Although Google+ has been getting a lot of buzz in the tech press and recently announced it has amassed 90 million users, it is still seen by many as a social media also-ran, having been unable to break into the public psyche in the same way Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have.
However, two weeks ago Google decided it was time to start playing competitive hard-ball and introduced “Search, plus Your World“, which integrates social networking elements into search results like never before. Now a search for “Music” will spit out not only a regular web search, but also relevant results on Google+. A search for a specific public figure will turn up their Google+ profile before their official site or their Twitter or Facebook pages.
While some have cried foul and claimed Google is using its search monopoly to promote Google+ unfairly (prompting America’s FTC to expand an ongoing antitrust investigation to include the changes), the more pressing issue for freelancers, contractors and small businesses is that when the changes are rolled out worldwide (currently they are only available in the US on Google.com), prospective new clients searching for your name or limited company name may be presented with your Google+ page before your company page.
This means, at the bare minimum you should be prepared to:
Create and populate a Google+ page
Many companies have simply registered a Google+ page and left it unpopulated, to make sure nobody squatted on their brand. If a potential client lands on an unpopulated Google+ page they will most likely go elsewhere, so at the very least ensure you have a profile picture, contact details and links to your website.
Update regularly
This will become substantially easier once the Google+ API is built out and services like Twitterfeed and WordPress can add new blog posts to your Google+ profile automatically, in the meantime be prepared to update your feed with new content at least semi-regularly.
Circle and get circled
Google+ interactions are managed through “Circles” – people you want to connect with, organised by whatever group you care to put them in. You can have circles of friends, fellow freelancers, interesting people in your city – anything you want, really.
A good way to accrue plenty of new followers is to get put in a popular shared circle (for example a circle created by someone influential, or a circle popular in a particular industry).
