By Reid Rosefelt
When you finish reading this post you will possess the key to becoming a mighty internet power user.
For no charge, I’m going to share a huge breakthrough I made. That’s the kind of guy I am.
It all started just as the Chris Christie Bridge-ghazi scandal was gathering steam. Like many, I googled the besieged Governor to see if there were any new developments.
One day, I saw something that surprised me: on the first page, right under CBS News, MSNBC, Chicago Tribune, the Office of the New Jersey Governor, Christie’s Wikipedia entry, the Chicago Tribune again, and the Washington Post, was a link to something from my friend, celebrated indie film man Ira Deutchman. “Wow,” I thought. “Ira must have generated something pretty big to generate a search engine smasheroo like that.” As you might imagine, I was on pins and needles to find out what Ira had come up with.
I was gobsmacked when I clicked the link and found this:
That’s it? A tweet ported to Google+? That’s what passes for hot shit on Google these days?
I knew that Google+ had given me a big boost with my blog posts, not to mention that they pop out because of that little postage stamp picture of me (“Google Authorship”) you see on Ira’s link.
As I tried to find an explanation for what caused this, I remembered that something similar had happened before. I was searching for information on a particular topic and on the first Google page I found a series of messages I’d exchanged months previous with Scott Kleinberg, the Social Media Editor at the Chicago Tribune, one of the guys who runs a Google+ Social Media Community I belong to.
What happened with Ira had not only happened before–it had lingered on the front page for awhile. As it had been a few weeks since my original “Chris Christie” search, I decided to try another. Bingo! Ira’s post was still there.
This struck me as kind of cool, but also–more than a little scary. Nobody ever warned me about this! Frantically, I started retracing my steps, struggling to remember any loose talk I’d ever put up on Google+.
Eventually I calmed down and convinced myself that this probably only happens with people who are in my circles on Google+. Otherwise it would be totally nuts. Of course, if you’re reading this, feel free to Google “Chris Christie” and see if you get Ira. But I doubt that will happen if he isn’t in your circle on Google+.
Assuming I’m right, imagine the power of this.
If you managed to collect thousands of people in your Google+ circles, your posts will lurk like sleeper cells waiting to pounce on them when they least expect it–just as Ira’s gem is waiting for me the next time I check up on Chris Christie.
This is a hell of a lot more influence than you could ever get from the same number of followers on Twitter or Facebook. With those networks, your posts flutter away like snowflakes in a polar vortex, never to be seen again. With Google+, you just might be building a monument to every pithy comment you make.
This is in addition to the enhanced SEO you already get on websites and posts. (That may have something to do with the word that comes before “+” in the name of the network.)
There are dozens of reasons for you to get on Google+ and here’s one more. But do remember to post responsibly:
Don’t ever put anything up that you don’t want your Google+ chums to discover on Page One forever.
Reid Rosefelt blogs and coaches filmmakers & artists about how to market their films using social media, and lectures frequently on the topic. His credits as a film publicist include “Stranger Than Paradise,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and “Precious.”
His blog is reidrosefelt.com and his Pinterest Page Social Media for Filmmakers was named first on IndieWire’s list of “10 Pinterest Boards Filmmakers Should be Following.”
