How To Make Friends & Influence People On Google Plus with Thomas Hanna
Posted on October 23, 2014
You’re very welcome to the latest Blogging Warfare Hangout on Air review! The show is going from strength to strength and there is a site launch imminent now which is pretty exciting. Anyway, the last HoA was all about How To Make Friends and Influence People on Google Plus and featured one of the rising stars on the platform, Thomas Hanna from BlogPhoto.TV.
Thomas has been blogging for years but has done something on Google Plus that I haven’t witessed before – he has made a brand page his main page, usually people have more success with profile pages as opposed to brand pages, but no Thomas. He has racked up over 3.5 million page views and over 3,500 followers in just a little over 3 months (the power of 3 shining through somewhere there!) and so was great to pick his brain. He is also a new co-panelist on the Blogging Warfare team and we’re delighted to have him. Anyway, get yourself a cup of coffee and press play below to see how you can make friends and influence people on Google Plus. There is also a timestamped synopsis below the video in case you want to jump to a specific part of the HoA.
How To Make Friends & Influence People On Google Plus with Thomas Hanna
How To Make Friends & Influence People On Google Plus with Thomas Hanna
2.00 Carolyn – How did you get started blogging?
Thomas – Been blogging since 2010 but initially was hit and miss until the blog “Of Dust and Kings” started. It wasn’t until I started connecting with people instead of broadcasting until it started to take off. This resulted in Of Dust and Kings being in the top 150 ministry blogs in the world. Then the penguin update arrived and the blog pretty much died. BlogPhoto.tv then started as people were asking me for tips on how to stand out online.
5.20 Rob – How big is Google Plus to your overall strategy?
Thomas – Google Plus is my primary focus for social. My emphasis was on Google Plus to build relationships as they could then be used to build relationships on other networks. Focusing on Google Plus was very effective.
7.50 Carolyn – Why did you choose Google Plus over other networks?
Thomas – Google Plus is a very unique network. You can build relationships on other networks but Google Plus is really focused on taking what you do and leveraging it so that you connect and network. Google Plus puts you content in front of people who may be interested in it which allows more traction.
11.00 Rob – What have you done to build and foster relationships on Google Plus? What actionable things have you done?
I’ve looked for where people are connected. By finding where the circles are and getting to know some people in the circle then those relationships naturally feed other relationships. At the start I had 15 people I focused on connecting with and I put them in a special notification on circle. After the end of the 1st month I had built a relationship with 3 of the 15 but then those 3 helped me connect with the remaining 12. I also use Circloscope to help find people who are engaging with content like mine. The shotgun approach of adding everybody is no good for getting engagement.
18.00 Carrie-Anne Foster/Carolyn – Can you give more information on how to set up a notification circle?
By adjusting the settings of circles you can receive notifications every time they post something. You don’t want to comment on everything but if you can add something of benefit then chime in. Re-sharing content that is appropriate to your network, with your own addendum, is a good way to demonstrate your expertise and add value.
20.00 Leandro Perez – What is more important for you, Google Plus followers or page views?
Thomas – Neither followers or page views are important to me. They are useful metrics but not what I look at the most as I think engagement is the most important metric. I look at pluses, reshares and comments to try gauge level of engagement.
25.00 Carrie-Anne Foster – How do you know who is worth following back?
Thomas – It’s kind of based on interactions. As people interact with me I move them to different circles with different levels of visibility.
Quite Quotable – How To Make Friends & Influence People On Google Plus with Thomas Hanna
So, as I was playing back this episode and doing the time stamped synopsis it dawned on me that Thomas is quite a quotable guy with lots of sage like advice nicely distilled to concise bite size chunks. Check on 4 of my fave from this episode with my additional comments below.
- Google Plus is an Avenue to Build Relationships with People!
– a nice way of encapsulating what Google Plus is all about. It is the best network out there for building up solid relationships with people. - Followers are Meaningless Without Engagement to Accompany Them…
– it’s not just a numbers game and like Thomas said it’s not about broadcasting. Google Plus is about building up relationships with people and then engaging with them, regularly. - How do you Move from a Consumer of an Influencers Content to a Colleague?
– I really love this one as it talks about the bigger picture. How can you get to the level of top influencers and have them view you as a peer? - Focus Less on Going Wide, More on Going Deep!
– this encapsulates the core ethos of fostering relationships. Spend time building up strong ones rather than trying to get lots of thin relationships with little value
And that’s a wrap. Hope you found this HOA review useful and that you’re ready to make friends and influence people on Google Plus. If you’ve any questions about Google Plus please comment below or track me (or Blogging Warfare) down on Google Plus.
If you’re hungry for more HOA reviews check out a recent one on Your Blog, Images & Branding Tips from Rebekah Radice or some Blog Tips from Mike Allton – all good stuff!
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