Three Steps to Jump-Start Your Google+ Account

Do you still have a nagging feeling that you should step away from your favorite social media channels like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter long enough to start using your Google+ account?  Oh I see, you haven’t even opened up an account on this social network because you were holding out until you could get your own Google+ vanityurl. Sorry, if you’re not a famous celebrity or popular business Brand, you’ll have to wait a little longer for that one.

Not a Bad Idea

Ignore all the overdone jokes about this social network, opening a Google+ account or just taking the time to poke around with your existing, ignored Google+ account is still worth your time.  And yes, with roughly 100 million users (at the time of this writing), this social media channel lags well behind Facebook’s membership numbers.  But Google+ does have its own benefits, cool features and innovative offerings that make it well worth your time.  In fact, here’s twentyreasons to use this social network.

A Little Push

I know you’re pressed for time.  You have retweets to send, comments to make and photos to pin.  I also understand that just getting started with something new can be overwhelming.  That’s okay.  The following three steps will give you a little push and kick-start your Google+ account activity. Where you go from there…well…that’s up to you.

Follow the Leaders

A quick way to begin amassing content in your barren Google+ account is to focus your time on following popular businesses, publications and people.  These actions push interesting and useful content – think rss – into your page to commingle with your friends’ posts.  Another useful Google+ tool is the “Explore” function.  Use this feature to have the social media network send you the latest trending hot topics.

It’s All About Addition

Have you seen all those +1 buttons hanging out all over the Web?  These will help you quickly build your reputation as someone who promotes valuable content.  So click these +1s often and soon you will find yourself being invited into a number of new circles.  However, be wary of clicking for the sake of clicking.  You don’t want to get a reputation for posting spammy content.

Go Mobile

Google+’s mobile app is ages ahead of the Facebook app when it comes to user experience, function, speed and just about any other benchmark you wish to use to compare the two.  It even landed at number three of the twenty reasons to use Google+ that we referenced earlier.  For your sake, here’s why you’ll love the app when you are trying to get up and going quickly on the social network.  The Google+ app allows you to instantly upload – think sync – all of your photos and videos into a single folder which you can then quickly share with the folks in your circles.  This saves you the time and trouble of uploading one photo at a time from your smartphone.

What are your favorite features of Google+?  Please share them – or anything else related to Google+ – in the comments below.  Want to learn more about this social network?  Here’s another great SocialFaceblogpost about Google+