Interaction. Interaction. Interaction.
In real life, people commonly ask me, “how in the world did you get so many followers on Google?” Of course, being an early adopter helped, but the most important thing I did when I arrived here wasinteracting with other users. I can’t say it enough, interacting with people’s content shows them two things: 1) You’re paying attention. 2) You invested time in starting a conversation.
There are so many people on Google+ that have some incredible content to share. Now, of course, this content might not all be relative to you. Someone into +Lady Gaga and fashion design isn’t going to take too much interest into +Robert Scoble‘s posts, but at the same time a budding tech blogger wouldn’t make much of an effort to follow a well-known cake decorator.
The point is, all of your circles should be relative to you. You should circle people that interest you.
So how you do you find people that interest you? Well, sometimes you have to take a gamble. You have to see what they have to say, determine if it is relevant and then decide whether or not you want to continue interacting with them. It’s the same principal as making friends at school, work or sports bar.
In order to help some users interested in interacting with more people I created a call to action last night asking users to comment and share if they were interested in being exposed to more users. The response was overwhelming and a great demonstration of how community members can come together.
Lately I have ranted a bit about the Suggested Users List and the What’s Hot List, but the real truth in the matter is that they…don’t matter. This network is only to you what you take out of it. So, here’s an opportunity for a couple of hundred people to show you what they are all about.
Special thanks to +Natalie Villalobos and +Robert Scoble for helping me in the back channel with “re-aligning” my focus. It took a while, but I think I’m back on track to doing what I do best.
There are a few great people in here including Googler +Sara Eleta Reid, funny hangout man+matthew rappaport, culinary extraordinaire +Lee Allison, Google+ enthusiast and business expert+Denis Labelle, and Nashville local +Andy Torres. There are even a few pages sprinkled in to keep it spicy.
Give these people a chance. Add the circle. Once a week, visit the stream for this circle and see what you think. Compare it to who you are already following. Are they engaging? Do they interact? What do you think? After a couple of weeks, tell me what you think of the experiment. I’d love to interact with you!
The Story Behind the Circle: Last night I challenged my Google+ followers to comment and share a post called “The What’s Hot Circle” in an attempt to create a circle full of completely organic users that were interested in finding some new people follow them and find some new people to follow in return. The results were amazing and the post proved something. You don’t need the assistance of any list or status to have your content ripple into hundreds of shares. It can all happen organically, and that’s what this circle is 100% organic.
The Suggested Users List and the What’s Hot List both serve great purposes for Google. Are they perfect? Heck no. But do they serve their purpose of giving people a jump start to their stream? Of course. If we all came here and had no one to follow and no suggested content to read, we wouldn’t find it very interesting. Could it be better executed? Absolutely. But how can you do that while being perfectly democratic and retaining your business interests? Google is between a rock and a hard place on who and what to feature. Google isn’t perfect, lots of people will admit that, probably even a few people that work there. But, as long as we continue to interact and keep it positive, we can all make this a better place. Constructive criticism is useful so I encourage you all to keep providing it. Together, we can make this a better place.
Thanks for following and share on!
EDIT: +C Bret Campbell was accidentally omitted.