One of the most questioned features of Google+ is Circles.
I get asked nearly daily…How do I determine who to put in my Circles..or, Should I add the Circles people I do not know recommend?
And now the new question...I was included in a G+ post as part of a very long list of people the author was recommending be put in their Circle…what’s up with this?
There is a lot of confusion about Google+ Circles and there are even more posts from people around the world who have attempted to advise people on what they should do with Circles.
I have previously offered my suggestions on how to React When Someone Puts You In Their Circles.
This time I thought I would just tell you what I hear others say they do and what others tell me is not working for them.
Being Added to Someone’s Shared Circle
First of all, there is nothing wrong with someone recommending other Plussers to add to your Circles. Doing it publicly brings up some concerns but overall the intent many people who use this tactic is to get people to interact with other people they do not know even existed.
Being placed in a Circle someone built to intentionally share with others is on the surface a harmless act of socializing. Again, the intent of sharing Circles is to encourage interaction. At the very least, the exposure to other people in the shared Circle should encourage others in the Circle to place those people they do not know into their Circle.
Unfortunately that is not happening.
There is a long history of businesses attempting to Share Circles filled with other businesses cloaked as a person whose only interest is to blast out endless posts of promotional material to the people in that Shared Circle. They usually will also use the Email Notification option which floods Plussers gmail account with unwanted emails.
This spam tactic has forced a large number of people..including me…to not accept Shared Circles posted to the Public and to aggressively ask the creator of the Circle to be removed from that Circle.
The preferred method of distributing Sharing Circles is by using the One-on-One method of private messaging.
This method is not really LIKED by the many who frequently post Shared Circle since it requires a little more time to do, and it eliminates the narcissistic value many feel they receive from posting Shared Circles to the Public.
However, this method of sharing circles is more acceptable than being broadcasted to the Public Stream.
Being Mentioned In A Post
The ‘Mention Method’ of recommending people is another tactic more people are using in hopes of encouraging interaction amongst the people in their Circle. This type of post usually has dozens of links to people’s personal profile along with another dozen or more worthless Hashtags. Again, this is another seemingly harmless attempt to promote socializing on Google+ that is not working as it is intended.
I have been asked hundreds of times by the people I train on Google+ to recommend other Plussers I trust to not post .gifs and who offer interesting, humorous, educational, Newsworthy, learning content.
I am very proud of who I have put in my Circles and it has taken me a very long time to develop the Circle. I will usually oblige these requests by furnishing a list of people, or Circle of people, who I have received permission to Share with others. This is ONLY done in Private Posts.
So Who Do You Put In Your Circle?
In a recent study, I contacted 50 people who were added to a Circle shared to the Public. I then contacted another 25 people I know who were mentioned in a public post.
I asked what their reaction was to being recommended to others to be placed in their Circle.
Over 90% of them were not initially comfortable with being exposed to so many unknown characters and reported they were very concerned the attention these posts will receive from those who prefer to live on the dark-side of the internet.
Over 50% of them told stories about what took place when they accepted someone else’s Circle. They immediately started seeing unwanted content and a flood of .gifs in their stream. Most claimed it took them months to get their Circles cleaned up after adding a Circle posted to the Public.
The next question I asked was..
How do you determine who you put in your Circle?
92% said they will not consider placing anyone in their Circle who does not have a photo of themselves. They said they would take a few minutes to see what kind of content a person posts before placing them in their Circle.
If they post too many .gifs they move on.
If the person interacts with others frequently and post original content they will place them in a Trial Circle. If they hold true to their posting they promote them to their Interest Circle.
Holding Back on Circling People
Nearly everyone I chatted with had stopped interacting with anyone they do not know. Seems building trust is first.
It is very unfortunate a simple public post recommending other is seen by so many as ‘negative social media’. As a result of adding bad eggs to their circles from these recommendations, most of these people I chatted with now hold back on adding any groups of people to their Circles.
I have been mentioned in hundreds of these ‘Recommend Posts’. I have seen little increase in the number of people placing me in their Circle which confirms many of these people’s remarks.
What Is It Going To Take To Get People To Interact on G+?
It is human nature to not be trusting of strangers. Unfortunately, this untrusting attitude comes as a result of people being forced into dealing with the dark-side of the internet for so many years. Interacting with strangers is not comfortable for many. Plus it doesn’t help when the friendliest of the people on Google+ refuse to post a photo of themselves.
Google+ is being criticized by the influencers of the internet as not being as interactive as Facebook or Twitter. This is brought on by Google’s seemingly lack of interest in marketing Google+. There are a number of thing Google needs to improve upon with regard to Google+, but I will leave those solutions to when Google asks me for them.
Having been on G+ since the beginning I will admit that at a glance it would appear to anyone fighting to recognize Google+’s quality of socializing that there is little interaction amongst Plussers.
This is due to most Plussers have a more adaptable presences on Google+ and mostly interact in private or in private communities. They do this in an attempt to block out the critics who see Google+ as worthless and those who prefer to work on the dark-side of the internet.
Circles are a great tool and has so many benefits once a comfort to knowing how best to use them is obtained. If interaction is the mission then it is wise to choose carefully who you put in your Circles.
Let me know how I can help.
