Facebook connects you to the friends you’ve already met.

Google+ gives you the tools to connect with everyone else.

For some reason I’ve been asked my opinion of Google+ a dozen times in the past couple weeks. I’ve recently started advocating people and brands to join now. I don’t have any statistics or hard data, just a hunch. It’s the same kind of hunch I felt about Twitter five years ago, when everyone was grilling me about why I was wasting my time on the recently launched micro-blogging platform.

My theory is that medium to heavy use of Google+ will define who you are to the web. Google, being the dominant search player, will give search recognition within your networks about the kinds of things you share. And it will start introducing your profile and presence more and more within your network’s search results.

In other words, if you want to be known or famous for something, share, post and create content around that topic on Google+. It will start shaping your outward facing digital self.