How to Build an Audience for Your Google+ Posts

By Jesse Stay from Google+ For Dummies, Portable Edition

If you're getting started with Google+, you may be trying to figure out how to build an audience to get more people reading your posts. Truth be told, we all care about numbers. Having lots of people care about you feels good.

Here are some tips to help increase the number of people reading your Google+ posts:

Post content about things you’re passionate about. Don’t post content you’re not passionate about. What you write about will attract an audience that shares your particular interests. You’ll attract an even larger audience if people believe you really care about the things you’re writing about and if they think they are learning something.
Consider posts with questions or a call to action. If you’re asking your audience a question, there’s a good likelihood that they’ll answer. They’ll also share it with their friends, perhaps causing them to answer and circle you.
Post interesting stuff. Funny pictures and videos tend to be shared a lot on social media sites. Try thought-provoking statements that intrigue people. The more you get them to think, the more they’ll comment and circle you.
Seek out influential folks with large audiences and tag them when you’re posting something interesting. For example, you could write a response to what other bloggers are writing and link back to them, getting their attention in the process. As you write interesting stuff, the bloggers may notice and eventually start reading your blog and linking back to you. You can do this in your Google+ posts through tagging.

Be careful that you don’t tag people too much! Tagging on occasion, especially if your topic is relevant to the people you're tagging, is okay. However, if you tag them too much, they may block you and be much less likely to circle you and follow your content in the future. Always think about whether tagging an individual in your post is truly something of interest to them.

If you’re trying to build an audience, consider always posting to the public and using specific circles as the exception. If you post only to specific circles, people viewing your profile to see what you post won’t see updates if you haven’t circled them because they are only allowed to see content designated for the circles they are in.

If you post to the public, anyone who wants to circle you can see your updates and can have further reason to circle you because you didn’t limit your content to any one audience. Posting to your Public circle will also help you build relationships with people you haven’t met, extending the potential circles you’re in.