Google Plus has got more and more useful for me personally; great user interface, it’s dead simple to share stuff and to keep conversations going there. And it’s useful for sourcing candidates, especially tech talent. Is it a serious contender to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn? Don’t know yet, but it’s definitely worth testing out.
Guy Kawasaki sent me his new Google Plus book called What the Plus! Google Plus for the Rest of Us and here is my review and some of the main takeaways for recruiters and anyone else using the site.
Roughly what I had to say:
- It’s a challenge to find right people to follow on Google Plus, I now know that you can simply look at the circles that other users have recommended and add those people to a circle of your own. This of course saves a lot of legwork. Just search for “shared a circle with you” in the search bar. This will show circles that have been shared recently as well as the most popular ones. I followed a few PR people that Scobleizer recommended.
- There is a massive Google Doc spreadsheet full of shared circles – you are very likely to find good people in your industry here.
- There are also compilation sites like Find People on Plus, GGLPLS, Plus Friend Finder and Recommended Users.
- On the search impact, the author produces a number of screenshots where his post and/or profile come up in generic Google searches for ‘venture capital’. I did notice that he was himself logged in to Google in the examples, so I tried it as well see none of Guy Kawasaki’s mentions or even Google Plus. So not sure about the precise impact on search yet.
- Use of hashtags on Google Plus, I didn’t realise this. So instead of searching for ‘bacon’ posts, try ‘#bacon’ next time.
- Very quick read, 138 pages and probably a screenshot or picture of each page. I didn’t even attempt to read this ebook on my Kindle, did it on my Mac screen instead. I suppose it will work well on an iPad or Kindle Fire.
- Some people speculate that Robert Scoble and Chris Brogan were paid to move over to Google Plus. I don’t know about that but there is plenty of Google loving in this book, every product from Chrome to Picasa gets a recommendation and link. So wouldn’t be surprised if Guy Kawasaki at least gets some better Google search ranking out of this book.
- What is unclear and not mentioned in this book is if anyone has ever had any marketing or sales success from Google Plus. Unlike the other 3 big networks, I haven’t seen and case studies yet.
- A chapter is devoted to how to get more followers. The author writes: “There are two kinds of people on social networks: those who want more followers and those who are lying”. I’ll agree with that. Some of the tips include perfecting your profile, sharing good shiitake, sharing in public, helping people, mentioning others and responding to comments.
- One final tip I picked up on was the to compile a circle of people in a particular category. Include yourself in the category and then share the circle, people will then add the whole circle to their collection and you’ll get more followers as a result.
- And it’s about time you circle up The Undercover Recruiter on Google Plus as well.
Related: How To Use Google+ for Professional Networking [10 Smart Ways].
