ideas so far.  Keep em' coming!﻿
+Felice Linder ya it is a great idea but I can't take the credit for it. I get all these help from the wonderful community here at google+. I'm just happy to share the ideas.
P.S - if anyone here is new to G+ the best way to get help is by following +rahul roy. He is the best advcate for G+.﻿
ok I'm subscribing to EvanG+ even though I'm still using G+ infrequently.  First question - why is it an e-mail list instead of a circle?﻿
+Kirsten Armstrong I think it could be because it's not possible to manage a circle as a mailing list, yet. For example it's possible to share a circle with your followers as a post on your profile stream, for example you take a circle "very good journalists" and you share it, but when your friends subscribe to it, then they will just get a copy of it, so it's not really "shared", I mean I will continue to update my copy and they will continue to update their copy, if the circle was really shared, we both could update it adding members, more or less like a mailing list.﻿
I like the idea, thank you very much! Would be great, if there could be versions in other languages e.g. German. :-)﻿
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