You’re starting to think Google+ may be a good use of your social networking time? If you read Kelly Dingee’s post on Fistful of Talent about why she’s excited about using Google+ and Google profiles for recruiting, you should be!

One of the big reasons to use social media is to help you find people you want to know. I wrote about how to find people on Google+. Be sure to take a look at my post, because it gives you the tools to figure out the next important piece of the social networking puzzle: How to BE found!

Your Google profile (which you probably own but don’t pay much attention) is important. If you’re not already on Google+, you can find your profile via Google profiles: http://www.google.com/profiles.

If you are already on Google+, you can start to test out how easy (or difficult) it is to find you via your profile by searching the various tools I listed in the “how to find people on Google+ post.”Think of the keywords you want people to use to find you. Are you a graphic artist working mostly in Atlanta?  Search, {“graphic artist” and “Atlanta”}. How many pages does it take to find your profile?

Identify the keywords you want people to use to find you. (Follow that link for advice about how.) Maybe your location is not important, but the fact you design custom Facebook pages? Decide your KEY keywords.

NOW – pack your Google profile with those words. Similar to LinkedIn, where it is easier to find you if you include keywords in your titles, descriptions, skills, etc., it appears Google will index you higher in search if your profile is packed with your keywords. List all of your titles. Include professional associations. List anything including keywords in your profile.

A trick?

Google doesn’t offer a “keywords” section to “tag” yourself in the profile, which would be similar to LinkedIn’s “specialties” section, where it is appropriate to list words and phrases relevant to you. Why not add one in?

In your “Introduction” section, add KEYWORDS: and then fill in all the words and phrases you think will help people find you in search. I did it, and it immediately impacted my search results in Google+. Take a look at my profile.

Try a “before” and “after” search to see if your rankings improve. Let me know how it works for you!

photo by Auntie P