Today, May 4th, Collections turn 1 year old. In the post below I reflect on the past year and how the This Day in Aviation History collection got started.

If you want to share your story of your first collection, do a post telling us about it and use the hashtag #CollectionsTurn1  

Originally shared by John Chvatal

Happy Birthday Collections!!

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my first Collection, but first, a bit of a backstory. I’ve been doing daily aviation history posts for over 2 years on the Gazing Skyward TV Aviation page. Since I publish other aviation content as well, I wished there was a way to organize the content I was producing / curating. When Collections were announced on May 4th, 2015, I was elated! Within a few days I had transferred all of the aviation history posts dating back to February 2015, into the new Collection. Then I started participating in the Google+ Collections community. Soon after, the This Day in Aviation History collection was featured and has been steadily growing ever since.

Google+ Collections: https://plus.google.com/communities/104797282868426074024

Earlier this year Google+  announced the Google+ Create program. Without hesitation, I applied and recently got accepted. It has been a wonderful experience being surrounded by others with similar goals in mind. It is really quite an infectious environment!

Google+ Create: https://plus.google.com/create

Couple words of advice on being successful on Google+: 

#1: Create unique content or curate content in a unique way. Be cautious of using copyrighted material or at least credit the sources if you do.

#2: When publishing on Google+, get in the mindset of a teacher. I can’t think of any other social platform, other than YouTube, where I have learned so much. For this reason, I’d like to see Google promote some Collections based upon their educational value, in the Google for Education program. Hint Hint. 🙂

#3: More than anything else, engage with people who have taken the time to leave a comment on your post and to comment on other’s posts. 

I am excited to see what the future has in store for Google+ and I want to thank the whole Google+ team for all their hard work!

#CollectionsTurn1   #avgeek