Have you ever found or shared some really great information to Google+ and wanted to send someone else directly to that post? Or maybe you’re interested in bookmarking the post for later so that you can reference it or read it another time. Either way, you need to be able to find the link to that post and perhaps open it in it’s own tab. While it’s pretty easy to do, it’s not exactly obvious just by looking at a post in your stream or on your wall.
When you share a post or see one in your Home stream, it will look like this:
This was an update to our Google+ Page that we recently posted. As you can see, under our name and logo, it says that we shared it publicly and it also gives a specific time or date, depending on how long it’s been. That is the Post Timestamp. If you mouseover the timestamp, it will display a hovertip with the full date and time of the post.
Clicking on the timestamp will take you to a page just for that post, with a permanent URL that you can copy and paste. It should look something like this:
plus.google.com/u/0/b/+TheSocialMediaHat/posts/RkPzHPbqUnG
This will work for any post in anyone’s timeline, as well as Business Page posts and Community posts.
SHORTCUT: If you’re looking for a faster way to link to a Google+ Post, and all you want to do is copy and paste the URL, use the right-mouseclick method. When you see a post you’re interested in, right-mouseclick on the timestamp and select Copy URL. You can then paste the URL for that Google+ Post wherever you want and direct people to it.
Other Methods to Link to a Google+ Post
Google+ actually offers a couple of other ways to link to a post that might be easier or more convenient for you, depending on the situation.
Reader +Alan Stainer points out that when viewing a post in your stream, you can click on the post menu icon (the down arrow that appears when you mouseover the upper right corner of the post) and select Copy Link.
Reader Brandon Hamilton points out that if you’re on mobile, you can tap the post to open it on it’s own, tap on the context menu icon and then tap Copy Link to paste the link for that post into your clipboard.
And that’s it! You now know the secret way[s] to link to Google+ Posts. You can share the URL or paste into emails or even other social media status updates if you want to. You can bookmark it and even use the HootSuite Hootlet to share the post out to other networks. While the most common use of this technique is to share specific Google+ posts with other Google+ users, like in a comment on another post, it’s sometimes fun and useful to share posts to other networks. That’s something that I do and recommend any time you’re making use of the fact that Google+ allows you to write more and include all kinds of links and a full image.
If you have more questions on the mechanics behind Google+, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Matti Matilla