I remember bumping my head against the ceiling on Google+ for a month. I am a relatively new user on Google+ and certain things just bugged me. I want to create a large following as fast as possible to get the SEO benefits, but there are limitations. Google doesn’t want you following too many people too quickly, especially if you are new.
The rule of 3.5
Googleplus will not let you follow more than 3.5 times as many users as who follow you. So, if 300 people follow you, you can follow around 1050 total.
The 24 hour rule
Googleplus will set limits on how many people you can follow in a 24 hour period. If you were following at 2pm yesterday, you will have trouble following if you login at 1pm today. You will have to wait to do your following.
The interacting rule
Googleplus likes it when you interact with others, especially if they comment, or plus your comment. Sometimes Google will limit how many people you can follow in a day, but lift that limit if you make some intelligent comments to other people’s posts.
The follow-back rule
Google will let you follow more people if you follow-back people following you. If you schedule your daily 20 minutes on G+, I suggest the following itinerary: Unfollow a few dozen people from a circle that has been around for about a week. You need to mark your circles in a way so you know when you added them. Next, follow the people on your posts page in the upper right corner who are following you. Most of them will be people you are not following. Google puts them up there because Google wants you to follow them in particular. Next, do some following from a targetted source and label the circle you put them in thoughtfully. Finally, do some posting or share someone else’s post. Wait a few hours before your next post. Following back should come 2nd, in your daily G+ itinerary — and for a reason. If you follow them first when you are your limit of # of followers, you might be bumping your head on the ceiling.
Using sister accounts
Many experts like the idea of having multiple Google+ accounts that work as a team. One technique that has worked a charm is to invite people from your googleplus account #2 to join the community on googleplus account #1. If they join your community, they are likely to join your main account as well. This is a way to get more followers significantly faster for those of you who want to reach 1000 followers as fast as humanly possible.
That’s all for now. Happy following, and remember — when using Google+, you need to have a system. Keep all your circles thoughtfully labeled and time stamped (somehow) according to when they were created and when they are to be removed — if they are to be removed!