One of the hardest jobs on any new social network is building a
following. If you’ve been using Facebook and Twitter successfully,
you’re probably groaning at the thought of having to go out there and
find all new followers and friends to fill up your lists. But, it
doesn’t have to take nearly as long as it did the first time.
Let’s take a look at how you can easily add new people to your lists and fill out your profile in record speed.
I’ve already discussed quite a bit how you should build your profile. But, it’s vital that you really flesh it out as much as possible. Fill up your scrapbook a bit with at least a dozen images of you working or your most recent projects. Make it professional but don’t be afraid to show your personal side. People are interested in how the men and women they do business with live their lives (to a certain degree anyways).
If you have a lot of interesting things to share, by all means share them. If nothing else, fill in the basics – don’t skip anything because you are in a hurry or “don’t have time”.
You’re a business owner and a marketer. Your goal is to attract people to your profile, so your About Me section and images need to draw people to you. Don’t talk about things that only you care about or mention inside jokes that only a select number of your friends will get. Be open and inviting and showcase what people want to know about you.
Remember Copywriting 101? Always write to the benefits your readers will get. In this case, what will they gain by following you on Google+? Show them in your About Me page.
Now is the time to get people to follow you. There are a few simple ways to do this. The first is to create relationships with people that you already know.
Go through your Facebook account and add anyone that has a Google+ account. Invite everyone you know from your Gmail address book. Look up any other contacts you have in your address books and add them to Google.
But, even so, Google+ is a new network and that means a smaller percentage of the people you know will be on the site. So, you need to go out and find some strangers to follow you and start building a profile in Google+. Here’s how we do that.
Start by loading up your Stream with some basic information that other people might find interesting. This includes anything you’re comfortable sharing about you and your life. The goal here is to personalize your Stream as much as possible.
If someone goes back through your Stream and looks for information about you, they should see periodic updates about a meeting you had with friends or something funny your dog did when you went hiking last weekend.
Don’t bury people in mundane daily details, but show them that you’re a normal person with interesting things to share. They’ll be interested to see what comes of it.
Next on the to-do list is to start targeting people more directly. Get them to do things with useful information or tips followed by clear calls to action. Google is very adamant in that these profiles should not be “Business Pages” just yet, so you need to be careful in how you do this, but if you stay within their admittedly strict guidelines you should be okay.
If you have an email list, you know the drill. Give them something incredibly valuable or useful and then point them to a website of your choosing.
As you know, doing this on a social network is always a little risky. People use social media to interact with friends, not to be sold new products.
BUT, that’s why Google+ is such a revolution for business owners. Because you can target people you know are interested in what you have to offer and because the vast majority of Google+ users right now are interested in learning new things (much like the Twitter audience) you can get away with this, but only if you follow the basic rules.
The goal, no matter how you do it, is to show that you and your profile are valuable. Want someone to follow your updates? Show them that it’s worth their while.
The point of Google+ is to build new relationships and help people find new information that is interesting to them. You can do that by producing useful information on your profile. The first thing most people will see when they open your public profile is your stream.
That’s why you need to provide actual value here. But, DON’T try to sell anything directly. Like Faceboook, Google+ is a better tool if you use it as a conduit.
Provide value, show that you’re an expert and then direct the responses to another website. Show them what they want and then give them a link they can follow to get more information about you and what you have to offer as an expert in the niche. If you do it right, you’ll be able to better focus your energies and expertise into an area that will attract people’s attention.
Once your profile and stream are loaded with value based information that points to your free reports, blogs and forums, it’s time to start adding people to your Circles so you can build your following.
Like Twitter, expect that a large percentage of people you follow will either follow you or consider following you based on what’s available in your profile. Since we already made your profile seem very attractive, now is the time to go get them.
Remember how I had you create a Circle filled with “Thought Leaders” in your niche? This is where we’ll start.
These are people that have the most to offer in the niche and the biggest name recognition. They’re great for adding useful information to your profile, but they’re even better for “borrowing” users and building up our own profiles. Here’s how I do this.
If I go to a thought leader like Chris Brogan‘s profile, I can see the people who have Chris in their Circles:
Now, we know what type of people these are. These are people who are interested in the information provided by Chris. We are the same type of people.
We also happen to want those people to follow us as well.
So, I can simply add all of them (at least 100, but 150 or 200 is best) to my “Prospects” Circle.
Avoid adding too many people on any given day as you don’t want to look like a spammer (like Twitter, following way more people than follow you is a red flag), but feel free to add as many people to your list as you can on any one day.
The odds are that the majority of those people will do one of two things when they see you following them:
Visit Your CTAs
Add You to their Circle
You know they want valuable information in the niche, so once they see your Stream and find the information they’re looking for, they’re going to followup and that might mean a lot of good clicks to your site and possibly a long time follower interested in what you have to offer.
Of course, you can’t simply add a few hundred people and go get a sandwich. You need to interact with them too. This is after all a social network and to be successful in using it, you’d better be social. But, that’s not as hard as it sounds.
If you think of it like a quick chore you need to get done every day, you’ll probably get tired of it quickly, but if you think of it as what it is, “networking”, not only will you do a much better job, you’ll have a better time in doing it.
Simple things you can do to show you’re interactive and social include:
Now, here comes the part that makes Google+ so incredibly valuable to marketers like us. On another social network, the absolute best thing you could hope for is that someone would add you as a friend or follow you and then possibly buy something you have for sale.
But, with Google+ you can go one step further. When someone buys your product, interacts with you or asks frequent questions, you can move them to a different Circle and specialize your relationship with them.
Say, you have four or five followers that ask you a LOT of questions. These are people who are incredibly interested in what you do and demand a lot of your attention. Instead of inundating other people with waytoo much information, you can move these people to a special Circle and send them more frequent updates.
The same is true for people who buy your products, anyone who visits your website repeatedly, and people who comment on your posts a lot. Split your lists down as much as you can and customize the messages you send – the results will be incredible.
The thing that really makes Google+ such an amazing tool is the fact that once you develop a huge following, it only continues to grow. The website makes it so easy to reshare, comment and develop relationships with people that you’re practically guaranteed to start building new relationships virally – as you become a thought leader in your niche.
Better yet, you can start using the tools built into Google+ to interact with people in exciting new ways. By far one of the most exciting aspects of the site I’ve seen thus far is Hangouts.
While it was developed for casual users, I see this becoming a HUGE business tool, especially if Google adds a business focused account function soon (it’s promised, just not yet developed). Imagine being able to sit down with those 4 or 5 people who seem to have endless questions and talk to them face to face.
Can you imagine the value they’ll see in that? Can you imagine the relationships you’ll build by being interactive with people to that degree? It’s hard to fathom and yet it will be there, driving the growth of Google+ for years to come.
Let’s take a look at how you can easily add new people to your lists and fill out your profile in record speed.
Seeding Your Profile
I’ve already discussed quite a bit how you should build your profile. But, it’s vital that you really flesh it out as much as possible. Fill up your scrapbook a bit with at least a dozen images of you working or your most recent projects. Make it professional but don’t be afraid to show your personal side. People are interested in how the men and women they do business with live their lives (to a certain degree anyways).
If you have a lot of interesting things to share, by all means share them. If nothing else, fill in the basics – don’t skip anything because you are in a hurry or “don’t have time”.
You’re a business owner and a marketer. Your goal is to attract people to your profile, so your About Me section and images need to draw people to you. Don’t talk about things that only you care about or mention inside jokes that only a select number of your friends will get. Be open and inviting and showcase what people want to know about you.
Remember Copywriting 101? Always write to the benefits your readers will get. In this case, what will they gain by following you on Google+? Show them in your About Me page.
Getting People to Follow You
Now is the time to get people to follow you. There are a few simple ways to do this. The first is to create relationships with people that you already know.
Go through your Facebook account and add anyone that has a Google+ account. Invite everyone you know from your Gmail address book. Look up any other contacts you have in your address books and add them to Google.
But, even so, Google+ is a new network and that means a smaller percentage of the people you know will be on the site. So, you need to go out and find some strangers to follow you and start building a profile in Google+. Here’s how we do that.
Seeding Your Profile
Start by loading up your Stream with some basic information that other people might find interesting. This includes anything you’re comfortable sharing about you and your life. The goal here is to personalize your Stream as much as possible.
If someone goes back through your Stream and looks for information about you, they should see periodic updates about a meeting you had with friends or something funny your dog did when you went hiking last weekend.
Don’t bury people in mundane daily details, but show them that you’re a normal person with interesting things to share. They’ll be interested to see what comes of it.
Start Drawing Attention
Next on the to-do list is to start targeting people more directly. Get them to do things with useful information or tips followed by clear calls to action. Google is very adamant in that these profiles should not be “Business Pages” just yet, so you need to be careful in how you do this, but if you stay within their admittedly strict guidelines you should be okay.
If you have an email list, you know the drill. Give them something incredibly valuable or useful and then point them to a website of your choosing.
As you know, doing this on a social network is always a little risky. People use social media to interact with friends, not to be sold new products.
BUT, that’s why Google+ is such a revolution for business owners. Because you can target people you know are interested in what you have to offer and because the vast majority of Google+ users right now are interested in learning new things (much like the Twitter audience) you can get away with this, but only if you follow the basic rules.
Show Value
The goal, no matter how you do it, is to show that you and your profile are valuable. Want someone to follow your updates? Show them that it’s worth their while.
The point of Google+ is to build new relationships and help people find new information that is interesting to them. You can do that by producing useful information on your profile. The first thing most people will see when they open your public profile is your stream.
That’s why you need to provide actual value here. But, DON’T try to sell anything directly. Like Faceboook, Google+ is a better tool if you use it as a conduit.
Provide value, show that you’re an expert and then direct the responses to another website. Show them what they want and then give them a link they can follow to get more information about you and what you have to offer as an expert in the niche. If you do it right, you’ll be able to better focus your energies and expertise into an area that will attract people’s attention.
Build Your Circles
Once your profile and stream are loaded with value based information that points to your free reports, blogs and forums, it’s time to start adding people to your Circles so you can build your following.
Like Twitter, expect that a large percentage of people you follow will either follow you or consider following you based on what’s available in your profile. Since we already made your profile seem very attractive, now is the time to go get them.
Remember how I had you create a Circle filled with “Thought Leaders” in your niche? This is where we’ll start.
These are people that have the most to offer in the niche and the biggest name recognition. They’re great for adding useful information to your profile, but they’re even better for “borrowing” users and building up our own profiles. Here’s how I do this.
If I go to a thought leader like Chris Brogan‘s profile, I can see the people who have Chris in their Circles:
Now, we know what type of people these are. These are people who are interested in the information provided by Chris. We are the same type of people.
We also happen to want those people to follow us as well.
So, I can simply add all of them (at least 100, but 150 or 200 is best) to my “Prospects” Circle.
Avoid adding too many people on any given day as you don’t want to look like a spammer (like Twitter, following way more people than follow you is a red flag), but feel free to add as many people to your list as you can on any one day.
The odds are that the majority of those people will do one of two things when they see you following them:
Visit Your CTAs
Add You to their Circle
You know they want valuable information in the niche, so once they see your Stream and find the information they’re looking for, they’re going to followup and that might mean a lot of good clicks to your site and possibly a long time follower interested in what you have to offer.
Interaction
Of course, you can’t simply add a few hundred people and go get a sandwich. You need to interact with them too. This is after all a social network and to be successful in using it, you’d better be social. But, that’s not as hard as it sounds.
If you think of it like a quick chore you need to get done every day, you’ll probably get tired of it quickly, but if you think of it as what it is, “networking”, not only will you do a much better job, you’ll have a better time in doing it.
Simple things you can do to show you’re interactive and social include:
- +1 Posts
- Comment and Reshare
- Respond to Comments
- Add New Freebies
- Ask Questions
- Answer Questions
- Post Videos
Split Your Lists
Now, here comes the part that makes Google+ so incredibly valuable to marketers like us. On another social network, the absolute best thing you could hope for is that someone would add you as a friend or follow you and then possibly buy something you have for sale.
But, with Google+ you can go one step further. When someone buys your product, interacts with you or asks frequent questions, you can move them to a different Circle and specialize your relationship with them.
Say, you have four or five followers that ask you a LOT of questions. These are people who are incredibly interested in what you do and demand a lot of your attention. Instead of inundating other people with waytoo much information, you can move these people to a special Circle and send them more frequent updates.
The same is true for people who buy your products, anyone who visits your website repeatedly, and people who comment on your posts a lot. Split your lists down as much as you can and customize the messages you send – the results will be incredible.
Exponential Gain
The thing that really makes Google+ such an amazing tool is the fact that once you develop a huge following, it only continues to grow. The website makes it so easy to reshare, comment and develop relationships with people that you’re practically guaranteed to start building new relationships virally – as you become a thought leader in your niche.
Better yet, you can start using the tools built into Google+ to interact with people in exciting new ways. By far one of the most exciting aspects of the site I’ve seen thus far is Hangouts.
While it was developed for casual users, I see this becoming a HUGE business tool, especially if Google adds a business focused account function soon (it’s promised, just not yet developed). Imagine being able to sit down with those 4 or 5 people who seem to have endless questions and talk to them face to face.
Can you imagine the value they’ll see in that? Can you imagine the relationships you’ll build by being interactive with people to that degree? It’s hard to fathom and yet it will be there, driving the growth of Google+ for years to come.
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