You’ve Reached the Maximum Number of People that Can be in Your Circles

How many of you have gotten this dreaded message from Google+?   No doubt you other type A personalities, a Google+ hoarder or both.  As you might already know, Google limits the amount of people/businesses that you can have in your circles to 5000. In my excitement and engagement on Google+, while enjoying the quality, niche user base and quality content on this new Google+ social platform, I had not really given any thought to hitting limits.

But then it came, this part Sunday morning at 1 am, the dreaded messages from Google+, in a red box at the top of the Google+ interface like the one at the top of this post, "You’ve reached the maximum number of people that can be in your circles at this time." What? For real!?? Argh!

I guess that I should not be surprised, since Facebook also limits the number of friends that you have to 5000, but for some reason, in the brave new Google+ world, I thought that things would be different in most regards. I guess drinking too much from the Google+ Cool Aid fountain has made me a little circle drunk.

What’s interesting is that it that your profile can be in many  more than 5000 different Google+ user’s circles but you can only have 5000 Google+ profiles or pages across all your circles. Wow, I still can’t get over that. I wonder if the 5000 limitation is based on technology limitations or some kind of Google philosophy and/or guiding principle? In any event, for me at least, it takes some of the shine off this Google+ Internet marketing mousetrap and will require some clean up of my circles so that when somebody that I admire adds me to their circles, I can add them back if I so choose.

If you had not gotten this message too, there is a good chance that you would not have discovered this post as you may be seeking solutions or work-around to this limitation 5000 entities in your Circles limitation in Google+. What is strange is that my profile states that I have 4967 in my circles?  That is what is stays on my profile page:  In Rick’s circles (4966). But when I click on the circles icon and go to the circles page and click on your circles, it says 5000? Why the discrepancy?

What happened to the other 34 slots? Even when I remove some individuals from circles to free up a spot for someone I want to add in their place, still Google gives me the dreaded “You’ve reached the maximum number of people that can be in your circles at this time.” Am I in some kind of penalty box for my over-zealous circling, like some kind of underfed Internet marketing vulture?

After a Google Search for this message turned up nearly nothing (see SERPs below), I decided to blog about it as a means to connect with other like minded individuals in hopes that we might somehow find a solution to this 5000 people (and business page) limitation to Google+ circles. If you want to connect with me on facebook, I can be found at https://www.facebook.com/RickCNoel. On Facebook, I have space to spare

Leave a comment below if you have gotten the dreaded “You’ve reached the maximum number of people that can be in your circles at this time.” Let us know if you have found a work around or if you know of Google+ plans to relax this limitation. Wouldn’t that be a great way to attract the most engaging of Facebook users over to Google+?;-)

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 Google Plus Business Page in 10 Easy Steps

1.) Create a personal profile on Google Plus.

2.) Seek out people that you want to connect with on Google Plus and add them to one or more of your circles

3.) Click on the home icon to go to your news stream. This is content that is dynamically populated by content that is shared by other Google Plus users you are connected to through your circles.

4.) Locate the Create a Google+ page button on the right side bar, under the Google+ Pages heading and click the Create a Google+ page link

5.) Pick a category on the Create a Googe+ page. Categories to choose from include:

a.) Local Place or Business, Product or Brand,
b.) Company Institution or Organization,
c.) Arts and Entertainment or Sports,
d.) Other. For our example, we will select Company Institution or Organization as that fits the example.

6.) Add your company info including:

a.)Page Name (use your business name),
b.)Website (optional, but If you link to your page from your website, it will help users discover it more easily),
c.)Category: Select a category from a predefined list (i.e. Consulting and Business Services is what we chose as Internet marketing services was not available)
d.)Audience Appropriateness with choices which determine who your  page will be publicly visible to and its content is appropriate for :

 i.) Any Google+ user,
ii.) Users 18 and older,
iii.) Users 21 and older,
iv.) Alcohol related,
v.) Opt-in (Optional): You can check the check box Yes, please keep me informed of future Pages releases and other relevant information to opt in (give permission) for Google to send you information about Google Plus Pages future releases, features, etc.
vi.) Terms of Service (Required): prior to creating your Google Plus Business Page, you must acknowledge and agree to the Google Plus Pages Terms of Service by checking the box to the left of the following text:   “I agree to the Pages Terms and I am authorized to create this page.”

7.) Click the CREATE button

8.) Customize your Google+ Business page’s public profile and add more details to help people find your business on Google Plus by adding the following profile basics to get started:

a.) Add company tagline (Google recommends “the 10 words that describe your business best.”)
b.) Add a company logo which can be uploaded from your computer or device or sourced from your Google Plus personal profile.

Click CONTINUE

9.) Get the word out to tell everyone about your new page on Google+
(Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)

10.) Click the FINISH button when you are done sharing.

Now is when the real fun begins. Google has some great suggestions on how to promote your page.

a.) Start a conversation by posting content on your page. People want to hear from you! Start sharing photos, videos, links, and other interesting content publicly.
b.)
Connect your website (notice the shiny new eBiz ROI G+ badge!) Grow your audience by making it easy for people to find and recommend your page. Place the Google+ badge or a small code snippet on your site.

c.) Tell the world by using the link to your page provided by Google in the Google+ creation confirmation page. Distribute this link everywhere you communicate online, to encourage people to add your page to their circles so your posts will appear in their stream. https://plus.google.com/109873080991223388331

d.) Build You Circles. Once people add your page to their circles, you can add them back. Use your circles to get the right message to the right people.

e.) Other techniques Google+ Direct Connect, Hangouts and adding a +1 Button to your website.

I hope this brief Adding a Google+ Business Page tutorial was helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact eBiz ROI to learn more about how your business can leverage Google+, Google Places and Google Search Plus Your World.

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Your Search Results with your photos, your friends, your stuff …

Google Plus Update is the Marriage of Search with Social

On 11 January 2012, Google Announced Search, plus Your World, its new, transformational search update that will integrate Google+ content and social graph information into personalized search results. Google Search users will have to have Google+ profile and be signed into their Google+ account to experience the new search results.

Official Google Search, plus Your World Video

Google Search results will now include personal results and profiles of people who are in your Google+ social graph. Not completely unsurprising, the new Google Search, plus Your World will not currently use social graphs from information Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn for this latest Google Search update as Google is not granted unfettered access to this data like it is in Google+.

Google Search users will be able to locate and connect with other Google+ users related to a search they perform, right from the search box and corresponding search results. Note that this update is still being rolled out and will not be available to all Google Search users day 1, with no word as of yet from Goolge regarding implementation roll out schedule, at least that I have seen.

As you can see from Google Search, plus Your World Video, the Search, Plus Your World integrated search results will now include:

Google+ users who don’t want the personalization in their Google Search results have the option to disable Google+ content from showing up in their integrated search results.

What Others in the Industry are Saying about this Development

CNN referred to the latest Google Search update as most radical transformation ever. Though this is a bold statement, it is clearly not far off the mark in a move that is intended to position Google+ as a more prominent player in the social networking market whlie gaining  user base and mind share.

This latest Google Search Plus Your World update is a development that Twitter spoke out against the same day its releease was announced. Here what Chris Crum of WebPro News had to say in Google Search, Plus Your World: Twitter Not Happy.  The Google public response to Twitter’s comments was makde via their most radical change ever.

While there are wide spectrum of opinions from current Google and Facebook users (see Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut) where Pete Cashmore, CEO and Founder of Mashable, refers to this update as “a HUGE move” in the article comments. While many of the other 104 (at the time of this writing) comments are dissenting, methinks that Pete is right!

Regardless of your predications of Google success with this new update and how it will further deepen their play into the Social Networking marketing and whether or not you think it will impact Facebook use and market share, given Google dominance in search and share of voice for Internet usage, Internet marketers will be well-served to pay attention.

Look for more on the Search, plus Your World coming to one of the hundreds of millions of Google searches per day near you!

VIDEO Update from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, on does “Google Plus Your World” favor Google+ too much?

What do you think? We would love to hear your perspective in the comments section. All comments that add to the conversion will be published, roughly translated as no spam please

If you found value in this post, please like eBiz ROI on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ebizroi (or click like button directly below) and Follow eBiz ROI on Twitter @eBizROI (or click the Twitter follow button directly below) to stay connected to the Terrific Time for Traffic series and other quality content for growing your business online while maximizing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

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Google Plus was expected to hit 10 million users according to Paul Allen, Chief Revenue Officer at FamilyLink as cited in a recent post on Google+ published at Buzzom.com. That is one heck of a beta test! Google’s official position, as represented below by Google+ Product Manager Christian Oestlien, is that businesses should be patient and hold off on creating Google+ profiles for their brands, for now at least.

In the video below published by Google+ product management along with the accompanying Google+ blog post, according to Christian, the reason that Google is urging brands to exercise patience is because he states that the Google+ product team is currently focusing on user experience.

Google+ Product Manager Christian Oestlien on Current Focus of Google+ product team

The Google+ product management position makes logical sense as until user adoption reaches critical mass, Google+ relevancy to business beyond positive SEO impacts are currently unclear. That said, you can easily add a Google+ button to your website or blog without having to create a Google+ profile, just like you can add a facebook like button to a website or blog without needing a fan page. Thus eBiz ROI recommends that publishers and businesses with websites deploy the Google+ button to be able to reap the potential traffic and SEO benefits of users Google+ (aka Liking) your post. If you need help, contact us and we would be glad to assist.

According to Mashable, some significant brands are already hopping aboard including Ford, Breaking News and Mashable themselves creating Google+ profiles even against the Google advise.

As illustrated see from the following information from BrightEdge Research based on a recent survey, we can see that savvy publishers are already adopting and placing Google+ social pluggin (buttons) on their websites, probably in anticipation of broad user adoption over time, not necessarily overnight. Based on recent findings from BrightEdge Research looking at the Adoption of Social Plugins by Top Websites,

image source: Adotas: Google’s +1 Shows Impressive Pub-Adoption Rate.

it is clearly evident that while deployment of the facebook like plugin (aka Like Button) by top publishers is still by far the leader at 10.8%, recent gains by the facebook like plugin over the period show only modest growth in adoption (.3%) while Google+ with an adoption rate of 4.5% surged ahead 3 full per-centage points which represents 350% growth over their previous 1% Google+ adoption by top publishers. Who would expect anything less form a dominant player like Google? The justice department?;-) Click the image above or BrightEdge post entitled Google +1 Sees Surge in Placement on Web’s Largest Sites, but Facebook Still Dominant Social Plug-In to read more about the BridgeEdge Research findings.

To those saying that Google+ will never catch up to facebook in terms of active users, I say look at the usage data. According to latest traffic (unique site visitors/month) data from Compete.com one can imagine how Google has the reach to catch up. Can you say Google Chrome? What about Android? I realize that facebook is the Mount Everest of social networks, but Google is the Goliath of search, analytics, video ala YouTube, etc. Nuf said.

US Traffic for Google vs. Facebook Measured in Unique Visitors per Month

Google.com remains more visited in the US than facebook.com, providing them the reach they willl need to get distribution for campaigns to expand their search relationships into social. Given that Google was shut out of the facebook data that their prime search competitor, Microsoft Bing has, it will be a strong driver for Google to both increase user adoption of Google+ while using the data as a factor in their search algorithm, which I assume is a key driver for Google as a company.

eBiz ROI adoption of Google+

You might have noticed when arriving at this post that eBiz ROI has placed a Google+ button on our Internet marketing blog and a Google+ button on each blog post (see at the top of the post) by not on our business website. Yet.

eBiz ROI and our readers love to hear from other businesses and Internet marketing practitioners in terms of how they are leveraging Google+ to promote their business and build out their circles. We are also interesting in hearing about any observed impacts to the Google natural search results based on Google+ feedback and +1s (don’t you just want to say like .

Why not join the conversation and tell us what you think about Google+, how you are using it and what factors, if any, you think make Google+ something that Internet marketers should pay attention to.