A Few Google+ Strategies You Should Know About

By jmacofearth On 12/30/2011 · 10 Comments

Screen Shot 2011 12 07 at 3.24.04 PM A Few Google+ Strategies You Should Know About

In the early days of Twitter, your network consisted of people you knew, or people who your people knew. For the most part, in 2007, everyone was connected with their followers. Some one would tweet about meeting up at a coffee shop and it was usually in your town and loosely connected with your circle of friends.

Google+ has a similar feel, on a larger scale. For the most part, at the moment, most of the people I'm CIRCLED with are techie, early adopters, who enjoy talking about social media, twitter and mostly Google+. And that's okay. The conversations on Google+ tend to be micro-focused. There are BEER circles who enjoy pouring pints of obscure local brews in front of the camera in a Google+ Hangout. There are foodie, hacking, joke telling, and technical Circles. And if you spend any time in Google Hangouts (something I highly recommend) you will begin seeing the same few faces. People will greet you when you pop in to a Hangout. Amazing.

But of course this golden age of "connected" Plusers can't last. As the number of G+ accounts grows so does the attraction for spammers, porn peddlers, MLM networks, and evil of evil, the COUPONers. You know they are coming. But the tipping point has not been reached and the Google+ network is kind of cozy.

Here are a few things that will make your Google+ experience a better one.

Essential Google+ Extensions for Chrome:

Uncirle Uncirclers (chrome)
Extended Share (chrome) Share + Posts on Facebook or Twitter or both!
Uncircle Inactives (chrome)
G+me for Google Plus™ (the Chrome extension that collapses the Stream)
Hangout Canopy (find Hangouts all over the web, even if you're not circled)

Two Google+ Portals

FindPeopleOnPlus.com
GPHangouts (create ongoing hangouts, schedule them, keep the conversation going)

Massive Interest Lists for Google+

Shared Circles #1 (Google doc)
Shared Circles #2 (Google doc)

And finally my list (circle) building tip. While G+ is not a numbers race yet, at least for most of us, it is good to have more people following you. When you post something of value the potential that it will connect with your network goes up, and your opportunities for connecting with new people goes up. So here's my simple network growing process.

First you want to go to your Circles tab:

Each time you open this page, G+ will recommend people to add to your Circles. If you find people you recognize you can add them to specific circles like "acquaintances" or "friends" or "business." Simple right? THEN, what you want to do is Circle up everyone else into your "FOLLOWING" Circle. And you can reload the page several times and Google will load up another hundred or so "related" Google+ users. You know you have done your work for the day when you see this.

That means you are done for the day. And what you will see, is that 20 or so people a day will see that you are following them and they will Circle you back. So, complain if you like, that this is gaming the numbers again, just like Twitter. BUT… In the end, social networking is about numbers. And using the tools provided is always allowable. Hate the game not the playa!

And then get out there and hangout, you will be amazed who you run across from around the world. It's a developing open network for uncensored communications and connections. Join it.

More Google+ vs Facebook notes.

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)
permalink: http://uber.la/2011/12/google-strategies/

Check out the Social Media for Business page and these other posts about learning social media:

Sharing is nice for everyone.