Texuality: Google+ Circulation

One of the biggest challenges I face when going after clients, is showing them what my follower number means on Google+. With the bulk of social media professionals hitting Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest with everything they have, many are missing the G+ wave that we are on. It is even more frightening when I see people on G+ trying to teach each other how to better navigate Facebook, rather then learning Google+ while they are here.

My #k10 method for explaining my reach is a three step process:

1 - Speak about my rank on CircleCount.com

CircleCount.com

2 - Explain the way that my posts on a particular subject will rank in the top results for people who follow me.

3 - Explain multiplication and the social network of Google+. If we use small numbers, let's start with 10 people. I have 10 people following me, and they share my posts with their audience. Those 10 people just turned into 1000. When I use my number specifically, I use a chart, with my picture in the middle with the current number of followers. Then I show a couple of other pictures of people who follow me, and their followers. The remaining follower count I multiply by 300, stating that this is the average number of followers each person has who follows me.

Now I know that this isn't science, and that my numbers will be off. This is the way I estimate it. I would love to hear what you are using to show your reach. How do you show your social media success beyond the follower number?

Why is this important?
We need to develop a standardized way to rank each other. Once we have collectively, as a community, established a norm, we will be able to use it when meeting with clients. The client will hopefully already know how we rank each other, so we can have meetings about action plans, and not impromptu educational introduction to Google+ meetings. Just like newspapers have circulation counts (see articles below), we need to have circulation numbers as well. This will translate into better contracts and higher ad sales.

If you are interested in collaborating on creating a standard, please comment and let me know. We are all on top of the wave, and we can significantly impact the way that Google+ is used and ranked among other social networks.

These are two examples of how Google+ followers are showing on Google. This is just the beginning. Many major newspapers are still not on Google+.