Google Plus anyone?

[peekyboo]

I've upgraded to Google Plus for my blog and people have started to add me to their circles. I'm just not sure I really understand the system! It seems very low key compared to something like Facebook, or am I missing something? But having a follower or a plus for my blog does seem to have an effect on the number of views I get for particular posts. So it does seem to work, I'm just not sure how!
Has anyone had good experiences with this or is it on the outskirts compared to Twitter and Facebook?

Amanda

[fcknits]

G+ has good and bad points.

It's totally public and you can attract tons of followers. However, it's totally public and you can attract tons of random strangers. (You don't have to add them back.)

It feels strangely impersonal, so you don't get much interaction. (And, while I have loads of followers to my personal G+ page, I have virtually none on my blog "business" pages.) OTOH, it's so easy to click those 1+ buttons all over the web that people are quite willing to do it and you can get 1+s more easily than FB likes.

I've never noticed much click-through from G+, compared to FB or Twitter. Not sure I've ever noticed any, in fact. A few loyal FB or Twitter followers are worth so much more than tons of G+ followers.

Of the 3 social networks, I'd say it's easiest to build a (relevant) Twitter following. There's more value in having a FB following. But it's definitely easiest to get 1+ (likes) with G+, whether or not people actually follow you.

Anyway, that's my opinion! HTH x

[MrsNRay]

Aw glad it's not just me! I have G+ on my blog plutoniumsox.blogspot.co.uk/and don't have a scooby how it works. Will be watching this one with interest

[fcknits]

Hi MrsNRay, I've given your site a G+ "like", so you can see how that works. ;) It doesn't do anything really obvious - what it does is show up as a page that I've 1+'d on my list of 1+s, if I've made that tab public on my G+ profile (I have, btw). All you can really see is that your page count has gone up to "1", because it's nigh impossible to trawl through other people's G+ profiles to check if they liked your page! (The 1+s for your individual blog posts are separate from those for your actual blog because they are different URLs.)

What you could try next is creating a G+ badge for your blog, so that people can add you to their circles. The official code guide is here: developers.google.com/+/web/badge/

However, your blog is hosted by Blogger so there is actually a widget you could add (go to Layout > Add a gadget and either Google+ Badge or Google+ Followers, depending on what you'd like to include).

[MrsNRay]

Aw thank you Fcknits, that's really kind of you. I will have a look at the badges :)

[fcknits]

You're welcome, hun. Always happy to help. :)