Building your Google+ Circles

Now to the fun part 🙂  Circles!!!!!

At this point, you should have:

1. Updated your profile, added a cover image and profile image (more details here)
2. Added a bunch of content to your page! Images, status updates, links!  The stuff you’d share on other pages.
3. Joined some communities related to your book genre – romance, sci-fi, mystery, etc! More information on steps 2 and 3 in this post (Google+ For Authors: Circles, Communities, and Comments).

Now that that’s done, we’re going to start finding interesting people 🙂 and adding them to circles.

There are a few reasons for this – the first is that some portion may add you back (which is good) but it will also provide you with interesting content to share 🙂

The real secret with Google+ and most social networks is: INTERACTIVITY!  Building a real connection with people will make them more likely to add you to their circles… but more importantly – MORE LIKELY TO BUY YOUR BOOKS!!!

STEP 1: So here’s the assignment for the next week – We’re going to add 100 to 200 people a day to your circles (don’t do more than this or you may risk Google blocking you from doing more, plus I find that you ge ta higher quality connection when focusing on smaller numbers).  Here are some circles you should/may have:

• Friends
• Family
• Acquaintances
• Your Genre Readers (example: Historical Romance Readers)
• Your Genre Bloggers (Example: Romance Bloggers)
• Writers

Look at the recommendations.  Look for “Shared circles” and look at profiles that look interesting.  Remember – we need people that are actually interactive and USE Google+.  I know a ton of authors that have Google+ accounts that never use them.  Circling these people isn’t going to be helpful since they won’t likely circle you back, share your posts, interact, or even see that crucial announcement when you have a new book come out 🙂

So, look for active accounts.  I like Google+ Communities for a lot of reasons – one is that you’ll find people that like your genre AND they are interactive.

STEP 2: As you’re adding people, you’ll find lots of interesting stuff!  You’ll want to comment on, share, and +1 every post you find interesting.  Here is a big difference with Facebook – your posts don’t need to go to everyone.  Start thinking about the fact that some things you’ll want to share with writers (like this post!!!) but may not be interesting to your family or readers.

In the same way, here’s an example – like birds?  If you do, you may have a circle of “bird watching friends”.  If you come across a picture of a cardinal, you could/should +1, comment, and share it to that circle.  You might not share it publicly or to readers of your book, but  if you find it interesting share it with your circles that would!

So that’s it for this week.  If you start doing this over the next 1 to 2 weeks, we’ll get a good 1000+ people n our circles.  I’d expect 100 to 300 people to add you to their circles by doing this.  There is still a lot in Google+ to discuss!  This will get you started with a good base of real people that we can continue to build!

Sidenote: This is not our long term strategy.  Google only allows you to add a total of 5000 people to your circles.  Sure, some people will add you back (which is great) but it’s really to start making connections and interacting.  As we connect, interact, and share – that’s where you’ll get the real action 🙂