Last night, I gave a presentation at my Internet Marketing of the Bay Area Meetup called “Optimizing Your Google+ Profile“.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Sign up at http://accounts.google.com/SignUp.
• Put up a professional headshot.
• Create a killer cover image (think selling points and call to action).
• Fill in your profile completely. Think keywords and SEO.
• Fill in your link profile. Make sure you add yourself as a “contributor” to your primary web site. This scores you points in authorship.
• Consider hiring a professional writer to fully flesh out your Google+ profile. Marc Harty is one of the best in the business. He's running a limited-time special right now. If you get here too late, sorry, the offer may have expired.

You snooze, you lose.