If you have a huge following on Google+ like +Mark Zuckerburg, you may not mind displaying it to the whole world. But if you’re an average user, odds are you don’t have half a million people who have circled you, and you may want to keep that info private.
Or maybe you’ve circled half a million people because you think it will help you make more valuable connections. In that case, you may not want to display that either, as people could get the wrong idea (or right idea). Either way, I’m going to walk you though how to show or hide your circle counts on Google+.
Step 1: Go to your profile, click “Edit profile”.
Step 2: Click on your circles display box in the lower left sidebar of your profile.
Step 3: Decide what you want to be shown.
The “In your circles” section has several options:
- Uncheck the box to hide who your following.
- Check the box and select which circles can see who you’re following.
- Check the box and also check the “Anyone on the web” box to display who your following to everyone and their mother.
The “Have you in circles” section only has one option– check for display for all, or uncheck for display to no one.
Step 4: Hit the “Save” button, followed by the “Done editing” button at the top of your screen.
And there you have it! You have successfully showed (or unshowed) the world how popular (or unpopular) you are!
So what are your thoughts on this? Is it better to show or not show your following? Let us know in the comments below.
I personally leave the “who I’m following” out, at least for now.
I’d rather be people concerned with circling me based on my posts or the content of my blogs, rather than any kind of “social proof” numbers.
I was debating this the other day. I had already toggled between visible and and ivisible on my own, so I read this post to see if there were any fine-tuning features I my have missed. I would like to be able to meet other people with common interest, but without neccesarily divulging how I have organized the google plus users who have bought electronics off of me from craigslist (there can be a circle for anything you know)
I think I am going to have to go underground for a while, and see how it effects who I meet! So, hidden, for a test run. Thats what I say.