Top 5 Tips to Improve your Google+ Status

Recently, we did a feature on our sister blog about Google’s increasing emphasis on going social, and its encouraging people to use its social network, Google Plus, more often. Google Plus has become more or less essential for webmasters, especially those using Google services such as Google Blogger, Google Places, Google Webmaster Tools, and so on. And with the introduction of AuthorRank, it will become more or less compulsory for publishers to have a Google Plus profile, otherwise they won’t be ranked as authors. So if you don’t have a Google Plus profile, or don’t use it much, now would be a good time to give it another shot.

Photos and instant uploading

Google Plus allows you to upload and manage your photos into albums. But while you might not want to share all your images publicly, you should at least keep some in the default scrapbook. These images should highlight a bit of your personal life, and your interests, so that other Google+ users know who you are.

Also, if you own an Android or an iOS device, then you can install the Google+ app. If you go to the Settings, and then When to upload, you will see an Instant upload option. This option will upload all the photos you take to a private album in Google+. This will not only serve as an easy way to share your images, it will also keep your photos backed up conveniently.

Participate on Google Plus

I can’t stress this enough. The more you participate on Google Plus, the better. Participate in Google Plus communities, and +1 others’ posts, and comment on them so they’d do the same for you. Follow he top people, and have them follow you back – hence create powerful connections. When AuthorRank comes, strong connections with high-rank authors will be considered important, and will contribute significantly towards your own AuthorRank.

Get organized

Organizing your contacts into circles makes it easier for you to share specific posts with specific people. Some people prefer having separate profiles for interacting with different group of people, such as family, or friends, or colleagues. But I personally find it easier to just restrict posts based on circles.

Personalize – get your own URL

Personalize your profile, and add in all your info. Most people leave out the tagline. Adding a tagline is very important, because it speaks volumes about your personality. Also, when other people hover over your profile links on Google+, your tagline lets them know who you are.

You can also create your personalized URL for your Google Plus profile. As you may know, Google+ profile URLs contain strings of numbers, which are difficult to remember. There’s a service called GPlus which will let you create custom profile URLs! Just check out this post about GPlus to find out more.

Google+ Shortcuts

Learning Google+ shortcuts could be fun, and can make your work a lot easier. There are lots of keyboard shortcuts which you can learn to boost your productivity. For example, putting asterics around a word can make it bold, for eg *hello* would make it hello. For a full list of shortcuts, refer to the following post.

• Keyboard shortcuts for popular social media

These were some basic things you could do with your Google Plus profile. We’ll be sharing some more tips and tricks. But in the meantime, you may like reading the following;

• Best Ways To Make Money with Google Plus?
• Do you know how to use HashTags in Google Plus and Pinterest?