Building User Approved Communities

I’d love to see more power users utilize this great community building exercise. I believe that with proper and widespread interaction, these sorts of posts will be building blocks for generating user-approved communities.

Note: The following exercise requires a little time. It might be useful for you to comment by answering 1 question and then coming back to fill out the rest when you have more time and energy.

Here is what I’d like you to do if you have the time, and/or patience. Of course, any comments are welcome even if you don’t do the following 5 steps. I understand that this might be a lengthy endeavor.

How did you find me? Was it by another person/thread/re-share/site/etc. (no biggie if you don’t remember)?
What sorts of users and interests do you follow on G+? How do you interact with these users or interest groups? Circles? Sites?
List at least 3 other users that you find useful. Try to connect them with your interests in #2.
Tag at least one person to whom you think this post would be useful. For example, if you have a photography friend, say “Hey +Friend, some of this info might help you out.”
List at least 1 interesting G+ User who has LESS than 4k Followers.
Why is this useful?

Let’s go by the numbers:

1.) It will help me to thank those who are namedropping me. Returning appreciation is such a valuable apart of the G+ community that I’d hate to miss thanking people or groups. By listing the source, you will also inspire them to come to the thread and take part. This should be like the snowball effect… more tags and bigger community involvement.

2.) This will allow people to see if they should follow you! When you start describing the manner in which you interact with users/groups etc., you will be able to show that you can be a resource for finding other users/pieces of content that are relevant to your interests, if not just a conversation buddy. For example, I like social media news. I follow Mashable employees and popular bloggers. I often interact with them via posts, re-share their information, and join them in hangouts.

3.) This is sort of an expansion of #2. It helps create a community around your interest or a power user who is related to your interests (just see the amazing communities that surround +Christina Trapolino, +Trey Ratcliff, or +Mike Elgan). Now, not only will people be able to add you to their (whatever) circle, but they can start building that circle and filling it with hand-picked recommended users.

4.) Personalized interaction is so key on G+. Why is it so easy to pull individuals into a conversation? Perhaps the answer isn’t as important as the reason that the question was asked. By inviting a specific individual to a conversation you are encouraging that person to interact and providing a specific call to action. Vague advice like, “Find people” isn’t a great motivator for some.

5.) Explore the “non-power” users. There is clearly a popular and well followed crowd on Google+. Supreme power users like +Robert Scoble, +Tom Anderson, +Chris Pirillo et al see thousands and thousands of Follower additions probably weekly. And they deserve it (at least the ones I mentioned — Zuck probably doesn’t). But leave those people up in #2 and #3. There are tons of G+ users with AMAZING talents and things to say that simply get left out in most “List your top 5 favorite user” posts. So, find your favorite users with under 4k, and tell us a little about them. I bet they’ll appreciate it!