Using Google+ and FindPeopleOnPlus for Link Building and Blogger Outreach

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What is Google+?

Google plus is Google’s recent attempt at breaking into the social space and building a network to complete with Facebook. The benefits they have include a built in Gmail and Google profile base, and currently (as of July 2011) have hit the 10 million user mark.

What is Findpeopleonplus.com?

FindPeopleOnPlus is a directory of close to 1 million (and growing) Google+ users. Where as Google+ does not offer an extensive search functionality, FindPeopleOnPlus gives you the ability to search by Name, Profession, Location, or a specific keyword. In the left hand navigation their is the ability to narrow your list by relationship, gender, looking For, following, followers, occupation, if the user is also on Twitter, if the user is also on Facebook, by country, state, and city. They also offer users the ability to browse their alphabetical index of Plus users which is sorted alphabetically by number of followers.

They also offer some high level demographic information about the current Google+ user base. They have broken the data down by Gender, Geography, Workplace and as well as unique views such as Facebook employees vs. Google employees and so on.

Some Interesting Stats on Google+ Users Include:

Gender Distribution

• Male 71%
• Female 28%

Top Professions of Google+ Users

1. Engineer (24.56%)
2. Developer (13.57%)
3. Designer (10.77%)
4. Software Engineer (10.05%)
5. Writer (4.88%)
6. Web Developer (4.23%)
7. Software Developer (3.67%)
8. Programmer (3.48%)
9. Photographer (3.05%)
10. Artist (2.79%)

Top 5 Cities With the Most Google+ Users

1. San Francisco 5,323 (7.85%)
2. New York 4,954 (7.31%)
3. Los Angeles 3,275 (4.83%)
4. Chicago 3,267 (4.82%)
5. Seattle (4.08%)

Top 3 Countries

1. United States 150,523 (49.12%)
2. India 18,021 (5.88%)
3. Sri Lanka 14,972 (4.89%)

Map of Google+ Users

With all these stats it will be interesting to see how they change as time goes by and Google opens up more slots for personal accounts, and then what demographics will be added and how it will change when they roll out the business profile inclusion

Using FindPeopleOnPlus.com for Link Building and Blogger Outreach

So with all this data there must be some way to harness its power to cultivate a list of blogs and influential people in your niche to help with your local SEO, or enterprise SEO link building efforts. A site can then utilize this list to focus their blogger outreach efforts and start building relationships with the key players in their space.

Step 1: Keyword Research
So what do you want to target? Have you created some great info-graphics or research content about your niche or business segment that you want to get into the hands of some high profile people? The first step is to use FindPeopleOnPlus to target by keyword. You will want to target specific people who have expressed an interest in your niche. The key is to stay focused on 1 or 2 main keywords, don’t get broad. Simply type the keyword you are focusing on into the search field and press enter. The result will bring back groups of people that are interested in your specific keyword. You can then use the left hand navigation to narrow your search down into specific segments. Maybe you only want people who have twitter accounts, or who are also on Facebook, or are of a specific occupation; all of which narrow your focus of your searched for keyword.

Step 2: Do Your Homework
With any link building campaign it’s all about building that relationship, so visit the influencer’s website, read some of their posts, follow them on Google+ (you can create specific circles for each keyword you want to target) and get to know them. Don’s just start mass emailing, or mass commenting on their Twitter or Facebook accounts. Be courteous, friendly, and understanding if they don’t get back to you immediately.

Step 3: Reach Out To Them
We have all received those emails to exchange links and realize how informal and ridiculous those can be. So after learning a little bit about your target influencer, reach out to them in a conversational manner, maybe referencing a fun blog post you read on their site, and how your content would fit well into their site and would be great for their users.

Step 4: Manager Your List of Influencers
With any good sales effort (which is basically what link building is) it’s important to stay organized. There are few things that hurt a relationship more than someone who sends 3 emails out to the same person (it comes across as spammy, and you only get 1 chance at high value influencers). Managing your link building efforts can be as easy as creating a excel spreadsheet with columns such as Name, Email, Facebook Page, Twitter Page, Last Contact, and a Notes column.

As always if you need help with these or other link building campaigns please read over our link building page and contact us with any questions you may have.