The importance of your Google+ profile

There's a gazillion people who have circled me and so many are without a profile picture... = Blueheads

Create your profile!

What is the most important thing when joining Google+?
It’s not finding friends or family, though you might think so, especially if you’re used to using Facebook.

Your profile is like your business card:
Fill up your profile’s “About” page with photos and information about who you are, where you work, what your hobbies and interests are.

This will help you to find like-minded people among the Pluserati, i.e. the other G+ users. The more you share about yourself, the better.





Photos: Profile picture or ‘Avatar’ and other photos:

Make sure the photos you use are big enough and not blurry. Your Twitter profile pic is probably too small. I use a 300 kt pic, the minimum is 250 pixels.

See my profile here:  Jaana Nyström

Spice up your profile with your own banner image!

I've been taking photos in my garden and underwater: First I switched my existing banner image for the large original photo: Then I just looked for the best part of the photo, cropped as per G+ does and set the image in it's correct size of 940 x 180.

I saved that image to my own file, without any texts. Did this several times with different images.
Next I used the image to make a post, added some text but shared it just with myself, then saved the resulting image. Repeated the process with another text.

If you wish to use the Google+ own photo editor it's as easy and you get more possibilities.
I'll post about that next.
Now I have a few more nice banner images that I can use, all saved up. 
Try it and make your profile more attractive... :-)

As a gift to my readers:

Here are the banners I've created, feel free to use any of these for your profile.
For the Christmas holiday time some new banners!

How to attract the circling motion:

Take a look at your profile's 'About' page.

Employment – Think carefully what you write here because the text is shown on your ‘hovercard’.

This is a big factor when deciding whether to add someone to circles or not!

You can make the text quite long, but be careful not to bore or overwhelm the possible followers. Make it snappy, like an alligator sandwich.  Use just 20 characters or thereabouts, or it won't show well on your hovercard.
Remember to use ‘current employment’ option for the text to show.

Take note, only you can decide who will see this information from the drop down menu of each area.
Is it you only, your circles, extended circles or the whole wide world. You can also choose ‘custom’ and set it, just like sending a private message to your circles or persons; +name, name the persons or choose specific circles.

Occupation – This is important what you write here as it will show on different occasions like this list by Jari Huomo that I’m in: ( http://www.googleplussuomi.com/mvp/ ). The text under my name came from this box, though I have changed it since.

(When you mouse over somebody’s name in Google+ you see a hovercard with a picture, name and some text, if the person has filled out their profile, that is. Otherwise you’ll just see a Bluehead and a name.)

For these two last mentioned bits you can simply fill in the name of the company you work for but as there is space for more, I recommend adding at least your position or speciality.

Then again you can go with Student or Self-employed, Professional Techie or World’s Greatest Lover. If you leave these two empty, then your hovercard or ‘blurb’ will show the text from the top of the page, under your name.

Tagline

Your Google+ profile page has a section called the 'Tagline', where you can add a brief description of yourself. Click the space and write; don’t make it too long. I recommend making it public for ‘anyone on the web’, as it will be your personal 'headline'.

If several people have the same name, this is what distinguishes you from the rest.  This text is shown on your hovercard, so keep it short: About 20 characters or thereabouts, or it won't show in full.

See the PAUL's for instance, how people can stand out from the crowd with good profile avatar and tagline:

Don't be a Bluehead! :-)
Have a look at other people’s hovercards, this is my assignment for you.

Here is an excellent blog post by Robert Wallis for all of you Blueheads or SelenaGomezes out there!

The story behind my (cropped) Google+ profile picture

I love elephants!

My profile photo was taken in Thailand: The elephant was then 60 years old and the mahout or trainer was 70. They had spent their whole lives together, at first working hard the teak forests in Northern Thailand and then taking it easier near Pattaya with the tourists in a show, after they retired.
I was working as a tour guide for a Finnish charter company at the time and was a regular visitor with my groups. So the locals took me in the show frequently and the elephants got used to me.

I had been massaged by the elephants, stepped over, fondled, played soccer with them until one day... This old guy came to me and asked if I wanted to try out something new. I said, why not, of course. He then made me stand in front of the beast and told me to stand absolutely still and just wait. Suddenly I felt a gentle nudge and a trunk embracing me. The hold tightened and I was up in the air, my feet dangling in the air nearly above people's heads! Woohoo, talk of an adrenaline rush!

I have really tried to get my photo updated but all the mahouts nowadays are fairly young (in their 30's to 50's) and have spent much less time with their charges: They are afraid/unable to get their elephant to do what was done in the original pic.
So in a way, it's a photo of the century.

Has your "Avatar" a story attached?  Share it on your profile page and with the Circleverse!

Is there anything you'd like to add?