Google+ is taking the photographic world by storm this year! Not only is it the BEST opportunity for unknown photographer’s to get some attention, but it’s just a great place to go for your fix of the photographic world! What do I mean by that? Google+ always has a conversation going on, whether it’s at one of Trey Ratcliff’s hangouts, or Scott Kelby’s feed ringing with people talking about all the goings on with the photographic world. Google+ literally doesn’t shut up! So what’s the biggest shocker in this whole talk about Google+? We’ll use Scott for this example. Scott Kelby has about 64,000 twitter followers, that’s pretty big you may say. Well, here it comes… over at Google+, Scott Kelby has 272,038 follower’s (technical term, unsure of, maybe circlers?). This is where the crowd gasps! I’m no mathematician, but that’s about a 325% increase in follower’s! YIKES! About after that, I realized, time to get on this Google+ bandwagon. It’s been four months since I joined, and I can’t wait to give you my finding! May I present to you, Five BIG things to worry about after joining Google+!

1) Continuity is Key

A lot of people Everyone who has been successful in the blogesphere knows just how important continuity is. The reality of the matter is, if you don’t post on a frequent and continual basis, you will not gain any following. People just don’t want to be left in the dark. “Maybe I’ll hit up that guy’s blog today, maybe he’ll have updated it, maybe not” is not something you want to communicate to your audience. Google+ is much the same as any old blog, but on a grander scale. Google+ is a blog dedicated to you, that is linked to millions of other blogs like never before. Photographers, everyone for that matter, have a much better opprotunity to build their following through Google+ than through their own blog and so it is important that you stay “virtually alive”. Update as frequently as you can with pictures, story’s, links so as to keep people looking!

2)  Use your own website as a follow-up!

Like all things in life, this sort of picks up from my 1st point. Many people may wonder, “So I’ve got this schnazzy new Google+ page up, time to ditch the blog right?” WRONG! Google+ certainly offers people an extended platform to showcase to the world than things like Twitter or Facebook, but it does not replace the need for a website or blog. Clients, and followers in the photographic world will not be given a very professional impression by a Google+ profile. It’s very important to have this follow up available. Aditionally, link to your Google+ profile through your website! This is very important, because it directs more traffic to your Google+!

3) Stuck for idea’s? Use StumbleUpon!

This is a twoforone deal! For one, their’s nothing that makes people more bored than a person on Google+ who only posts pictures. This brings me Deja Vu to a Grid Live episode a while back to which Scott and his wife Kalebra talked about the annoyance of such things, if you want to see that episode, you can go here. “This is a picture”, “This is another picture” and so on is not a good way to grab attention! Your work is important! You work tirelessly to perfect your craft so the last thing you want to do is bore people out! Posting other stuff, like links to other blogs, youtube video’s or production photographs are a great way to keep people interested! For two, what if you run out of idea’s, not shooting much lately, and you NEED something to post to your Google+ to keep up that continuity? Guy Kawasaki, the man, the legend, recommends using StumbleUpon to search for things he can post that are related to his interests and his follower’s interest, I recommend you do the same! Not a member? JOIN HERE!

4) Comment, Comment, Comment!

When people put up a website, they have a general expectation of traffic, but when they look at their analytics, they are saddened to see a mere 3 visits, two of which of your parents. People generally don’t find photographer’s out of the blue, they hear about them from some guy’s blog, or they see them teach a seminar and visit their website after the fact. If you think your going to rock the universe via Google searches, sadly, your wrong. You need to be seen by people. So yes, it’s a stereo-type but get yourself out there! Comment on post’s, +1 and build relationships, don’t just circle someone and say that’s that! If you like someone’s work, why not chat with them? Who knows you might end up collaborating for a project in the future!

5) Go Check out Scott Kelby’s Google+ Training Video!

Just so you know, I don’t get a kickback from Scott for mentioning him in my blog posts, he’s just a great guy that I think you should all know of. He, Matt Kloskowski and RC Concepcion have done a great video series to get people started, you can see it here! It’s a great watch if your still just playing in the mud with the idea’s of Google+.

You still haven’t joined? JOIN NOW! Get on the Google+ bandwagon today!