News: 3 Creative Ways to Use Google+ Circles

Although circles are Google+'s answer to the problem of social network relationship management, that's not the only thing it's good for. People on Google+ are using circles for all sorts of creative activities, some of which aren't obvious as first glance. 

1. Take Advantage of Empty Circles

Circles do not have to be shared with anyone at all. In fact, you can create an empty circle, and name it whatever you want. Knowing this fact, you can use circles in several different ways - as a bookmarking tool, a diary, or notepad. This brilliant idea was gathered from +Brian Swetland and +Arun Shroff.

To start, just go into your circles page. Click on "Create circle".

Re-name your circle to what you want it to be, and then click on "Create empty circle."

Select your Scrapbook circle to see your Stream.

Start adding content to this circle! No one will see the content but you.

• You can use this personal circle as a diary, an exercise log, a notepad to keep track of ideas, or maintain a to-do list. You can also create multiple empty circles to cover all your needs. 
• If you are an Evernote user, you can add your Evernote email address to this circle. Posts to this circle will show up in the default Evernote folder. Via +Steve Bryson.
• You can save voice memos to your private Stream, using your Google+ Android app. Remember to enable Instant Share, which will save photos and videos to a private Picasa album for you. Turn on the Camcorder app on your phone and hit Record. Say what you need, and then click on Stop. You'll be able to go into your Google+ account and open up your Photos page. Click on "Photos from your phone" and you'll be able to select your recording to share to your private circle. Via +Arun Shroff.
• You can use the empty circle as a Drafts folder. When you're feeling ready to share your thought, link or photo with the World, just click on the Share button, and add the circles. (You will get a warning that your original post was not meant to be re-shared. Just ignore and post.)
• You can create a "Read Later" circle and share stuff to it that you'll catch up on later.

2. Keep a Journal Between Friends/Significant Others

Just as you don't necessarily need to add anybody to a circle, there's also nothing wrong with adding just one or two people to a circle. For example, I send my husband funny links and videos all the time via email. It's much faster now that I set up a circle for my husband specifically. 

You can create a travel journal circle. Share pictures, interesting links and notes about the places you visited to this circle. If you want to invite others to join in on this circle, I suggest you write a public status update and say something like, "I'm traveling to China. If you'd like to read only my travel posts, comment or click on the +1 button to join my travel journal circle." Then add those people to your circle.

3. Save Favorite Hangouts

Did you get to hangout with someone famous? Did you and your friends have a collectively awesome reaction to a funny YouTube video? Want to preserve some of your favorite hangouts? Create a "Favorite Hangouts" circle and use it exclusively for sharing hangouts.

What's your favorite way to use circles? Share with us your ideas on our corkboard or in our forum.