Recommended Users, Circle Sunday & The Public Circles Project
Since Google+ is now open to all, it’s so important that we help all the new people as much as possible. For those of us who have been using G+ for several months now it’s easy to forget how we felt when we started. I remember my first post was something like “erm, what do I do know?”. It was more difficult in those days as there were less people and there was no search facility. However I was blown away by the real community and by all the helpful people. Like most G+ peeps, I learnt as I went along. Most of my posts were about how to get the most out of G+ and asking questions!
One of the biggest problems people face when they start out on G+ is finding people to follow. This will become less of an issue now that more and more people are coming over to G+ and also now that we have a search facility. Still, there is no official G+ people directory. Those people who use Twitter will no doubt be used to Follow Friday (lovingly hashtagged as #FF_) where you can recommend other Twitterers to your followers on a Friday. A similar project started on G+ called _Circle Sunday and another one called The Public Circles Project (more information here: https://plus.google.com/111873853137122484021/posts/PtKotY6hLGg ). The idea is simple, just recommend some G+ people who have helped you along the way, are interesting or who have inspired you in some way.
I haven’t got involved with this so far (basically as I’ve been so busy with other stuff), but I do want to recommend some people who certainly fit into the above criteria. These guys are either prolific posters on G+, come up with cool ideas, are ultra helpful, funny or give you the latest news. So here is my recommended list for this week:
Ryan Crowe Otherwise known as the G+ Tips Guy, posts almost exclusively about Google+, fantastic tips and news on anything Google+ related!: https://plus.google.com/115516333681138986628/posts
Johnathan Chung Has written some fantastic resources on Google+ which you should definitely check out. He posts on geeky/techy things too all of which I find very interesting.: https://plus.google.com/114424163811716070551/posts
Christina Trapolino Has a huge following on G+ with her extremely well written G+ posts. Her strapline is “Encouraging quality content on G+” and that’s what she does!: https://plus.google.com/102615863344410467759/posts
Chris Westcott Has been a great guy and we’ve interacted with each other posts. He’s done a lot of work looking into the API and he posts some great stuff on geeky/techy/computer related stuff.: https://plus.google.com/104298156070730115178/posts
Dean Belfield OK, I know Dean in real life, but I do think you should follow him and not just because he is a nice guy. If you remember the ZX Spectrum then he is your hero, follow him if you want techy posts dashed with some humour.: https://plus.google.com/116845092266224683125/posts
Natalie Villalobos is the community manager for the Google+ Project, so if you want to keep up with the buzz on what is happening she’s your girl. If you are lucky you might get to hangout with her: https://plus.google.com/109895887909967698705/posts
Robert Scoble one of the most popular people on G+ who works at Rackspace. Really engaging and interesting posts on technology, photography and of course Google+: https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts
Louis Gray is a product marketing manager at Google for G+, and is a popular guy! Follow for great posts on tech and G+: https://plus.google.com/100535338638690515335/posts
Jesse Stay has written books on Facebook and G+ and writes some engaging stuff about social networks in general. Follow him!: https://plus.google.com/107833107845497630206/posts
Punit Soni I love this guy. He is Lead Product Manager for Google+ Mobile and is partly responsible for the Google+ mobile app being so cool.: https://plus.google.com/111499908439497508351/posts
Craig Kanalley Posts some great news and engaging content as well as being a nice guy. Craig works for The Huffington Post and you should follow him!: https://plus.google.com/103399926392582289066/posts
