I've had a Google plus profile for a while now – I think pretty much from the beginning. But it languishes unattended with all of about 20 people in my 'circles'.

When I first signed up I was excited, but I had to spend time figuring it out. Time I didn't have. And hardly anyone I know had signed up for it. So it was a bit like hanging out at a new shopping mall designed with all the latest in shopper assistance features but without any people (other than a few hip young things in square glasses).

Why not just do it?

Like many small businesses owners, the tyranny of time prevented me from truly leaping in and getting to the point where I thought I 'had my head around it'. I've already deleted one profile and started afresh in the hope that this would give me some momentum, but no.

I don't think I'm a social media numpty by any stretch – Twitter: love it; Facebook: Check; LinkedIn: regularly use it (not for promotional but conversational purposes); YouTube: dabbled and only time prevents me from doing more; we have a blog (sporadic but here); social bookmarking: check.

But for some reason, google + is playing out like a cool kids club that I haven't been given a pass to yet. This is a little embarrassing for a 'web professional' and I refuse to let it beat me.

I'm determined to resolve it. I will take it one bite-sized step at a time like an orienteering challenge. Feel the reluctance and do it anyway. And, because I'm a fan of 'leverage' and because writing about something helps to cement my understanding of it, I'm going to blog about my journey through the muddy google+ waters. I'll be using a more personal perspective than I normally do because it's easier to write that way and I'm more likely to do it. I won't try and show off amazing insights or focus on how-to's just what worked for me and what didn't. And what I learnt along the way.

Having already set up my profile, my first focus is...

Get more friends people in my circles

I liked the idea of circles from the get go, and always thought it was something Facebook and LinkedIn lacked.

Apparently, the best way to get more people is to have something interesting to share. Right. I follow a few twitter-ers and get a ton of interesting stuff via email newsletters and LinkedIn groups but I thought I'd find some new sources.

So step one.....

1. Join Communities of interest

Under the left hand 'main menu' there is a link to Communities. It was interesting to see how many communities there were (and how many had a woefully small number in them!).

I chose a couple of Google related ones, a couple of social media related ones, a some web developer ones and a science fiction one (yes I'm a geek). I tried to find one for land kite boarders, but most only had a handful of members and focused on kite-surfing which we don't do.

A couple were restricted membership but one approved me almost straight away. I assume that like LinkedIN groups, moderation of these groups is patchy. The email notifications of posts in this group are useful, but time will tell if I get overloaded with these once I've joined a few active groups.

So, now I'm armed with plenty of sources of 'good stuff'.

2. Use social sharing buttons.

We've got the usual sharing buttons on our blog. No one seems to use them much - I probably shouldn't admit to that but it's plain to see (and I know why but won't try and defend it here).

Other suggestions for growing and getting the most out of Google+ will be the focus of future blog posts but a small side-step and that is – who is using Google + anyway?

I think I'll find this out along the way, but only two other people I know personally are active users of Google+ . A comment in a LinkedIn group said LinkeIn was a ghost town and most people on the platform are SEOers and content marketers. So there is a question about whether it's worth it or not. One that I hope to get answered.

I will wrap this one up here. If you're reading this post, I'll love to hear if you are on Google+, whether you are active or not and what you think of it as a social platform.