Well, I've only had my Google+ account up for about a for a week - and I'm loving it. (Google+ is not officially launched. You need an invite to join.)

I'm not alone in lovin' Google+. Many of my fellow professional photographer friends (more than 50) are currently in my main Circle (a cool feature that lets you make select groups). What's more, even a few well-respected pros are having Hangouts (where you can quickly and easily set up live video chats with folks in Circles).

I'm lovin' how easy it is to upload a picture, and a bunch of pictures - and to share those pictures. Adding links and videos is easy, too.

All this stuff is easy to learn with the videos that Google+ offers.

I also like the super clean look of Google+ pages. That look makes one's pictures really stand out.

Getting back to my fellow professional photographers, many are starting to use Google+ as an additional social media marketing tool - adding it to twitter and facebook as ways to spread the word about the stuff they are doing. Guess what? Me, too!

So if you are a pro or an aspiring pro, I'd recommend that you check out Google+ and look at its possibilities are as marketing tool. In the meantime, my guess is that your fellow photographers will be doing just that. :-)

Of course, Google+ is also great for keeping up-to-date with what your family members and close friends are doing. Yup! Just create another Circle.

Take a tour of Google+. Stay tuned for the official launc.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. I'll be covering many topics on my creativeLive class in October, including the Business Side of Photography/Social Media Marketing. I'm sure by then I'll be much more into Google+ . . . . and whatever new social media marketing tools come our way. Hope to see you there.