Hangouts and Google Plus Events… a BAD Combination!
So you’ve heard about the power of Google Plus Events and the power of Hangouts on Air, right? These are two of the most powerful tools that Google Plus has to offer. However many people are making a BIG mistake when they try to use them together… the combination of the two can be deadly!
Don’t get me wrong, I Love Google Plus Events! And in my mind, there isn’t a more powerful method to Alert lots of people to the fact that you will be having a Hangout on Air at a certain date and time. In fact currently, it is the only way to do that efficiently. But people are confusing Hangouts with Hangouts on Air in ways you would not normally think.
Hangouts and Hangouts on Air (HOA) are very similar, but the HOA variety is auto recorded and broadcast to the world live once it starts. That live broadcast is visible on YouTube commonly on your channel & the YouTube Live area, as well as all over Google+ (your stream, Events, reshares) or wherever you choose to embed the code before the show starts. The Regular (non-HOA) hangouts are not broadcast, they are only visible to those invited into the hangout.
Hangouts and Google Plus Events – a Potent Partnership
The Google Plus Events tool is a great way to tell people that you will be having a HOA at a certain date and time and tell them what it is about. Learn about that here: How Events can Alert the Public about your Hangout on Air.
But Alerting is very different than Inviting and that is where most people are making a big mistake when using the Events Tool together with Hangouts. It is causing Mass Confusion and Late or Failed Starts to Hangouts On Air.
If your Goal is to Alert the Public that you will be having a Hangout On Air (HOA) at a certain time using Google Plus Events, that’s great, just don’t use the Event Type called Hangouts to do it! Use the one called Event on Air or anything BUT Hangouts!
However, if your Goal is to simply invite a few people to join together in a Hangout at a scheduled time, everything should be working fine for you. You set up the Event, invite a few friends to join in the hangout at the scheduled time and BAM, it all works out great… up to 10 people can hangout together and they will all be alerted and offered a unique hangout to join at the scheduled time, all via the nifty Events tool.
The Hangout & Event Situation At Hand
No, what we’re talking about here is the idea that you have a HOA you want people (the public) to know about and you have a select number of ‘participants’ to be inside the HOA’s filmstrip or panel. You are NOT wanting the public to try to join into the show but you do want them to watch and comment on the show while it is live. Great, that sounds like a perfect scenario for using Google Plus Events to Alert people about the HOA… its time and place and subject matter, etc.
Where Hangouts and Google Plus Events Fight
Follow along this disaster scenario that I’ve seen happen more and more lately which inspired me to write this post to try to help out. You’ve got a Live Hangout Scheduled for three days from now at 10 AM. You finally got your highly acclaimed panel all scheduled and available at the same time (man was that a pain to set up, but it is finally set). So you create your Google Plus Event to alert the world that this once-in-a-lifetime HOA will be happening and tell them they really need to watch and enjoy the show.
You add in some nifty graphics and you even make up a teaser video to add to the Event invitation in order to improve conversions. You’re loving the fact that the Google Plus Events tool takes care of translating the time zones automatically for everyone. You are also loving the fact that when people respond to the Event Invitation with a “Yes, I’m Going” or a “Maybe” that they will be automatically alerted by Google+ one day before the event and again at the time of the event – Sweet!
All is good with the world. If you read my post about using Events to Alert the Public about your HOA you even know about the ability to paste in the embed URL at the proper time so viewers know exactly where to click to watch the show (or they can even watch it inside the Event Invitation via the “YouTube URL” field).
Then the Mistake Happens!
Here it comes (whoops)! While creating the Event, you choose the logical choice for the Event Type called “Hangouts” since the thing you are inviting people to come attend is a Hangout, right? It is a logical choice, but it is wrong!
You don’t want people to “Attend” a hangout, what you want is to Alert them that the Hangout on Air Exists, and let them know they can sign up to be alerted and reminded about it when it is happening. But you did it anyways, you chose Hangouts as the Event Type. So here is what you did without realizing it.
This is the Mess You Made
You just made your Event a Hangout-type event, so at the scheduled time, the Event Tool will automatically Create a Hangout. People will be alerted to the Hangout via the Event Notification and will be offered a bright Blue Shiny “Join hangout” button that is screaming “Click Me, click me!” And people will try to join it because it tells them to.
But what they are doing when they dutifully click the pretty Blue Button is they are joining a Hangout that is not the one you want them to watch!
They are now entering “Hangout Limbo” where people are entering and exiting at amazing speeds whilst they look at what they just joined & left and wonder where the “special people” are they came to watch. “It is the right time isn’t it?” Or worse yet, maybe one, two, or more of the featured guest panel members are actually in that “Limbo Hangout” and are waiting around for the Host to show up, talking to each other wondering why all these other people are joining and leaving the hangout.
All the while the Host is inside the Real HOA somewhere else wondering when the featured guests will arrive… sending out more and more invites to them, which they don’t see because they are already in another hangout thinking that they are in the right place!
Get the picture? Pandemonium!
So What Happened?
What happened is the Event did its job… it created a hangout for those invited to join at the proper time. The problem is the Event was only supposed to Alert people to the existence of a Hangout on Air that was going to take place elsewhere.
The Proper Way to Use Events to Make this Work
When you make an Event who’s purpose is to tell the Public and alert some circles about a HOA, don’t choose the Event Type called Hangouts. Instead, simply state that the location of the event is ‘Online’ and/or choose an Event type called “Event on Air”.
This way no new hangout is created and you can rest easy knowing that the proper people will be alerted at the proper time, but it is up to you to tell them in the Event fields where to click to watch the show. You can even utilize the YouTube field in the Event to allow the viewers to watch right inside the Event invitation when they get alerted.
Finally Events that Work Well with Hangouts on Air
If you are hosting a HOA and want the world to know about it, use the Events tool and it can work. Just don’t choose the event type called “Hangouts”. Have you seen this type of issue happening lately? Maybe it happened to you when you thought you had it all worked out but then it all fell apart.
Hopefully you now know what to fix for the next time. Be kind ㋡… tell your friends & associates how to do it right and we will all benefit from less stress and more on-time starts for the HOAs we want to watch.
Learn more tips about Events and how they relate to Hangouts by reading some other articles here on this site and follow me, Ronnie Bincer on Google Plus.
If I can be of assistance to you in planning and setting up your Events or HOAs, contact me and we will work something out. Please leave a comment here or on Google Plus about your experiences with the Event Tool and Hangouts… is it working well for you?
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Thanks for the line-out. I was discovering already some parts of your explanation the hard way, but this is the best I have seen till now.
Don’t you think, this is a systematic fault in the Google set-up? Like, they should not start the hangout(on-air) automatically, without the host being present. And would it not be useful, when you could combine events and hoa but differentiate between the host, a moderator, the panelists and the audience at large? And would it not be useful if that audience would have one place to put their comments, not through all kind of channels?
@Fons Tulnstra, glad you liked the post. The tool does what it is supposed to, but it is a bit lacking when it comes to working with HOAs. There is no ‘HOA’ version to choose from, but only ‘Hangouts’ or ‘Event on Air’… most people are thinking that the ‘Hangouts’ event is actually tied to the HOA but as you see in this post, it is not.
The Google+ folks are working on adjustments here, but I’m not sure what they will come up with, as the HOA item is not integrated into the Events tool at all at this time. In other words, if you start an ‘Event on Air’ type Event, it is not related at all to any HOA addresses or locations.
Your point about having comments happening all over the place is noted and an issue for sure… but there is a 3rd party pgm. called ‘Hangout Comment Tracker’ that attempts to find the comments no matter where they are and gather them together in one place.
@Ronnie BIncer I would rather wait till Google comes up with a native solution, in stead of adding yet another app. This seems a bit of a black hole in their system, so we should perhaps not wait too long for a good solution.
I’ll assume you are speaking about tracking comments…
The nice thing about this Hangout Comment Tracker is that it can be done via a stand-alone webpage and need not add more overhead to the Hangout system.
Sure you can wait, not problem… but Hangouts are going on Live NOW and tracking comments allows you to include people in the conversation… makes for better Interaction right now! FYI Hangout Comment Tracker’s G+ Page: http://goo.gl/y6NYf (no paid affilation)
Ronnie: have you already used the Google+ events page in combination with the YouTube Live events? The YouTube Live events look like a good alternative for hangouts-on-air (and they might actually be related).
I cannot use it now, since I’m in Belgium where Google+ is not allowed to use hoa’s, just like in Germany
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=2474327&guide=2474025&page=guide.cs&answer=2523404
Well, we were unaware of this issue at TekPersona, and it cost us the video of the best HOA we’ve ever done. Now we know how to do it right. Thanks for the post, Ronnie.
@J.C., we are all still learning the ins and outs of the Events tool and how it integrates with other G+ items (like HOAs)… sorry you had to learn the hard way about this tool’s apparent finicky nature.
Never thought of it the way you put this, but it sounds like you really have your internet marketing cards on track, when it comes to playing your position respectfully on social media, SEO, Google + and everything else. Quick ?’n for you my friend. How long have you been in the web marketing game for?
Always thankful,
Drewry
I’ve been poking at Internet Marketing stuff for about 7 years now… Graphics (print) for way too long!
Ronnie … great read up and thanks for the efforts ! As you know I’ve been caught in this scenario twice now ” doh ” … what I don’t see here ( and as information for others too ) is .. what you should/can do if/when you find yourself in this position.
In other words if i have created an ” event ” for 19.00 hrs say, the time comes and people are entering the ‘twilight zone’.. luckily I realise whats happening….. so …. how do i fix things there and then to get everyone onboard and online – recording to youtube etc .
Of course this will never happen again as we will not be caught out again … will we ?
Regards…. mac.
Hey Mac… It is a tough one if you get caught in this nightmare… you can leave a ‘friend’ in the Event’s Hangout that tells others when they show up there (in the wrong place) to look for an invite to the Live HOA, or where to go watch it if they will not be ‘in the filmstrip’… but that has to be a pretty good friend, because they may need to sit around there for a while re-directing traffic (an miss out on much of the HOA action).
Another Idea you can try: Go to Edit the Event (announcement) and choose the Advanced Options for the Event. Try to un-check the Hangout option if it lets you. If it does, then the ‘wrong’ Hangout will no longer exist. You can even try to do this once you realize you made the mistake BEFORE the event time starts.
So what’s the right way to do it?
Assume that I want to plan a HOA next week. I need one link (url) to send my panelists and another to send my audience. It seems entirely reasonable to me that I could plan such a thing and provide links to the right places, but sadly this is not simple, easy or obvious.
Help would rock!
@Costa… contact me on G+ and we can chat or hangout and I can answer all those pesky questions you may have!
Bottom line, you really don’t want to start your HOA that much ahead of time (I say 1 hr. is the most you should do before ‘showtime’)… only AFTER you start the HOA do you get the links you will need to share with your panelists and with your viewers (2 different links, BTW).
Thanks Ronnie! I actually found your full video tuturial walk through after I posted, and you explained greenroom time, and putting in some text to direct people about where to watch, so that kind of explained it. I love how Google gets things like 98% right. They’re so close. It would rock if I just had two links upon planning, one to share with presenters and another to share with audience. Anyways, we’ll do with what we got for now, thanks Ronnie!
That is exactly how we started to do this week our China Weekly Hangout. We split the event in an official hangout-on-air, with private invites to a moderator, panelists and a few others, and a public announced event (through an event page, but no hao) for the larger audience.
It is important that the larger audience knows they can only send questions and comments, and do not participate without a private invite. That makes some upset, but it is the only way to manage.
When you start the official hangout, you get a YouTube link you can publish on the event page. It makes sense to start up proceedings 30 minutes before the announced start, since it takes a bit of time to get your stuff in order, get your panelists and other official guest in place and panic when they do not show up.
Another piece of advise: do not use Chrome as a browser, since it is not stable enough for hangouts. I use Firefox, IE seem alright too. Safari is not.
Do ping me if you need more help.
I use Chrome as my browser all the time for Hangouts on Air… I am using a Mac, and perhaps that makes it work better. I know plenty of people that also use Chrome on a PC to run their HOAs so I’m not sure why you say that browser just won’t work well with HOA/Hangouts.
Seems stable enough for me and many others, could be you have too many ‘extensions’ running.
Great article Ronnie, but I would have to say this one line says it all:
“Hangouts and Hangouts on Air (HOA) are very similar, but the HOA variety is auto recorded and broadcast to the world live once it starts.”
However that one line could be improved for the most extreme clarity by adding where it is live streamed at. For instance:
“Hangouts and Hangouts on Air (HOA) are very similar, but the HOA variety is auto recorded and broadcast to the world live at youtube, or ustream (give address example) once it starts.”
What do you think?
After ALL this time (it is now Dec. 2012) I think I finally really understand your comment, and have made adjustments to the article. Hopefully I got it right this time!
I’m a bit confused. Hangouts *on Air* and Google+ Events are a bad combination, but I think you are saying that regular ol’ Hangouts (i.e. *not* on Air) work with Google+ Events just fine. Right?
I think “Hangouts on Air” is not a good choice of words. “Hangouts” captures the more informal flavor and small size of regular ol’ Hangouts really well, whereas “Hangouts on Air” seems to be a largely different animal, even given the technical similarities. Maybe if Google called “Hangouts on Air” something else it would go a long way towards removing the confusing and problems you describe. Not sure of a good word, but since the audience is generally much bigger and it is generally a more formal, structured event, it seems more like theater or some type of show – hmmm, maybe something like Google+ “Grandstand”? Or maybe just drop the “Hangout” and call it Google+ “On Air”.
Brian, Actually I think that regular hangouts work great and fairly easily with Events. AND Hangouts on Air can work well with Events as well IF you know what you are doing… but most people do not when they try to get them to work together. I like your idea of using different names, but I’m sure Google is too far in to change the name from HOA (Hangouts on Air) at this point.
I agree that the name ‘hangout’ is confusing: it relates to a typical American way of spending your spare time with friends, while many hangouts (on-air and otherwise) try to set up a more serious activity.
The misses in coordination are also troublesome between ordinary hangouts and event pages. Events allow you an unlimited number of participants, hangouts have a max of 9, to mention one. You have to set up a separate hangout next to the event, and should avoid the event page starts a hangout automatically.
Registration process at events does not mean anything anyway. I have had events with close to hundred registrants, while only a few show up. Google still has some work to do here.
I agree with most of your comment, but have to differ with the idea that hangouts and events don’t work well together. I think they work wonderfully together when using a regular hangout. And I’ve done quite well using HOAs as well along side an Event. The process is just a bit difficult to grasp at first, but it is possible to let them ‘play nice’ together. My title here for the article is for shock value and it seems to have served me well. My next eBook will be discussing the way to make Events and Hangouts work well together.
Looking forward to that ebook, Ronnie.
For me hangouts and events do not work together very intuitive yet.