New to Google Plus? Not quite sure you ‘get it’ yet? Use other networks like Twitter or Facebook? Make a commitment to spend 15 minutes that you would normally spend on those sites, here on Gplus for 2 weeks. In those 15 minutes do these following 4 steps. Anyone who actually does these things will love it here. Try it. I Dare you.
1. Create Yourself - Fully Complete your Profile. Do not skip this step. Post a photo of yourself, people like talking to other people. Decide which interests you would like to focus on, on G+. Pick some Hobbies, Work, General Categories etc. Think things like Photography, Geek, Tech, Android Fan, Tv shows you like, Your Career (Real estate agent, Tech Support, Business Owner), Art, Gaming, Wine Lover, Cat person Or the City You Live In. Write all those down in your about section. People can quickly scan and determine that you might have some stuff in common and then easily circle you back. Spend a few moments on this. Seriously.
2. Join Some Communities and Post Often - Those interests you picked in Step 1? Do a Search in the bar up at the top and select “communities” from the drop down box. There are communities here from Body Painting, To Zombies To Space. Join a few and visit them often. Find interesting articles to share, you tube videos, pictures and make posts about these interests into these communities. Add some of your own thoughts to the post instead of simply sharing a link. Use pictures. Google Images is a good source. G+ likes pictures. When not posting into a community make Public posts on your profile. Make sure the post is “public” and not “your circles”. Public is like twitter, Everyone can read them.
3. Follow Others - Find other people who have similar interest as you and circle them first. Add people whose posts you like from the communities you joined. If you are not finding enough people in them, Go up to the search bar and type in those interests you picked in step 1. Game of thrones, Web development, wine, zombies, Michael Jackson. People here are fans and they are talking about it. Circle up at least 500 People. 1000 is still golden. Look for some circle shares to add groups of people easily. These people you are circling will likely all be strangers. Get over that. You do NOT need to know people in real life to talk about Android or Cooking, but you can have a great conversation. Perhaps even better than with local ‘real life friends’. Try it.
4. Engage others - Go up and down your stream right now and Reshare neat things, comment, click the link, read the story, comment on other peoples comments or mention others who might like that post. +1s generally mean you read it and agree. Do that too.. but most prefer to you to comment on their post in some way. Try and make comments better than “lol” but engage other people in some way. This is the most important step in my opinion You need to be engaging and social to others 5X more than you are posting your own content. I still do this almost every day. Remember to mute the post if the conversation is not interesting to you anymore with the drop down arrow at the top right of every post.
Rinse and Repeat steps 2, 3, 4 daily for best results. This will take some time to get started, but its fun.Do it regularly with those 15 minutes and You can make connections that will completely change your life. Do not be shocked when you notice you are investing more and more time here. I haven’t even talked about Hangouts yet!
Google Plus is a truly amazing website if you follow these steps, but feel free to tweak as necessary or add in your best advice for connecting below. Make Google Plus yours.
————————————-
*The people who tend to not ‘get’ Google Plus*
1) Don’t have a completed public profile
2) Post once every 2 weeks (what would your Twitter look like if you tweeted once every 2 weeks?) You don’t need to stop using the other sites you use, but you DO need to spend some time here, regularly.
3) Broadcast only – Never talk to anyone else here, do nothing but post links to their blog and expect people to be clicking their stories and commenting on their stuff when there is a HUGE stream of information going by. It will not happen here.
Gplus is VERY give and take.. .a true SOCIAL website. Spend a few moments developing relationships with the above steps and you WILL have people visiting your blog without you asking/self promoting. Promise.
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Please feel free to share with your circles and new friends on G+. I have been writing and rewriting this guide to Google Plus since October, 2011. http://bit.ly/130eB1p Enjoy.
#gplustips #ghosttown #googleplustips #magicofgplus
GooglePlus
Wordpress
Facebook
Disqus
So cool…
My rule #1. Everything you know about Facebook is NOT Google Plus
Pretty well set in the awesome department!
Nice
Stop thinking about it but be about it. Make things happen. Group Hug.
Excellent post, +Amanda Blain ! I was one of those people who came here first, looked around and saw no one to interact with, so I left. I came back, put in a little effort and.. lo and behold, people actually engage back! I have since brought a few people over, but I do favor the gradual move of users based on those ideas that you highlight above, rather than a mindless exodus from other networks. Let the quality build up gradually!
Well said and summarized +Amanda Blain. Interestingly, I was just texting with my daughter this evening (3rd year college) about G+ and that she should set one up. I will send this post so she can understand thing better. No doubt it will help get started. Marvelous and thanks!
I agree!…
I've got a shovel. I can dig it!
Say What??? LOL!!
A great post
I have fallen behind
Moving has interrupted my time here
Where did all these boxes come from…
Where can I put them all…
I've been doing these things recently. You just have to invest time in it.
I think I fall into the not awesome catagory, but atleast I have people who do. ; )
#imstilldoingitwrong
i don't think about it….
Only when you forget to mute +Christopher Lira
Lol +Amanda Blain I usually wait till at least 5 hai dears, 3 beautiful eyes, or 2 goats and a tshirt before I mute
Some awesome tips +Amanda Blain . Sending Smiles:))) And Thanks for sharing:)
+Amanda Blain great post. Thank you. Made me realise how much I had let my time here slip. Will be getting more active again now but in a much more meaningful way.
Or fake it till you make it!!
You are so right about the time increase here after awhile. I do need to work on my circles again since I did not know what I was doing when I started.
I find more worthwhile content on G+ in 15 minutes than in an hour on Facebook.
Great tips, LOL!
In what manner pls define. I want to be…………….?
i like but true
very informative…thanks for this post.
Great tips as usual +Amanda Blain ;) Keep rockin'!
yeah ,that's so right ,i'm so awesome
This is a really really great post +Amanda Blain! Thank you very much.
Awesome "to-the-point" post +Amanda Blain! Lovin' it! Will pay it forward for sure!
this is a great list to follow!! thank you!
i send u friend request form facebook ok..
If I am a man, I love you so much. +Amanda Blain (Smile…).
I'd say this sums it up quite well. I had the hardest time convincing relatives to join Google+. I left Facebook a couple of months ago, and haven't looked back. My wife is on Google+, as are most of my inner and extended family.
Thanks for sharing. .. I needed some help .
is i mean it
Truly awesome — tomorrow will be the start of my G+ experience the right way simple, honest, a little TLC…
many thanks.. Amanda Blain
I think this is why my friends come here and then leave – they don't get you have to make an effort on G+. On FB it's all 'let's look at the funny pictures of cats and massage egos.' I come here for the brains <zombie alert>
Well people forget that they had to invest time into their real life friends…
now you can see their daily lunch and what their kid did… but maybe they dont like the same tv shows you do… you can find others like you on G+… but you WILL have to invest some time in developing that friendship 
people forget that for some reason..
Thanks for the great tips!
Like your post Amanda , yes you must be social and have positive actitude to communicate with people.
how to be awesome?
wow
waww
Thanks, this is great.
It's as you said – go back to the basics and FULLY complete your profile with interests, hobbies etc. this is what I'll be doing as it seems as though my G+ has stood still for a while now! I certainly don't want that to continue and would love more from my G+.
Keep up the good work, and thanks again.
awesome!
awesome too
wpw
Cheers +Amanda Blain for this. One of those posts that seems like logical steps, basics really, but we all tend to forget the basics now and then
Great post +Amanda Blain . I do have a question for you: Do you ever worry that Google+ could end up being nothing but a big popularity contest where a majority of users is only interested in gaining followers and not creating a true sense of community? I wonder about this because I think of the new users who perhaps are just joining out of curiosity and dont have most of their friends on this network. One of the complains I hear about people not liking Google+ is that there is "no one" here and that the majority of the traffic or "attention" goes to these power users and its all about them.
What's a power user?
Owesome
I'm only 14 and I remember being one of the first ones from my grade to join G+. A few of my friends were also there but we spent most of our time on Facebook.
I quit Facebook one day after it got too annoying and was interfering with my life. Ridiculous meme posts, cyber bullying and attention seeking jerks.
I convinced my close friends to join G+ and one day, I started a game. It was a Guess Who game in which I have clues for people from my school. That changed G+ for the rest of my life xD I post a different type of question each day and my friends try guessing. A lot of them now love G+ and some have even quit facebook.
G+ is a wonderful place
it's one of my favourite websites. It's a hell lot better than Facebook.
The thing about G+ is…it is a truer social experience in that you aren't surrounded by your real world peer group and just have conversations with the people standing next to you; the effort has to be made to interact in order to turn a stranger into a friend…and I love that about G+ the most.
This is a great article! Thank you so much for this. However, your tips only work only when not spending 15 minutes a day but 15 minutes every so often. People who want to use social media seriously (for business) can't do that in less than an hour a day IMO.
Indeed.. more time spent here is better +Birgit Schultz but 15 minutes is a start..
People became power users by following those steps +John Chavez thats the point… None of the power users "knew" each other before gplus… many have met in real life because of the connections made here though… i see many of the new guys not fill out their profile.. make a few posts.. never comment and say forget it… Perhaps they are not aware that these are the steps we all took at some point… in some manner.. to get to where we are.
I've been posting this article with updates to reflect gplus changes since oct 2011…. the original is linked at the bottom of the post there… the advice is still the same for the most part…those who do the steps.. see the results..
It's that simple.
Two of the Hardest tests in Life:
“The Patience to wait for the Right moment
and The Courage to accept that you waited for Nothing.”
I am about 3 minutes last this time; gosh, it's too long for me cause I've already spent lot of time out there fruitlessly hihi I am joking, reading you was "awesome", and you're clever than a smartphone. I am hungry, so i have to got off and my girl-friend told me 10 minutes ago: Why you haven't yet tell me that you love me LoL Hum it's hard love stuff, but it it's great to read you Amanda…
Folks need to not stick a toe in the G+ waters. They need to take the plunge. They also need to remember that it's not FB.
Great article. I'm sure many people will appreciate this piece and find it helpful.
Awesome:-) thanks +Amanda Blain
Thanks for the great advice. I'm on it!
good
+Amanda Blain Thank you very much for your great post. To tell you the truth i started praciting the first part of your post and its just working!
U are Awesome tooo……
muy bien , por tus consejos
Excellent ideas.
That about sums it up! Nicely put! Absolutely you get out what you put in. I've found that I don't need to have thousands of people circling me, or vice versa. I just need good folks who are willing to engage at the same level.
+Di Cleverly You are right some people are not looking for many followers but engaging people who do pay attention and read what you share with them.
Thanks for sharing! This really is essential to have a great Google+ experience, yet very few of my personal circles do it on Google+…
Create amazing web Photo Albums. Get your own Image albums while you still can.
Look at the benefits you will get. Your own address (yourname.deffe.com) …
http://www.deffe.com
New to G+ and I am wondering where was I before!! Loving the experience.
All great points, practice makes for better engagement.
hello amanda, how are you?
with this quote i most totally agree!!!!!
Thanks +Amanda Blain ! Great write up. I also suggest people to circle people who +1 their write ups/posts.
great ideas here, nice work
What are those four things?
I dont see here.
Thanks for these great ideas.
Hey Amanda,
Thanks for the tips. It’s easy to post your content up there but being a genuine member of communities takes more time but I’m sure will yield more benefits. Time for me to focus more on Google +, thanks for the nudge.
Ian
+shakil ahmed
wow great idea.
Thanks, Amanda.
Splendid.Write up.
What is 'success' on G+? Why does one need to be 'awesome'?
I wonder if we put too much focus on such terms, as if the purpose of G+ is to have followers/circles listening to your every step. And that concept can certainly be a little daunting on some.
Instead, perhaps the focus should be How to enjoy G+ and expand your life
+Amanda Blain
This is not a facebook replacement, it's not a contest to see who can be popular. It's a great tool to explore your own personal interests, and share your thoughts with others actually interested in hearing them. Share and Learn, usually with people you have no idea who they are. It's not about the people, it's about what the people do and think and share.
I love #googleplus !!!
)
true. I too have been using g+ since oct 2011, and loved it. fb is nothing in front of g+, 'cept for people with old thinking
good afternoon
agree w/ you 110%….
OK, now I will try Amanda's good advice.
One thing I like better about G+ than Facebook is that G+ is more open and community based. Facebook is so… So… Bleh
luv it
What a beautiful woman, wonderful.
Interesting! Thanks for the share – I wish their Twitter app would OAUTH properly : [ People like genuine people, so I feel that if you spam people with "offers" all the time it will come off as insincere and not very genuine. That said, I also feel that "Real Recognize Real" and if you are sharing with people about info you know to be valuable in you niche you're passionate about…they will appreciate your insight.
agree!!!!!
chnyo pecbec
Helo
WTH
Hi Amanda, Great article for Google +
This is something I'm definitely going to do. I guess my profile is next!
Excellent tips +Amanda Blain
I think you hit the nail on the head with the engagement advice.
If you're not interacting with the community, the community has no idea whether or not they'd like to engage with you.
G+ is about your voice in the community.
+Brian Shea this post is clearly written for a business type person in mind… the last lines even express that… "Spend a few moments developing relationships with the above steps and you WILL have people visiting your blog without you asking/self promoting. Promise."
It just happens that the advice works well for regular average people who would like to be heard a bit more on this network too… and as i also wrote… adjust as you see fit… make it yours
This is fantastic information. I think I'm getting it. Thank you so much for sharing this.
now I share it too.
I thought #Canadian was a part of that too for you? Oh wait. Awesome. Right. Same thing +Amanda Blain
Thank you for sharing that with us, Amanda!
I thought this was just about being awesome in general. Although that might take more than 15 minutes a day
awsom lines….
i like it
hi beautyful
I think 15 mins is not enough for me ….I am kind of….almost addicted. But really sending about one hour would be ok for me.
sure
Lovely….
Hi Amanda: This is really helpful. I was on Google+ for months without really understandign how to use it. Recently I’ve started getting into the communities (which I didn’t know existed!) but am still trying to figure out how to order my “circles” — I originally had them by my relationship to people, but that doesn’t quite make sense now, as most people in my circles are going to be strangers. Do you recommend organizing / naming circles by interests? That’s the way I’m leaning, but I want to get really organized before I aim to add 500 people.
You can't force it.
Thank you for the advice……………..