Some statistics mentioned in the talk include:

According to research conducted by IT Manager Daily:

• 25% of IT jobs are held by women.
• 11% of Fortune 500 tech company executives are women.
• 5% of tech startups are owned by women.
• 56% of women who enter the technology field leave for other careers.

The Philadelphia Women in Tech Summit site has compiled local resources aimed at getting women in technology to meet, work, and mentor with one another. Below are two local Philadelphia groups that are specific to women:

• GirlDevelopIt Philly : It can be intimidating for women to learn and ask questions when they are in an extreme minority. While open and welcoming, today’s budding developer community is up to 91% male. We decided it was time to provide a place where all questions are OK and everyone can learn in a supportive environment. Our courses focus on coding, leveraging existing technology, and having something to show for it (aka building sweet websites).
• Web Start Women : Web Start Women is an organization devoted to bringing more women into the web design and development fields.
• Geek Girl Dinners : Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia’s (GGD PHL) primary goal is to bring women from various technical fields together for socializing, networking, and learning. It also sees itself as providing a place to encourage women who may be considering technical interests. GGD PHL welcomes its sisters from creative and new media disciplines as well and aims to be a supportive community for the women of the Greater Philadelphia area who consider themselves “geeky,” regardless of area of expertise or interest.

Philadelphia Women in Tech Summit - Photo Credit Cecily Kellogg

Below is the post she published on Google+ as a ‘thank you’:

On June 28, 2011 I jumped in Google+ both feet with every intention of making a huge difference – with what I wasn’t sure of. I feel I’m just starting to get traction with that journey now, almost a year later. I am about to roll over toONE MILLION followers on Google+. It’s an honor and distinction I share with 144 other people (being over the 1M mark) according to +CircleCount (love their site!).

tl;dr – THANK YOU Here’s the shared circle of all the mentions here (https://plus.google.com/u/0/106600962597764825745/posts/H7izqDa4HX3).

I’m a normal person by all accounts, but a slightly abnormal social media practitioner (as I do this for a living since 2006 but in technology since 1989). “Early adopter” is what a lot of people would call me. I like to jump in and bang all the buttons and break things, rip them apart to see how they work, and then use it to the very best of my abilities. My business and career are all about helping companies & their brands navigate the social spaces and technologies online. My passion is coaching & teaching professional women how to do it for themselves and their business/career.

I’ve been blogging since 1996 (I coded mine by hand thank-you-very-much). I’m one of the early pioneers in podcasting since 2004. In hindsight that only shows that I geek out early and often on social platforms. It proves nothing of my talent or intentions now. What matters is what I do here - what I do now. The same goes for you.

There is one overwhelming fact to disclose here – I didn’t do this alone. So how did I get to a million without being an actor or famous person before Google+? Somehow I wound up on the SUL (Suggested Users List) which I am eternally grateful for. I have no idea how to get on the list or what the criteria is. What I do know is that you don’t get ‘automatically added’ to people’s circles because you are on the list. You still have to produce kick-ass content and make a real difference in people’s day – or their lives. Every single day – online and offline – I try to do justice to the honor and privilege of being on the SUL. With that said, numbers don’t mean squat. It’s true. It’s only what you do with the privilege that matters. Remember that please. If you are selling songs or art or books the numbers might count. I’m selling me (snarky comments aside…) I am my own business and I haven’t found a way to clone me yet!

So here is the big question – what does 1,000,000 circlers get me? I can tell you it didn’t get me a party or a champagne toast! I only get out of the million faces that follow what I post what I put into it myself. What I put into this platform was everything I had – and I got that and a lot more in return.

An idea that I had early on that gave me motivation is the creation of +Women of Google+. It never has become what I had hoped, as I’m the only one ‘running the show’. Any self-employed person knows there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done, especially with a family & kids. I still want to create a space where women that thrive within social media channels – especially Google+ – can come together and celebrate each other. There is an old medical school saying “see one, do one, teach one” that is what I hoped would become of the idea. Learn from someone, do it yourself, teach another to do it as well.With extremely limited resources to get the project off the ground, right now it only falls on me to pull the ropes and carry the buckets. Every opportunity I get in ‘real life’ is spent talking to professional women (and the businesses they run, lead, or own) and lending encouragement and mentorship. We need our voices heard and in order to have that happen we need to learn how to make our own voices loud and clear.

Since my experiences in Google+ and online in general would be nothingwithout the million faces and many friends along the way, I wanted to use this self-made opportunity <grin> to showcase some friends of mine that I think will add value, passion, and knowledge to your experiences here as well.

It’s hard to reach a million people and not make some dear friends and find wit, intelligence, comedy, and enthusiasm that change the very being of who I am. I highly recommend following every single one of them.

+Arleen Boyd - Arlene was the very first person I ever did a Hangout with. I was in New Jersey, and she was in Hawaii (at a yacht club I might add – gorgeous!) Someday I promise I will find a way to get out there to do a real life Women of Google+ +HIRL and have a drink with her!

+Carter Gibson - Egads. It’s hard not to love Carter. I met him for the first time at the NYC +HIRL. We were in the same tour group of the NYC Google offices. I will not disclose any shenanigans that went on during our visit <grin>, but only want to note that Carter is one of the most talented and personable community managers I’ve ever met. Wrangling a company or brand online is like herding cats of the Nyan Cat kind. It’s not easy, but he makes it fun. Outside of that, I see him as an amazing advocate for humans, compassion and tolerance. I love him much….

+Cecily Kellogg - Cecily is a Philly local girl to me, and I absolutely love her. She inspires me and makes me smarter. She is strong and strong-mouthed (which I love) and is an amazing mom. She’s earned her stripes for sure. If I could pick a sister, she might very well be her….

+Chris Brogan - He’s (to many) the king of social media, but being that I’ve know him for a very long time, I will forever think of Chris as “The Mayor.” (I won’t give a reference on this one, but anyone that has known me or my ‘business’ for a long time will figure it out). I’ve seen him build his own ideas and empire and change the mindset and actions of this industry. Chris is like a phenix to me, always inventing and reinventing the next big idea.

+Daria Musk - What’s to say? Daria is the sweetheart of Google+ and soon to be the world. I met her in Google+ but have been friends with many independent musicians before that. Sadly, even those with amazing talent don’t always ‘make it.’ Daria has amazing talent, yes, but she also has brains and a support system behind the scenes (her mom rocks). She above all others is showing me that you just can’t go through life alone. It’s only by surrounding ourselves with other shining people can we hope to reach high enough to pluck a star for ourselves.

+Dave Young - My husband of almost 12 years. Dad to my amazing kids. My resident geek extraordinaire. To quote +Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook, “the most important career choice you make is who you marry. I have an awesome husband and we are 50/50.” None of what I do in my business, my career, or Google+ would make a lick of difference if I didn’t have Dave in my corner.

+Evo Terra - Way back in the day, I first ‘met’ Evo online and was blow away by his knowledge and passion for indie authors. He’s the co-founder of+Podiobooks.com – Serialized audio books & currently co-heading +ePublish Unum – Digital Author Education. He took the opportunity of this platform and blew the top wide open for himself and many indie authors that are making names – and money – for themselves. He’s amazing, plain and simple.

+Jane Ellen - Jane is remarkable. She’s wicked smart, a smart ass, sassy, sexy, glamourous, and talented. WAY talented. Jane is for sure a role model for me. She knows how to work a room even via Hangout. While I feel socially awkward and klutzy, she makes me see what it’s like to be grace under fire with a smart comeback. You couldn’t ask for a better friend or publicist than Jane.

+J.C. Hutchins - Just as I have a love of indie musicians, indie authors are etched in my heart – JC above all else ( #suckit +Scott Sigler - even though he’s a top favorite author of mine also – it’s sort of a fan ‘inside joke’). Stories don’t just live on a page when JC writes them, they flow to all media and all spaces of imagination. The idea of #transmedia is something I learned about via JC. Stories aren’t stories when JC writes, they are beings.

+Marcy Massura - LOVE. HER. We both live and understand this crazy ‘space’ online and breathe it in – even when it stinks. She knows how to deal with brands, moms, fans, and an audience – probably with a martini in one hand. She may live 3,000 miles from me, but Marcy is another long lost sister of mine I’m sure of it.

+Matthew Ebel - My original indie musician crush. Matt was one of the very first artists to let us podcasters use his music royalty-free (“podsafe”). He broke the barrier of “untouchable rockstar” and let his fans into his life to become a part of the music. He is a pioneer when it comes to indie music online. Some call him a mix between Elton John & John Mayer – but now I just call him talented & a true friend.

+matthew rappaport - Matt lives and breathes Google+. If you are looking for a slice of live within Google+, Matt is your go-to guy. One of the first people to use Hangouts for entertainment, he’s the king hangouts as far as I’m concerned! An actor at heart, Matt lives to entertain! He has a way of finding the most interesting people in Google+ and showcasing them on Hangouts. Check out +The PLUStainment Show to see how he does it.

+Peter G McDermott - Peter is a Google+ advocate for sure. His love and understanding of the platform is amazing. I got to meet him at the NYC HIRL / Google office tour as well & found him to be very smart and has a genuine interest to help businesses in Google+. Personally I think Google should hire him….

Many thanks – of course – to Google themselves. +Vic Gundotra & +Bradley Horowitz have quite an amazing team in the Googlers and every single one of them strives to make our experience here better every day. Special thanks to two of my favorite women of Google+ - +Natalie Villalobos & +Katherine Gramann for being two of the first million faces I knew in here. To me they are amazing role models and am glad every day to know them.

Want to see more amazing people that I value every single day? Go check out my stream. See who comments with me, who talks with me, and the people I talk to or +1. I actively hunt out smart people and smart content in here. I never expect it to arrive at my doorstep, I am on the prowl constantly for this stuff! (Queue: Hungry Like a Wolf from Duran Duran!!)

Of course my experience in Google+ would not be anything exciting with these amazing Women of Google+. These are some of the interviews I have done in Hangouts. These ladies keep me strong and grounded and I’m amazed every day by their accomplishments.

• +Aliza Sherman
• +Valeria Maltoni
• +Jacqueline Carly
• +Cecily Kellogg & +Dresden Shumaker
• +Jane Ellen
• +Adrienne Graham
• +Marcy Massura

Thank you. Every single one of the 170 million in Google+, and especially to the million faces that have any interest in hearing what I choose to say on my little soapbox on the ‘net. THANK YOU. Now let’s go find some champagne!!!

Forgive me if you feel I’ve left you out of anything – it is not my intention to be exclusive, only to draw attention to the people ‘off the top of my head’ that have enriched my Google+ life.

Title:

Google+: Get On Board! Tips, Tactics & Applications for Authors & Publishers Best Practices for the Book Industry

Description

Launched on June 28, 2011, Google+ is the lat­est attempt at social net­work­ing with approximately 100 mil­lion users and is now con­sid­ered a ‘Big Five’ social net­work. With fea­tures such as 10-person video chats called Hang­outs, the abil­ity to arrange con­tacts in Cir­cles, and rich mul­ti­me­dia pub­lish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties with pho­tos, videos, and text makes Google+ the hottest place to be to get found quickly online.

This one-hour Webinar will focus on the vital pieces of Google+ giving some tips & tricks, and sharing what other members of the industry are doing to stake their claim on this social network.

Targeted to members of the book industry, this webinar will give publishers and authors new ways to build relationships with readers, new ways to build lists and more.

Learn how to master the many opportunities with Google+ including:

• A look at the right profile for you!
• Building Circles – letting publishers and authors share info about new books, backlist, author events, promotions, and more
• Setting Hangouts – a great way for a group chat and sharing book trailers
• Focus on the Stream opportunities – have great conversations with friends and followers…and share with readers in your circle
• Learn about “+1 button” – that lets readers recommend sites and parts of sites
• Get insight on Search opportunities with Google+ – getting updates and giving readers instant access to all types of book and author information
• See samples of what other publishers are doing with Google+
• Learn about how authors are using Google+ to stay connected with their readers
• And More…

Come away from this Webinar with two to three actionable takeaways that will improve your social networking efforts – establish a presence on Google+ or get some tips & tricks to expand your presence of Google+.

To Register:

Google+: Get On Board! Tips, Tactics & Applications for Authors & Publishers Best Practices for the Book Industry. Sign up for this live interactive Webinar for only $25! This Live Webinar is 60 minutes with an exclusive interactive 15 minute Q&A period at the end.

Presenter(s):

Lynette Young is the CEO of Purple Stripe Productions, helps others put their dreams into action as a social media coach, social technology specialist, and a strategist for businesses regarding implementation services. Her love (besides her family) is Google+. Ms. Young believes that Google+ is the future for business and, as such, is the founder and curator of The Women of Google+. She is a 1st Generation Google+ User, one of the 50 Most Followed Women of Google+. She also hosts a weekly broadcast On-Air Hangout every Monday night on Google+ at 9:00 pm EST.

Ellen Gerstein is Director of Marketing in the Professional/Trade division at John Wiley & Sons (www.wiley.com), the global publisher based in Hoboken, NJ. Her responsibilities include developing and overseeing marketing strategies for key categories and working with industry-leading brands like For Dummies. A passionate advocate and evangelist for social media, Ellen has been a speaker at BlogWorld Expo, BlogHer, Mom 2.0 Summit and the NYU Stern School of Business. Ellen is a graduate of University at Albany (NY) and lives in the NYC area. Online, she can be found blogging at Confessionsofanitgirl.com and on Twitter at @elleinthecity.

Sally Dedecker Enterprises is the Director of BEA Education and is a print and digital consultant for members of the industry. Publishers and authors rely on her expertise in distribution, sales, marketing, product development, and other areas of the book and digital publishing process. Her expertise is offered to authors and publishers needing advice on developing new publishing opportunities and navigating the development and implementation of digital initiatives. During her tenure in the industry she held senior management positions at Simon & Schuster, Ingram Book Group, and other major publishing houses. She currently sits on the Board of Book Industry Study Group.

I just came across Idea Paint and not only love the idea of the product, but admire how they are using social media platforms to build a community. For me, whiteboards always inspire creativity and brainstorming. They BEG to have great ideas written on them in rainbow colors. It was a pleasant surprise that the company is ‘online savvy’ as well.

We are going to take down a wallpaper mural in my son’s room sometime soon and a wall of Idea Paint would be perfect! Of course my daughter would want a wall in her room done too.  You can be sure that Idea Paint is at the very top of my list of products to bring into our home because I see that they are a company that ‘gets it‘.

Idea Paint has a unique product. That goes a long way on its own, but they didn’t just assume people would stumble across their paint cans on the shelf at the local home improvement store. What makes their online efforts work?

Don’t Sell, Show & Tell

LOOK how they are using things like their blog, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook & Flickr. They aren’t directly ‘selling’ their product but instead celebrating and publicizing the creativity of their ‘clients’. Yes, they cover the basics about their product, including very helpful videos and FAQs. They aren’t pushing out content on any of these social media platforms yelling “BUY THIS CLICK THIS” but instead let the product and their customers speak for them.

Get Involved & Stay Involved

Idea Paint seems very actively involved in communicating with their customers online. Too many times I’ve seen a ‘dump and run’ of content on social media platforms where companies regurgitate marketing or advertising (or worse yet, press releases) and never bother to check for responses or communicate. Idea Paint shows a genuine interest in being a part of the community of their customers. What does that mean? That means that they care about your outcome not just your purchase. Most companies stop caring after the sale is made, or only care again if there are customer service issues. Idea Paint demonstrates that they want your life or work to be continuously enriched by the use of the product.

It’s not about them, it’s about YOU

Idea Paint hosts a ‘makeover’ contest and utilizes social media platforms to attract applicants and get votes. They also promote pictures and videos taken by customers on the Idea Paint Facebook Page or tag them in Flickr (the ’15 minutes of fame’ trick). You can also browse around their blog and YouTube channel to see that they have interviewed customers and learned about their businesses, not just how they use the Idea Paint product.

Showcase Benefits Not Features

It is not enough to show or tell potential customers that your product comes in three colors and five sizes. What is important to showcase is how your customers life or work will be improved because of it. Shoes that sell comfort aren’t selling comfort, they are selling an experience. Idea Paint is selling an experience as well – the experience of productive brainstorming sessions at work with your team, creative playtime for your kids in their own living space, a retail space that allows you to customize an experience for your own customers. Are they selling paint? No.

Strategy vs. Organic

I only know of Idea Paint through what I can see or read online about them – both published by the company and their customers. I have no inside knowledge of their ‘social media strategy’ plan, assuming there is one. Some aspects of what Idea Paint does is absolutely structured, the Makeover contest for example. They didn’t fall into YouTube or Twitter either. But outside of creating accounts and filling out the profiles, there is strong evidence of an ‘organic’ feel and communication style to them. Here’s a ‘pro’ tip: you need both strategy/structure and an organic flow to what you do online. Creating accounts and either ‘winging it’ or ‘just see what happens’ are the quickest ways to fail. But if you plan and approve and edit every interaction you have online, you will also fail.

Now it’s your turn

How can you look at Idea Paint and tweak your online efforts? Does anything about their efforts resinate with you?

PS – Now I just need a free weekend and some friends over to help me strip down 11 year old wallpaper!!

This is exactly why my Social Media for Women in Business Coaching Program exists, to help you find the knowledge that applies to you and your business and stop wasting time on the information that does not put you ahead.

Over two decades of ‘in the trenches’ experience both as a corporate professional and as an independent business woman have provided me with an intense and focused understanding of what it means to be successful in today’s business environment. I want to help you realize and achieve the success that I have by learning to use social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and others to grow your women-lead business. I can teach you how to grow your business with a minimal amount of time and money using social media.

I’ve been providing professional coaching to women as a part of my career for 22 years. It is what I do and what I believe in – and everything I live. Women want to lead fulfilling lives and run compassionate and profitable businesses. They turn to me to sort through massive amounts of knowledge and resources to find the right fit for their business.

Women don’t have one extra minute to spare to ‘play around’ with social media to find what works – and what does not work – for their specific and unique needs. They look to me to uncover the gems that will benefit them. Women put so much time and effort into every aspect of their business and only need a bit of encouragement, guidance, and coaching to reach – and exceed – their goals. Who are these women? They are…

WOMEN LIKE YOU.

For more information, please visit the Social Media Private Coaching Sessions page, thank you.

In order to be able to devote the time, resources, and attention each of my coaching clients, I only take a very limited number of clients on my calendar at one time. This ensures that each woman is given the attention, training, and resources that she needs to rapidly progress. Right now I have booked 40% 60% of my availability for 2012 Q1, so please contact me to secure your spot.

Google+ has been the hot topic of discussion for a few months now as a possible competitor or replacement for other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.  Some sources say that Google+ is skyrocketing with over 40 million users,others say traffic to the site has declined so drastically the end is near. We think Google+ is the most promising social networking platform for businesses and individuals to date.

Purple Stripe is putting together an overview (not a case study, it’s too early for that) of businesses using Google+ that have seen promising gains in their business goals. We know that numbers and traffic don’t mean as much as real results from real people and companies. We have been working with businesses and professionals that already see major gains using Google+ and I’m interested in finding more success stories.

If you are interested in participating, please complete the survey. Thanks everyone!

The SocialMediaPlus Summit is designed to be like no other – they have put together seminars that are relevant to four major job functions within your company, including Marketing & Public Relations, Sales & Business Development, Human Resources & Recruiting, and Executive & Business Owners.

The schedule contains hand-picked 20+ seminars that address core issues that you’re thinking about every day:

• How do I implement social media to earn revenue?
• How can I improve my customer experience using social media tools?
• How can I support the technical needs of my marketing team in their social media efforts?
• How do I use social media tools to build my brand and increase awareness for my company?
• How do I reduce my cost-per-hire using Social Media?
• How can I harvest sales leads from Social Media tools?

Social Media Plus is offering a 15% discount on registration with the code LY15. Please visit the Social Media Plus Summit registration site to attend.

Social Media Internships

Seeking an energetic and creative individual 12-16 hours weekly to create and curate content for the Women of Google+ website and community. The ideal candidate can write clean and engaging copy; use desktop publishing, Internet and social media tools with ease; juggle multiple deadlines; work well independently. Be prepared to show us how you communicate in a multi-media environment. This is an on-site internship in Trenton New Jersey. Internship is unpaid.

Have What It Takes?

For more details about each position and how to apply, see the documents below:

• Social Media Communications / Journalism Internship
• Social Media Public Relations Internship

About the Women of Google+ Project

Women of Google+ is a destination for women to learn, share and explore what it takes to thrive on social networking platforms both personally and professionally. Thousands upon thousands of women (and even some men!) have found value from Women of Google+ profiles, videos, tutorials, chats, articles and events. It is our goal to transform this site into a community where you can participate in no matter what your reason for being on Google+ or other social networking sites.

The Google+ Content & Strategy Webinar will provide tips and tricks that you can use to make the most of Google+ features such as Profiles, Hangouts, Circles and Sparks. The Google+ Content & Strategy Webinar will primarily focus on content generation, social media strategy and tactics, and show ways you can interact with others and provide value without alienating your followers.

Click the GOOGLE+ Training link in the menu above!

Please leave a comment in this post if you are currently in the beta program for Google Plus with your thoughts (or a link to your own post about it) or if you are curious on what the big deal is.

Initial Thoughts

This is not Facebook. It is not supposed to be Facebook or function anything like it. No walls, no pokes. There is a +1 feature behaves like a Like button and I’m glad there is a function for it. Any social network platform will become cookie-cutter if YOU let the content you allow into your space to be the same. For me, I’m going to limit the people I ‘follow’ to folks I have met in real life and consider to be friends in some capacity. In the beginning I will keep it social and not overly ‘business’ because it’s important to see how I can use this platform differently than I use Facebook.  By figuring out what you want this to BE will determine what it IS – to you.

User Experience

It seems that Google has learned a thing or two about user experience from epic failures like Google Wave and moderate flops like Google Buzz.  The main people-grouping feature called ‘Circles’ has a nice visual drag and drop interface that lets you click on the photo avatar of someone you want to put in a circle and just drop them in to include.  You can use a tab/checkbox format also, but I like the visual hand/eye movement of putting people in buckets.

My initial reaction was that Google Plus works better with how people want conversations laid out on a screen, but after doing a bit more of a deep-dive, I’m seeing where improvements need to be made.

Security Considerations

Although I have always been comfortable with how the security settings in Facebook work, a lot of people were not happy with either how they functionally worked or the granularity of control. Let me just first say that nothing you put on the Internet should be of such high confidentially that you wouldn’t risk it being on a billboard on the Turnpike. (In my opinion, no data online is every 100% safe and secure 100% of the time.)  With that said, Google Plus appears to have learned from mistakes both with Facebook and Google Buzz. When you first ‘follow’ a person they are granted no access in return, making it function similar to Twitter in that relationships can exist one-way.  Facebook requires a mutual connection, but also leave loopholes to your data depending on your contacts security settings.  While it seems initially that there is more work to be done to put people in buckets and control who can see what type of information, THIS is exactly what users have been asking for.  Google seems to be delivering.

Conversation Flow

Google seems to finally have gotten how people want to talk to each other. The concept of ‘Circles’ allows you to group people (notice I didn’t say ‘followers’ or ‘friends’) When at an in-person party, you don’t talk to the entire room at the same time, you have conversations in circles.  Google Plus allows you to publish content to specific Circles of people (and in extension excluding others), so you are not creating noise for the rest.

Hangout (Video Chat)

Wow. Just wow. You can create a video chat room with up to 10 participants – TEN LIVE VIDEO PARTICIPANTS – as well as have a text chat.  Any people beyond the 10 person limit can still view the video feed. If they add screen sharing and moderation abilities, Skype and WebEx should both be wetting their pants in fear.

Sparks

This is supposed to be a keyword content curator (hey, they are Google after all, it’s their job to find content based on your preferences) but I’m not finding I use or like it much. Google Reader would be a much better fit in this space. Reader allows me an amazing level of content organization and tagging, and it would be a much better use of space to just integrate a strong pre-existing product here.

Brands and Businesses

On my third day in Google Plus I started seeing companies show up to the party (Ford Motor Company and Hubspot for example.) I can’t begrudge them for wanting to come in and experiment at all. What I will be on the lookout is to see if businesses regurgitate content from Facebook and fret over how many circles they are in (which would be the closest relation to a Fan Page count). Please, I’m *begging* you, do something different. Innovate. Create. Find the box and kick the snot out of it – but whatever you do, don’t go IN the box please.

Recommendations for Google Plus

• Make it customizable like iGoogle has the ability to be.  Let us move around widgets and change colors.  You know, all the things Facebook denies their users…
• Let me determine how I want to view order in my main stream of content – newest updated, FIFO, or possibly even have a VIP list that messages always bubble to the top from.
• Mute a conversation Sometimes you follow chatty people, or a particular thread catches fire, and I don’t always want it surfacing to the top of my stream all the time. — This was actually implemented last night due to requests submitted (PS – Google is taking suggestions and implementing changes at a lightening speed, their interest and response is refreshing.)

A word on the purpose of a closed beta program…

Note that Google Plus is highly beta and very closed right now. The invite system was shut down by Google due to the onslaught of invites sent by those of us that got in ‘first’ (guilty!)  Google Plus is a work in progress and will evolve and thrive when the current users inside the beta actively work to test the system, submit bug reports, test drive features, and submit constructive feedback. It’s not a place (yet) where people should worry about being left out of conversations or purchase invites on eBay. To be honest, the geeks need to be in there right now to stress the system and look at it with a critical eye. Wanting to be a part of Google Plus just for bragging rights is not a valid reason to be in a closed beta program.