it's a recommendation video for a book that I think you should read and that is Enchantment

by Guy Kawasaki. Oh, yes, long-overdue, I know. Last week he was a part of a PR hangout

on Google Plus and he was sharing with Sarah Evans how he uses Google Plus and what you

need to do to have an awesome presence there. So since I wrote down a lot of great stuff

I thought it would be a good idea to share with you for Social Thursday.

One of the first things that he said about social media in general, not just Google Plus

is that it's a means to an end. People have a hard time with that when big personalities

are on social media and they're using it in a way that obviously there is a goal that

we're going to share something here, we want you to buy or we want you to help to advocate

for us so that the brand can somehow make money. The reality is that's why a lot of

brands are on social media. So it shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone. So Guy just

wanted to stress the importance of that and how what he does contributes to that cause,

how is he using social media to make people follow and really enjoy the kinds of things

that he's doing so that later they'll be interested in buying his latest book or joining a webinar

that he's doing or something like that.

The main goal for him on Google Plus is to share great stuff. He has 5 million followers

and he said it's basically his goal to be on top stories every single day. He tries

to share such great content that people will share it like crazy and Google will see it

and say okay let's feature Guy again so that he will get in front of more and more people.

So if you want to know how to get people to Plus or to share or to follow it's to share

great stuff. Just find the best of the best. Make sure it's within your industry if you

need to stay really niche. Guy seems to be all the way across the board on his -- which

is not a big deal but you know, some of us may need to stay within certain parameters

of the type of content that we use. But if you share something great or controversial

or whatever it is that it's getting people talking, it's getting that emotion going,

the more likely you're going to have things happening for your profile.

Next, he said, photos, photos, photos... which is not a surprise because Google Plus really

helps you make your photos very big just like on Facebook. So anytime you're sharing an

update you should really be using a photo... every time. Make sure the link is there. Make

sure the source for the photo is there. Take a screen grab, upload it, share it. The whole

update should be photos or really pops and it takes up a lot of space on the news feed.

He mentioned a lot of Google Chrome Google Plus extensions that he uses, tools that you

can download to your browser to make sharing things on Google Plus even easier.

The one that I didn't know about and I think you guys would find really useful, it's called

Do Share. If you go to Google Chrome extension store and type in do share, you can download

it to your browser and it ultimately helps you schedule updates to Google Plus. Since

I'm a Buffer app user this is extremely useful because Buffer app doesn't allow you to schedule

for Google Plus global. So if you just embed this into your browser it will make it very,

very easy for you to do that. So you can have a Google Plus presence but may be not be there

all the time.

Last thing to take away is everybody always asks Guy, how did you get so many followers?

How did you get so many followers? Well, first of all, he was brand evangelist for Apple.

So he's a brand, right? He's got it going on but the one thing that he said that I loved

was it took me thirty years to get five million followers. Now how long has Google Plus been

around? Not that long. It's what he's done over the period of his career that has helped

him grow and helped attract people to learn more about him and get on the Guy Kawasaki

bandwagon. So if you want to get that many followers, you need to execute, you need to

know what you're doing, you need to know what you want to talk about, you need to know who

you are. That's all for Social Thursday.

What do you guys think? Are you guys using Google Plus at all? I am definitely using

Google Plus. I am not using it to the best of my abilities yet which is exactly why I

tuned in for this Google Plus hangout because Guy just kills it over there. And -- but it's

a really important network to be on, so you guys should definitely be looking into it

if you're not already there. It's Google guys, it's Google. Period. End of story. Like you

want Google to like you, use their stuff. All right. Are you with me? Let me know, or

Google Plus may -- I always tweet, so that's not fair. You can send me a Google Plus, though,

that will be really fun if we start talking over there. I just -- I have been sharing

content over there but I guess I haven't been telling anybody to go there and talk to me.

But there are people over there that talk to me. Okay. I am not talking to nobody on

Google Plus. That would be depressing.