For ages I’ve been trying to find a good way to show my Google+ stream on my WordPress Website. There are numerous Plugins and Widgets for showing Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media services updated but just not for my favorite service, Google+. I’ve found a really simple means of showing your Google+ feed in a widget area, Page or Post and it takes only a few minutes to setup.
Why Google Plus
I regularly speak to groups of people about Websites (particularly about WordPress), social media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Social Media always is discussed and I always get asked which Social Media service is the most beneficial to use (from a business benefits perspective). Social Media takes alot of time and generally small business owners just don’t have the time to run multiple social media channels. So which one service is best to use; Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter …. Google+ is the answer!
Google+ has come along and incorporate all the best parts of all the big Social media services into one. Move over Facebook, Myspace (who?), Twitter, foursquare and others. Now, there is just one Social Media service that small business owners need to use and the added advantage is that using Google+ may help your SEO. Although Google+ isn’t that big in Australia yet it is going the be the most important of all Social Media services soon.
Instructions: show Google updates/Stream in WordPress
In summary, we are going to install a Plugin that will display a Google+ stream. We’ll then show the stream in a Widget, Page or Post.
1. Install and activate the WP-Lifestream 2 Plugin
2. Look for Lifestream in your WordPress dashboard left column and go through the various settings and change to your preferances
3. Go to Lifestream -> Feeds and click the Google+ option to add a Google+ Stream. Once added you’ll see something similar to:
4. To add your Lifestream to a Page or Post just save the following shortcode in the Page or Post.
5. To add your Stream to a widget area just add the Lifestream widget to a Widget area.
That’s it. Your latest Google Plus updates will show on your WordPress Blog or Website automatically.
Oh, one last step …. follow me on Google+ 
You said : “… Google+ … is going the be the most important of all Social Media services soon.”
I read this sentiment quite often from tech-evangelist types (like yourself) but my experience is very different. All my tech minded friends rushed to join G+ in the early months, and without exception abandoned it and went back to facebook/twitter.
The only active accounts I see are tech journalists and other people who’s business depends on a healthy web presence. The rest of the population is sticking with Facebook.
I’d like to see you do a post on why you think G+ is going to be the next big thing, and what benefits it will offer people who are promoting with a website and facebook page.
Hi Flippertie,
The main reasons I believe Google+ will dominate are:
1. Google+ is simple to use
2. It is a single platform that fulfills multiple needs e.g. location sharing (foursquare), Pages (Facebook), microblogging (Twitter) etc.
3. Google+ content is indexed by Google and shown on Search Results Pages (Facebook content mostly isn’t)
4. Google+ is integrated with so many services that people already use e.g. Google Maps, Google Places, Google Search
5. Google+ is integrated into the Android OS (Android OS phones are outselling its closest rival by 2:1 http://www.pcworld.com/article/250003/android_loses_market_shareas_apple_has_exceptional_quarter_gartner_says.html)
I’m still a big fan of Twitter in particular and I may be very wrong about Google+ becoming prominent!
I agree with Gary on this one…it’s important to remember that Google+ is still in beta. It has a lot more functionality than Facebook, and Google products are more productive-centric, so it is more likely to be useful to business.
The one thing that Google needs to do during beta is make the platform more intuitive to new users, which they seem to be doing pretty well.
Given the added benefit of increased search rankings, I believe people will flock to Google+ once it is out of beta. It won’t likely be the only game in town, but it will be the backbone for many other services.
Thanks for the comment Pekasus.
Awesome guide! Just what I was looking for to bring my Google+ Stream to life
Glad it helped