Google+ is a little bit difficult to use if you are not used to it. One of the issues is that you can’t tell who is following you back. On Twitter, you follow, and then unfollow those who didn’t follow you back. Googleplus doesn’t make it possible to do this. They want you to follow people you actually want to follow! But, I have a new technique I invented.
If you follow 100 accounts per day on Google+ for example — you would also unfollow most or all of them a few days or a week later. So, how do you know which ones were following you back? On the posts page of your account, you will see a list of those following you. The accounts that Google will show you tend to be accounts that you are NOT following back. Many of them could have been people you followed, who followed you back who you unfollowed. This way you get them back into your reciprocal circles. But, there’s more.
Create a circle called “Follow Back”
This makes it easier. If you have circles of those you are following, only to unfollow them a few days later in hopes that they will reciprocate, those circles tend to get eliminated systematically as part of the process. However, the follow back circle does not get removed by you if you use my strategy. There are temporary circles and permanent circles.
Another twist on circles
Since I follow people with the intention of unfollowing them a few days later — if I find an account that has many mutual followers in common with me, I put them into the circle that corresponds to where I found them such as a name of a community, etc. But, I also put them in a second circle that I intend not to erase ever such as my “Optimized follower” circle, or my VIP, or “Of interest” circle.
Summary
Basically, the way to grow your social media following is just like a scene from the Karate Kid movie. Wax on, wax off, don’t forget to breathe — very important! But, if you find someone during your outreach who you want to keep for good, put them in a special circle where they won’t get removed by you later on. Additionally, if those in your follow-back folder unfollow you down the road, there are ways to deal with this. You could unfollow your follow-back people, and then look at your posts page on the upper right and follow them back again — the ones who are still following you will show up there.