Even though Google+ is still in its infancy, there is already a powerful tool available to link builders. Called FindPeopleOnPlus.com, it’s a directory of Google+ users that sorts and refines Google+ users by location, occupation, relationship status, popularity, and more. At the time this article was written, FindPeopleOnPlus had about 1 million people in their directory, all of whom could be sorted by these characteristics.
If you haven’t already left this article to check out FindPeopleOnPlus, let me give you some examples of how the tool can be used to find link targets.
1. You’re trying to place an infographic promoting the fact that skiing is good for single people.
Using FindPeopleOnPlus, you could look for anyone who has the word “blogger” in their profile, then sort them by relationship status (singles are probably more likely to be interested), then further sort them by states with ski areas. In no time at all, you’ve got a list of bloggers you can contact about embedding your infographic.
2. You want to interview popular experts on a specific topic, mostly to grab links and generate traffic.
Interviewing people who have a large online following is a great way to build links and increase traffic to your blog or website. You can use FindPeopleOnPlus to find interview targets who have a stated interest in your topic, and then sort them by the number of followers they have.
In no time at all you’ve got 10 or more interview targets, all of whom have expertise in your topic area and a large audience to share the final interview with.
3. You’ve launched a photo contest and you’d like invite participants.
You can search FindPeopleOnPlus for words and topics relevant to your photo contest, and then click on the occupation “photographer” to put together a list of people to invite.
If you’re thinking that contacting all of these people might be a bit of a drag, consider this: FindPeopleOnPlus offers you the ability to then further sort your lists by people who are on Twitter. How nice is that? Put together a list of names, then hit them up on Twitter. They’re likely to respond if your pitch is relevant and interesting, and it’s quite a bit faster than emailing one at a time.
While FindPeopleOnPlus has some limitations (the most obvious being that the majority of their data relies upon the completeness of Google+ user profiles) it’s an easy and free tool that is only going to get bigger and better. The official FindPeopleOnPlus Twitter profile has promised new features, and by all signs they’re indexing new Google+ profiles every minute.
If your job is to promote content of any kind, FindPeopleOnPlus is definitely a tool that belongs in your toolbox.
