Originally shared by Christina Trapolino
Google+ & Reciprocity or
“Why Aren’t You Following Me Back, JERK?”
Some super smart commentors in one of my previous posts (I’m looking at you, Miami Tom and Andrij Harasewych) brought up the issue of increasingly popular “Follow Lists” showing up on G+ and offsite (e.g. http://www.recommendedusers.com/bloggers/ – which, apart from suggesting people like Mark Zuckerberg who do not post any content, is a fairly decent resource so far). The debate seems to be about reciprocity. Miami Tom asked why he should bother following people who won’t follow him back. I thought it might be helpful for you guys if I could explain my own methodology for following people.
At first, I added everybody I saw make a good comment or post.
This is a good method for a new user because it will help plump up that lonely looking Stream. If you keep adding people you don’t know who seem clever or interesting, you’ll soon have more going on in your Stream than you can hope to keep up with.
Then, I started making Circles for reading instead of just for sharing.
My Circles list looks something like this:
read: tech news
read: google employees
read: photographers
read: comedy
…
share: irl friends
share: houston (public)
share: australian friends
…
etc, etc.
I started organizing people into appropriate Circles, and removing people who don’t post.
If, while organizing people, I found that there were no posts (or no posts I was interested in), I went ahead and removed them. Why would I follow you if you don’t have anything for me to read? It doesn’t make much sense.
The above is a really basic explanation of how I approach following, but it’s basic because it doesn’t have to be something you overthink. I get more new followers in a day than I can hope to keep up with, so how do I decide who to follow back?
I still use your comments as a primary filter.
When someone makes a comment on one of my posts that I find clever or interesting, I click on the person’s name and glance at their posts. If they’ve never made one, I don’t add them to a Circle. Why would I? I mean, it doesn’t mean I don’t find that person interesting. It means that person doesn’t make any posts.
Remember that this isn’t Twitter! You have to share something on Google+ to be worth following.
Twitter is not something I ever personally got into, but after talking a bit with Ryan Crowe about this reciprocity issue on G+, I started to understand what seemed to be upsetting Miami Tom.
Most of you know Ryan Crowe as +GPlusTips. He has been following the evolution of G+ for as long as I have. We’re not the first generation of G+ users (that title is reserved for the likes of Tom Anderson and Google employees), but we’re probably in the first generation of regular people using G+, so I consider him a great source (and so should you). He said something really striking to me today — that “a compulsory followback mentality is what made the numbers on Twitter…sort of deluded.”
Following does not automatically generate a sense of “I should follow you back!” on Google+, but it did on Twitter. This place is not Twitter — if you enjoy what someone is saying here but have not said anything yourself, why would you expect to be put into that person’s Stream?
Share stuff! Duh!
I’ll be totally into following you if you post ideas, stories, art, music, or advice. If you post about your pet turtle or your breakfast, or if you don’t post anything at all…well. I mean. Don’t make me say it.
