The 20 reasons why many people think Google Plus is a Ghost Town are . . .

The 20 reasons why many people think Google Plus is a Ghost Town are . . .

Nearly every day I hear or read something about Google Plus being a ghost town. After looking at their Google Plus account, I can understand why.

If you think Google Plus is a ghost town, here may be some reasons you might think that. Although I have thousands of people who have circled me on G+ and have found some great conversations as well as some great friends, many people think it is a ghost town. As an early adopter of Google Plus and having managed several Google Plus pages, I have found Google Plus to be anything of a Ghost Town. Sure, I will agree with you it isn’t where Facebook is today, but given that Google Plus is just barely over a year old and Facebook is nearly 8 years old, Google Plus has made some huge strides in its first year.

Here are 20 reasons why you may think G+ is a ghost town:

1. You share your nudity art on the public stream, rather than to a circle that accepts nudity art. Children are on G+ and you have a responsibility to keep your content from ending up in the wrong hands. I know a few friends that have blocked individuals because their friends kept sending nudity art and they didn’t want their kids to accidentally pick up their phones and see the nudity art.

2. You share stereotypical post. This is a new century and people don’t like generalizations about Races. Don’t share post calling out entire classes of people over behaviors you don’t like, instead of just one individual. Sharing stereotypical post over race, creed or color, will always get you blocked quickly by most of the G+ community.

3. You believe that spamming your issues on popular post is your calling. Spamming is when someone comes across a popular discussion thread, proceeds to place a link to either an advertisement or to their special interest in that thread, piggybacking on its popularity for their own agenda. Some network marketers, political pundits and small business owners like doing this to gain traffic to their website. Spamming will get you blocked quickly. I’ll share some awesome SEO information at the end of this post.

4. You believe that your religion gives you an upper hand on the world’s problems. Because you believe you have the answers you preach and condemn those with opposing views. Rather than preach to people who haven’t asked to preach to and risk being blocked, share your message to religious-specific circles where people of like minds can discuss their faiths privately.

5. During a verbal assault you go crazy and won’t quit until you have the last word. Debate is sometimes a lost art, and when faced with disagreement, anger often ensues, leading to unpleasant back and forth insult or worse. Learn how to agree to disagree. Public verbal assaults will get you blocked fast.

6. You share opinion articles to meet your personal agenda without digging in to make sure the article is truthful. Although  Google allows everyone to post links to outside content, you should at least fact-check prior to posting a link to irrefutable proof that eating Pizza is good for diabetics.

7. You believe the women of G+ are there for your ogling and visual entertainment. Women don’t want your filthy private messages and suggestive images. Before textually or visually accosting someone on the forum, ask yourself if your mother or sister would appreciate receiving your content?

8. You feel it is your mission to cut out the jokes and sarcasm on G+. Before you add a inconsiderate comment and then run off to report their joke and comment that you did not consider funny, consider intent, not result. Cool off. If you’re the only one who found the joke offensive, just brush it off before you post that comment. If you don’t you will likely find yourself quite lonely on G+.

9. You complain about Google + and you share post comparing G+ to Facebook. OK, we get it. If you don’t like it, go away. Negativity on G+ will get you blocked very quickly. Nobody wants to hear that noise. Have you thought that maybe your post are driving away your friends. If you don’t like to be a leader and use G+, leave. You can always follow everyone when they jump ship and come to G+.

10. You present yourself as a technology guru and feel you must share technical post or comments that you have no idea about. If your post and comments start leading people astray, you might find your confused followers blocking you. You need to remember that technology is always changing and if you don’t know what you are talking about, it’s fine, but pretending that you’re an expert is dangerous to unsuspecting users. Don’t do it.

11. OK, you have circled me, but won’t let me see your profile, or better yet, you have not completed a G+ profile. Since G+ is for the purpose of discovering like-minds of interest, people will want to circle you back in the appropriate circle. If they can’t determine, they may not circle you back. When a person circles others, while not sharing their own information, is considered bad-form. Many G+ users  lacking patience might block you for it.

12. Someone blocks you, and you find it offensive....you and start sharing post about someone blocking you and how rude you think it is. What this will actually get is more attention, but now for the right reasons. You will find more people blocking you. Some people will block you because they’ll believe that if one person blocked you, you must have given them a reason to block you, so they will block you. Other people will block you because they don’t approve of your middle school childish behavior.

13. You are labeled as an Expert, Pundit, Politician, Writer or Celebrity but will not answer or comment on other G+ users. G+ is not one way communication and if you don’t comment or answering G+ users, many G+ users will figure that either you are too good for them or a stand-in. Many of the writers who say that “G+ is a Ghost Town” fall into this category. G+ users who fall into this category haven’t figured out that G+ is built for 2-way communication, not one-way communication.

14. You, simply cannot, or will not, admit a mistake, even if you’re proved incorrect. You feel you are perfect, and above reproach. When other G+ users feel that on controversial post that you haven’t left your ego out of the post, you will get blocked. When you are wrong admit it. It is not illegal to be wrong, just admit it. If you can’t admit mistakes you will get blocked.

15. You, regardless of your intellect, feel the only way to get noticed and followed on G+ is to display cleavage at every opportunity. If you want to be respected for your mind, show me that, and not your goodies.

16 You, despite all reason, logic and excuses, are essentially just a jerk. Yep, these people are everywhere so why would be surprised that they are on G+.

17. You’re anti-social. Unlike a jerk who most people believe have to practice, an anti social person is just made that way. They have few friends in real life and try to disguise their personality as witty and charming. When they can’t manipulate a person to what they want, they become very arrogant and angry. If you’re anti social you may get blocked by people fast.

18. You haven’t taken advantage of the really cool tools within G+ like Google Hangouts and Google Search. Did you know you can have a video conference with up to 9 of your friends for “Free”. If you haven’t checked out where the people are at, you may think G+ is a ghost town. Be an adventurer and checkout the cool tools G+ has for its user.

19. You have added dull friends and have made a judgment that all of G+ is dull and a ghost town. Before you make such a judgement, look at yourself. Maybe it is you and not G+. G+ is designed for you to connect with people that have a similar interest as yourself. If you think G+ is dull and a ghost town, maybe look at the people you have circled or your interest. With millions of people on G+, I find it hard to believe that all of them are boring and don’t frequent G+ frequently.

20. You post as often as a blue moon and then make a judgement that G+ is a ghost town. I actually got this idea from an author who commented that G+ is a ghost town, but he had only shared two public post in the past 45 days. Start by commenting on other people’s post. If you share quality content, people will find you. I have found that G+ is anything but a ghost town.


Google+ is a wonderful place to meet others, to learn, to share experiences, and develop your personal brand. If you fit into one of these 20 behaviors, you might think G+ is a ghost town. Don’t worry though. It is not too late to change. Start by avoiding the the above behaviors, keeping an open mind to other points of view, and not hiding behind your profile. In no time flat, you will develop a rocking stream of content, and thousands of circles from other users. You might even meet the next customer or client on Google Plus.

With the new changes to Google Search lately, G+ will play a major role with small business owners with ranking high on Google. If that is important, maybe you should checkout G+.

Earlier I mentioned in the spamming behavior section that I would share some important SEO information. Here it is: The new Google algorithm that helps determines where your website is ranked on a Google Search has changed. Yes, backlinks are important but it is not the most important anymore. The new algorithm looks at the attached G+ profile of your website and looks at the social interaction. If there is no attached G+ profile or little social interaction, there is a good chance your website will rank lower. In addition, Google takes into account the +1’s your website and attached G+ site get to help rank your website. Obviously, the more +1’s is good because Google figures it is a more important website.

Just remember G+ is still growing and should not be compared to 8 year old Facebook.

Lets connect on G+!
Chris Dowell Dowell Taggart Team


RE/MAX sells more homes than any other real estate company.
For a reason...should we talk?

Another blog post written by:

Comments are appreciated! Go ahead and add your 2 cents . . .