A while back I made a conscience effort to start communicating information about user experience, SEO, content strategy and accessibility. I had built up a good list of RSS feeds for me and thought it would be nice to share it. I didn’t want to have an auto feed where people would sift through a bunch of articles that may or may not be relevant; I wanted my Twitter and Google+ streams to be useful!

That has been my only strategy and apparently, people like getting information from my Twitter and Google+feeds. So if you want to add value to your personal social media brand do the following.

• Get educated in the field you want to focus your brand on.
• Make that your passion at work and outside of work.
• Usability 101 – Know your audience.
• Keep a consistent message in your posts.
• Use content curation to back up your opinion on subject matters.

These things can take your personal brand a long way in social media!

First, let me debunk the myth that Google+ is like Facebook. It is true that the designs are similar, but Facebook is primarily used for more “family and friends” purposes than gathering information or researching a topic. Most people look to either a Google search or Twitter to find trends and information. Google+ is more like a blend of a Google search and Twitter — not like Facebook at all.

So you’ve got these Circles…

If you follow Google’s instructions on setting up your Circles you may overwhelmed with choosing the right people and putting them into the right Circle. Well, there is an easier way to start following people who interest you without getting that feeling in your stomach about setting up all those ‘friends’ or people you want to follow: SEARCH!

Using the Google+ search on a topic combines the power of finding people and Pages on Google+, posts within Google+ and a normal Google search into one results page. Google+ Pages are company brands, similar to people profiles. You can filter the results to only show people in Google+ on the topic you search for. In this example, we search on ‘mobile web’:

Instead of going to the Circles section and choosing from people in your address book or trying to use Google’s recommendations, use the search to find key people to follow. This is how the Google+ pros are doing it. The best part about building Circles using Google+ search is that you can name your Circle the same name as your search term.

Looking at the screen capture you may also notice some other useful tools such as saving the search you performed, to speed up your search. You can also filter to “Sparks” – which are essentially Google search results if you went to Google.com and performed the same search. Though, it is my belief that using Sparks gives you slightly better results on a topic than a general Google search. Hangouts are video conferences, which may also be useful in connecting with people for topic research.

Upon filtering the results to “People and pages” you can see that I already have some of these people in my Circles, but Google+ is suggesting some others that I may want to consider.

In conclusion…

Google+ is gaining in popularity and as more people begin to understand the power behind Google+ search, the more useful the new social medium is becoming. Just last week Facebook announced it was overhauling their search feature, primarily because they are competing with Google — the unquestionable ”King of Search!”

Don’t be afraid to set up a Google+ account and start your experience the way Google should have instructed you. Use the search! And you’ll be a Google+ pro in no time.

For more information about Google+ view my Prezi presentation.

I was 24 years old, fresh out of college, engaged and needing a place to live soon. I had a job offer at the time from another agency, but a friend, Jennifer (Vogel) Eckerman, told me about this new agency that I really should work for. I had no idea they were only two weeks out of the gate. I was a Journalism/Spanish double major looking to do more HTML, design and development work. They needed a front-end developer — talk about good timing!

I still remember accepting the offer from Tom Dunphy, who asked, “When can you start?” to which I replied, “When I find a place to live!” Dunphy then followed up with, “Do you want to buy a condo in Ankeny?” And that was how it all began. Within 30 days I owned my first home that was fully furnished, including a TV! Seven months later I married my beautiful wife, who has helped me throughout my career in so many ways — including introducing me to usability. Twelve years fly by and I am now blessed with a wife, two children and a home. I couldn’t ask for more.

Dunphy and Brian Jones, president of Two Rivers Marketing, saw nothing but potential in me. I am eternally grateful for all of their support to me and my family. Tragically, Tom was lost to us, along with Eric Jacobs, Josh Trainor and Leslie O’Bannon, just over five years ago. I believe they would support me in this career move, though I know most wouldn’t want to see me go. There are so many others that I owe my appreciation to; not only other associates, but clients as well.

Making your first career move can be difficult. But when the right opportunity comes along, it is always important to listen. That is just what I did. And this opportunity feels right for me and my family.

I am very excited to announce my new position at The Principal Financial Group, where I start next Monday. I will be a User Experience Designer – Lead. The usability team I am joining is full of strong talent and energy. It is an honor to be working with three other Certified Usability Analysts (CUAs) and I can’t wait to see how we can improve our company’s applications and websites.

The only way I can think to end this post is with a simple —

I think it’s cool that they are expanding their international efforts and helping Airbnb celebrate in the UK, but let me geo-locate myself. Nope, I’m not in the UK. I’m in the Heartland of the United States, Iowa to be exact. Maybe the campaign is trying to make me aware that Klout offers more incentives out of the US, but when the headline reads “Treat Yourself with a £50 Travel Voucher from Airbnb” – I immediately focus on the £50 and think, “Did we switch currencies?” If only I read my email thoroughly, maybe I wouldn’t have this confusion? Last I checked most people scan when they read, especially email offers.

The user experience and marketing strategy wasn’t thought through very well. Simple segmentation could have been applied to make sure that an offer that I would actually be interested would be sent to my inbox. Either my connections with user experience folks in the UK have put me in the European segment or Klout doesn’t know me at all!

Another great example of how important it is for you to know your users.

Putting the “plus” in Google+