Are you already destroying your Google+ account within the first week?
Google+ is currently in private beta with only a few million on board thus far. In terms of the other big social networks touting hundreds of millions of users, their numbers are a drop in the bucket.
However, it has lasting power. Between some big names raving about it and the generally positive reviews from respected news outlets, Google+ isn’t going away anytime soon. So it’s important to think long-term with your strategy for growing your audience.
Introducing: Circles
The most intriguing aspect of Google+ is our ability to segment people we follow based on any classification system we choose. Google calls these Circles. And it’s genius.
Basically, Circles are an advanced version of the Lists concept we see in other networks. With the default categories being: Friends, Family, Acquaintances, and Following. But keeping in mind, while unlimited people can add you to their circles, you are only allowed to circle 5,000 people.
Cleverly, their recommendation engine matched with a slick drag and drop interface makes adding people to our Circles a breeze. Unfortunately, I already see people carrying over the idiotic & lazy following techniques from Twitter. (And the friending strategies from the pre-Facebook Page days.)
Remember: Social media is not a popularity contest. And Google+ is no different. If you “circle” people in hopes of a “circle-back” you are dead in the water.
The Flaw of the Circle-Back
For a historical reference, let’s look at Twitter. Most people who have a large following accomplished the feat simply though a “follow me, I’ll follow you” strategy. But what ends up happening with this strategy is after following a few thousand people, Twitter in general becomes unmanageable. The home feed becomes a supercharged stream of annoying self-promoting tweets. The DM component gets littered with spam. And you are forced to create a few small lists of people who you actually follow.
But by “following” all of these people through a follow-back methodology, then creating smaller lists of people you truly follow. You in reality stop following everyone else. And your following count becomes a lie.
The same thing happened in the early days of Facebook before fan pages existed. People would friend everyone under the sun. Now with thousands of friends, they are finally popular! That is until they hit the little-known 5,000 friend capstone and their fun ended.
Who to Circle?
But this now raises the question, who the heck do I add to my circles? Here are three questions I ask before I add a person to my social networks:
- Are they interesting, and I mean extremely interesting? (following)
- Do they engage with me and are interesting? (friends & family)
- Do they engage with my following and are interesting? (acquaintances)
If any one of these are a yes, I add them to my network. Regardless of them circling, following, or liking me.
If you blindly add people to your circles who do not fit amongst these guidelines, your long-term enjoyment and social benefits of Google+ will be non-existent. In other words, do not circle people simply because you know they will circle you back.
What do you think?