5 Tools to Grow Your Presence on Google Plus

Have you spent enough time building up your profile on Google plus?

It may not have been high on your agenda in 2012 but what about 2013?

Over time everyone using Google search or any of it’s services will need to have a Google + account.

As a result of your Google plus account and your interaction through it, Google will build up more knowledge about you and your network and will increasingly individualize search results.   This means that the results of a search displayed will be unique to you based on your interests, interaction and network.

Google Plus Personalised Search Results

My results are personalized, you can see people in my circles listed

 

At a minimum you should create an account, build up your profile and link your blog posts using Google Author.

Google Author

My Google + profile is linked to search results on the blog so my picture is displayed

 

If you want to take it a step further here are 5 tools that help:

1.  Post at the right time using Timing +

To get maximum benefit from posting across any of the social networks you really need to work out the timing correctly.  If you are posting your most important content at a time when your followers are not online you are missing out.

Timing + analyses your last 100 posts on Google Plus to identify the best time to post.

Very simple tool, you just login via your Google + account and it analyses your posts.

2.  Turning a Google + feed into an RSS feed

RSS is a format for packaging up information.  If you have a blog that supports RSS this means an application known as an RSS reader can display this content.  If you subscribe to a lot of blogs it’s faster viewing them within an RSS reader rather than visiting each blog individually.

You can also set up Google + as an RSS feed using Yahoo Pipes.

When you are on a Google + profile have a look at the web address.  Copy the numbers displayed within this web address and paste into MyGplusFeed in yahoo pipes.  Underneath this you will see options for adding to an RSS feed, for example Google reader.

Google Plus to RSS

Converting Google Plus Updates to an RSS feed

When you open up your reader application you will now see the latest posts from the Google + accounts that you added.

3. Find new people using Circlecount

Circlecount provides Google + statistics.  You can view standard statistics provided and run various searches by user, location and/or keyword to find details of Google + users.

Circle Count

Circle Count displaying profile information

 

4. Using Hootsuite to Manage Your Google Plus Page

Hootsuite provides the ability to add a Google Plus page onto your account and then manage this page.  This allows you to update the page, schedule updates etc.  It does not support updating a Google Plus personal account yet as this functionality has not been released by Google yet.

5. View Detailed Statistics for a User Using Allmyplus

Allmyplus allows you to search for a particular user on Google + and display detailed information on this user.  Such as the posts they made, when they made them, the interactions they had and much more.  Picking a popular Google + user in your niche will help you understand how they grow their following.

The following is an overview graph.  When you run a report in Allmyplus you can click on any individual element to view more details.

Allmyplus

You can select the stats you are interested in and view specific details for that user

 

Next year I’m certainly going to spend more time building up my profile on Google plus.  The tools listed will help with this.

Have you come across any good tools?  We’d love to hear from you.

 

About the author

Ian Cleary

Author: Ian Cleary is a technology guy with extensive experience in Social Media. He is a writer for Social Media Examiner and other high profile blogs and is very passionate about Social Media Tools. Ian is the CEO of RazorSocial and also RazorCoast which is a Digital Marketing Agency.

  • Wesley Picotte

    Thanks Ian. The walled garden that is G+ is is frustrating, in particular because of all the indicators that building presence there is a good idea. I love the YahooTubes idea for this reason.

    I already invest plenty of time in my other social profiles and am able to do so mainly because of tools like Hootsuite (which does not integrate G+ profiles). I also use RSS, however, and incorporate my feeds into Hootsuite. Bingo!

    Now, if only there was a tool that allowed us to post to all profiles from on place…

    • http://www.razorsocial.com/ Ian Cleary

      Hey Wesley, thanks for the feedback. Google don’t currently allow you to post directly to Google + profiles but I’m sure that will be available in Q1 of next year and no doubt hootsuite are working on it!
      I’m going to play around more with Yahoo pipes, some cool stuff you can do with it.
      All the best and happy holidays.
      Ian

  • https://twitter.com/#!/kmadhav Sourabh Rana

    hello Ian useful tools for google plus marketing. I am struggling to found more relavant followers for my business. How I can increase followers for Google plus page. Travel is the theme of business .

    Thanks
    sourabh rana

    • http://www.razorsocial.com/ Ian Cleary

      Hey Sourabh, finding relevant people and adding them to your circles is the best way of getting more followers. Try out circle count for starters. All the best, Ian

  • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com/ Cendrine Marrouat

    Looks like a list of very useful tools. Thank you, Ian!

    • http://www.razorsocial.com/ Ian Cleary

      Thanks Cendrine, have a great time over the holidays!

      • http://www.internetbillboards.net/ Tom George

        You should double thank Cendrine as she shared your post and is just awesome. Thanks for a great post, I like the looks of Circle Count. Happy Holidays Ian,

        • http://www.razorsocial.com/ Ian Cleary

          Thank you Tom, I really appreciate your feedback and I was delighted that Cendrine was kind enough to share out the post! Happy holidays to you also! ian

    • http://www.internetbillboards.net/ Tom George

      Hello Cendrine, thank you for sharing this fantastic post in your Google + community Social Media News and Tips, I might of missed it. I am liking Circle Count going to check it out.

  • http://jdobypr.com/ Jerry Doby

    I enjoyed reading this one Ian…I am just learning to use G+ and it appears it can do magic. I have Google Author set up for my Yahoo! articles and it does make a difference.

    • http://www.razorsocial.com/ Ian Cleary

      Hey Jerry, you’re right it can do some magic and it’s time for us all to get stuck in! thanks for your feedback, have a great holiday. Ian