Tools and tipps

Reshared post from +Adam Simmons

Google+ Circle Management and Stream Behavior
Unfortuntely it's time for me to clean out my circles this weekend. This is the third "Cleansing" I've done since the start of Google+ last year. This will likely be a sporadic process over the weekend as I like to reorganize and re-categorize people too. Why do I do it, Who do I decircle, and How?

First, Why do I clean out the fridge? I do it becuase many people are off and on engagers. What I mean is many people I circle who initially post interesting posts about things they know later become more general in their posts. This is important if I want to keep my stream focused on things I care about. If someone posts awesome perspectives, opinions, and posts towards lets say Space for a few days then for a few months only posts what they have for dinner they aren't going to last long in my circles. I also like getting to know new people. Meeting new people is one of the easiest things to do on Google+.

Some people decircle me when I decircle them. They know this by using a Google Chrome extension that lets them know when they have been decircled. However, should you decircle me or anyone else when they decircle you? Think first. Look at my posts. Do I consistenly post anything that interest you? If yes, then keep me around. Don't take decircling personally. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm cutting you off from communication or you've done someting wrong. Circles are similiar to a reflection of how you meet people in the real world. You meet people everyday in public but you may not make them your friends all the time. You may meet them again in passing whether it be business or personal. People come and go but the best thing is you can keep track of interesting things they say from time to time without interfering with their interests. This is the great thing about circles. Facebook lets you know when someone has unfriend you and it sounds personal and vindictive too even when Facebook gives you the notification. It may well be as most people are used to managing Facebook between friends and family. Google+ lets you reach beyond and meet people as if your meeting people walking down the street.

Who do I decircle and how do I do it? There is a Chrome Extension I use first called "Uncircle Inactives+". This quickly identifies people who are rarely active on thier Google+ account which makes the intial filtering of the cleansing process easy. Remember it's about people you know, people you care about, your interests, and the people who engage with you. After words comes the hard part. Suppose most of the people are active but your unsure who to circle? I recommend creating a "Save" circle to move people you know you want to keep in that circle. Family and close friends are my exception to cleansing. Next bring up each circle and visually look through the names. People you recognize even in the slightest are probably people whose posts you read the most. Really it works. The next step is easy. Delete that Circle unless it consists of mostly people you want to save, if so then just select multiple people you don't know and delete. That easy.

Coming Back to Deleted Circles – If you think you are feeling guilty about getting rid of people you can check out the following page to get instructions on how to actually bookmark your circles using the sharing feature and safely delete them knowing you can add them back later. Ignore the title and don't be fooled. It doesn't cheat the system so you get more than 5000. I thought about this early on and I use this method in case I get interested in old topics again. https://blog.metaprime.at/a-little-hack-how-to-expand-the-5000-circle-limit-on-google-plus-as-kim-sherrell/

The Stream – Keep the stream about things you care about. You do this by keeping your circles filled with people who post things you care about. I love keeping my count between 4000-5000 people because my stream updates about every 5-10 seconds. This turns my stream into a kind of channel I can watch like TV. Something catches my eye I click and read.

How do you cleanse your circles? How do you feel about my perspective? I'll probably edit this more as I think about better ways to word the process. Thanks for listening. Questions or Comments?

#Circles #circlemanagement #circlemanagement101 #CircleCleansing #StreamBehavior