With Google+ expanding and improving upon their brand pages feature for businesses and organizations, nonprofits are getting in on the action in a big way. Google+ pages, like Facebook pages, allow non-profits to share articles, pictures, videos and links, but have stepped up the levels of interaction by using hashtags and letting people +1 a page to increase its visibility where it can have the largest impact -- on Google searches.

Another feature of Google+ pages, Circles, can be extremely helpful to nonprofits when used well. By creating different circles with targeted audiences such as clients, volunteers, donors, and collaborators, relevant content will be shared with the right people easily and effectively. Shared circles, such as the The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s circle, also allow nonprofits to quickly find others to add to their circles for maximum outreach. The Hangouts feature is another way to contact clients, volunteers and others. Nothing beats face-to-face conversations when it comes to connecting with those helping you change the world!

Google+ has created its own page for non-profits (Google for Nonprofits), a space for nonprofits to share innovative ways in which they are using Google products, discuss news and technology, and learn from other nonprofits around the world. Google professionals are also there around the clock providing useful tips on how to better utilize Google products for your nonprofit, such as how to harness the power of Google documents to conduct surveys, partake in Google's 2011 Green Scrapbook, or better understand your audience with the updated YouTube insight analytics tool.

In Nonprofit Tech 2.0’s blog post “22 Must-Circle Nonprofit Bloggers and Resources on Google+,” the best nonprofit influencers and organizations to already begin utilizing Google+ pages are featured. Included in these pages are resource aggregators like GuideStar, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and HubSpot, the nonprofit portal Nonprofit Organizations, and organizations such as The Case Foundation, who wrapped up their #GoodSpotting campaign at the end of 2011. With Google+ rolling out new features for Pages, the number of nonprofits in the space is sure to increase.

New features, you say? The Official Google blog recently announced that pages will now be able to support up to 50 managers for a page, allowing greater access to the page for easier updating across the office. There are also some functionality and cosmetic tweaks, such as an at-a-glance aggregation of everyone who has +1’d or added the page to circles, and updated notifications interface to keep all the new page managers in check.

Fission is working to increase the outreach of its own Google+ page, so add us to your circles and stay tuned!