How To Use Google+ Ripples to Identify Influencers

Want to know one of the best-kept “secrets” about Google+? It tells you who the influencers on any topic are with a feature called Ripples. Let’s take a look at a couple of quick examples.

First, you find Ripples by clicking on the context menu on any publicly available post:

Here’s a post about Google+ network growth I created last week, and how it shows up in Ripples:

Hover over any name of someone sharing that post and you can add them to your own circles. If they choose to circle you back, you can then tag them by name in future posts and they’ll likely appreciate it as long as it’s relevant.

Here’s an even more powerful tip – as long as it’s public, you can do the same with any public post. For example, here’s a post I reshared that was a cute set of bumper stickers about kids and mobile devices by Carter Gibson:

If you’re talking about the mobile space at all, you might want to know who else thought this post was funny and/or on target for the mobile tech crowd. Hit Ripples and see for yourself:

Carter’s very influential himself; however, there are a number of second-level circles that have done a fair amount of resharing themselves. If I were responsible for growing an audience that was mobile-focused, I’d be adding those people to my circles as well.

Now that, according to some sources, Google+ is the second-largest social network, you can’t afford to ignore it.

Christopher S. Penn
Vice President, Marketing Technology

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