Are you overwhelmed by the amount of information coming to you in your Google+ stream? Dennis Shiao offers ideas for filtering that information using Google+ Circles. Check out his 5 tips here.
My Google+ Profile: http://gplus.to/dshiao
Introduction
Want to get the most of Google+? It’s all about the Circles. I’ve been using Google+ for a number of months; however, it wasn’t until recently that I made the investment in time to organize my Circles properly. Having done that, however, I can state with confidence that it was more than worth the time. Here are five tips on organizing your own Circles.
1) Prioritize to Organize.
It’s best to “get organized” when you first start using Google+ (e.g. when you add your first batches of users to your Circles). Since I’m used to the “full stream” on Twitter (where I’ve been similarly lax on organizing), I figured that I’d simply add all new Google+ users into a single Circle. For a while, this seemed fine. But the reality is, there are some users I’d like to hear from more than others (just like on Twitter).
And Circle management helps you do just that. First, define the categories or topics you’d like to organize around. I went with the following:
Event Profs
Social Media
Digital Book Club
VCs & Execs
12Most
VWs & Gamification
Brands
Friends
Misc
Sports
Since I organized late in the game, I worked backwards to create some Circles. If you’re starting out early, you’ll have less work to do on organizing people, but you may find the need to create new Circles as you go (which is completely fine).
2) Order Your Circles.
Did you know that you can define the order that your Circles are listed? Simply visit your Circles page (you can click on the “Circles” icon in your Google+ navigation), left-click on a given Circle, then drag it in front of (or behind) another Circle. Return to your Google+ home page and you’ll notice that the list of Circles has been re-ordered.
This article was partially reposted with the permission of Dennis Shiao. To read the rest of “5 Tips for Organizing Your Google+ Circles,” click here.
