Yes, I have and have started one titled Proposal Writing and belong to 8 others. They seem easier to use than Facebook and LinkedIn, but don’t have the same features, so it is a trade off.

@ileane @ericsutherland @lorithueme I have joined few communities and have created one oof mine couple of days ago. And i feel that in some ways, it can compete to facebook groups and linkedin groups but it basically differs from facebook and offers quiet different features. It will be very interesting to know how people are going to use it and how they will be making optimum RoI out of it.If you are looking to create new community, here is a reading that shows steps involved in creating it. http://www.intesols.com.au/cgblog/46/217/Social-Media-Updates-Google-adds-community-pages.html

Thanks for responding and sharing the links @randithompson @ericsutherland @lorithueme @moinshaikh

I started the “Channel Sales” Community on Google+ a few days ago. I like the ease of importing links to content.  I think more work needs to be done so post remain within each Communities web pages.  I have seen many Community Founders mentioning how many post have shown up outside of their community pages into the general categories.  I have set up a permission to join setting. It helps to filter out individuals that are not truly involved or interested in Channel Sales.  In general I like Facebook Fan Pages. Except for the Fan Page Applications. Such as to set up a private chat room on a Fan Page etc.. These apps need more work.  I feel Google has the lead with Fan/Community Chat activity. I like their new hangout system. It needs to be polished in regards to how user friendly it’s design is. But I feel Google is moving in the right direction.

I have now filled up with the communites I started with topics and posts.  If anyone wants to see the topics I created, you can check them out and add them to yours.  I see that people are starting communites and just using them like a blog instead of giving their followers topics to post under. What other topics is everyone using? 

@andrea-vahl  It will be interesting to see what happens.  I see more people using Google+ all the time now.  I really like the search engine results that I get from there and add a post to each of my pages, and now communities, every day as a result. 

Randi

 Look at you grow!  Robin @savingstories  

I also like them and started a another very generic one for any horse people.  I see the biggest groups on Facebook are like that….   It will be interesting to see where this goes.  Over 100,000 communites so far!

Randi

@annfurnivall   That is a great question. Google+ is a lot like Facebook.  I have a profile there, two business pages and now, 3 communites.  In the communites I can post from either my profile or either business page.  I have to really watch that.  I think the widest reach is still on the profiles newsfeeds.  So many people are still trying to understand Google+ (including me)  I try to post there at least once a day on all of the pages and now communities that I have set up.  Since Google is so deeply woven into the internet, chances are that it has a foundation that will not be easily taken down.  They are also still free…  I think that those of us who get our roots down now will be ahead of the curve.  

Since most of the people I see there are not the same as who I find I Facebook, I can share the same links and post there that I share here.  That saves time and energy.  I took a break from it this fall, but now have started focusing on it more. It has taken me about 3 weeks to get people talking on my posts (because I am talking on theirs…)

Does this help?

Randi

@randithompson thanks….sounds like you are saying we can do  both…but  start with  a personal profile…. i  am most interested in  business and   maybe a vintage  community..

im  getting interested in this  but  not  excited….i will  get   real interested   IF and when     i  can   see  any  in my world using it… thats  the  bad part…they just arent there  yet   as  far  as i  can see…and i have talked to a lot of people…. 

I started on Google+ with a personal profile to get a feel for how it works. I now have added my business page and post from both, actually more from the business page than the personal.