Google Ripples Shows You How and When a Post Went Viral

I have written about this before, but I have to say, that I really like the Google Ripples feature of Google Plus. It shows you exactly how, when, and where a post on Google Plus went viral, and exactly who did the sharing to make it do so. Not only can you see when the post went viral, but you can actually see who shared the post and who did the resharing of the post. You can see exactly who the influencer is and, ideally get them to post. They’re exactly the ones who you want to connect with.

Let’s take, for example, the post I did today on Google+, the post that obviously hit many people’s hearts. It’s these types of posts that make people take notice. But let’s look first at the Google Ripples for the post.

If you see a post that you want to examine, for example, one that obviously has a lot of shares and +1s, you can click first on the date and time of the post. That will bring you directly to the post, on another web page by itself.

If you click on the time, in this case 2:37pm, you will be brought to the page.

If you mouseover the post itself you will see a dropdown menu on the top right of the post. That allows you to see the Ripples of the post, and you can then explore the Google Ripples from there. Take another look at the Ripples screen shot I posted at the top of this post. You’ll see that in the middle, I was the one who made the post. Then, from there, you will see all of the people who +1d and shared the post.

You can zoom into the Ripples to see who did the sharing. At this point, you may want to click on certain people who were able to get others to share the post. Those are the influencers here. So, in this case, you would want to add me because of my network of people on Google+. Turns out that you would also want to add other people here, such as those in the larger circles who had their posts then reshared again.

My tip? Browse the What’s Hot page on Google+ and look at the influencers. Those people who got people so share their posts. Add those influencers and follow them. Share their posts. Comment on their posts. Be the first to comment on their posts.

That, my friend, will eventually make you an influencer.