This was essentially a test to see what I could get away with on my own Google Plus profile, now it should be noted that I do use the email it’s connected with a lot and it is connected to a few blogs I write on etc. so it is possible that as an active Google account it was cut a bit more slack than an account you may set up off the bat.
Essentially Google Plus circles allows for mass adding and deleting to get your numbers up in a very easy manner being able to add over 500 people in a single click and delete them just as quickly is fantastic for this, just check one of the many public circle sharing groups and start adding. During my testing I was receiving about a 7% add back rate and much to my surprise a lot of these users interacted with my posts. Since I had a little success a few of the guys in my office have begun to replicate the idea with similar if not better results.
The original goal for me was to get to a reasonable number of people and see how much that effected (if at all) my authorship in the SERPs. What I actually found was a social network where my circles engage with me far more than my twitter followers. Maybe it’s because they’re all a little more willing to interact, but the fact is that Google Plus is not the entirely the dead network I used to believe it to be. In fact for entering the states it may well be indispensable.
The other fact is having big numbers early on in the life of a social site can go a long way to establishing you as a power should it take off.
During the test I was able to add between 300 and 1000 users a day and delete them within a couple of days after reaping the increased numbers. Within 2 weeks approximately 350 more people had me in circles. In terms of general mass appeal products and the impact that being in somebodies circles has on the SERPs this could very quickly become a smart tactic for SEO benefit as well giving your account a value that it may otherwise not have had.
Some places you can find shared public circles that update reasonably often:
To update this a little bit, it should be noted that the number continue to grow although something funny has gone on with my authorship. So I’m not sure whether spamming G+ has had anything to do with this.