While Google+ hasn’t reached critical mass yet, the newly created social media network has continued to grow. That doesn’t mean it is big enough though. If you are one of the 5 million or so active users on Google+, chances are many of your friends still haven’t found their way onto the site.

That is an issue for few different reasons. Social networks are inherently less useful when few of your friends are actively using them. It makes it tough to really evaluate and compare Google+ to Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr when only 10 of your friends post on it versus hundreds on the other sites. Early adopters often face this problem.

So what can you do to promote your Google+ page to your friends and people you care about?

Here are 5 quick ways to boost the number of people you know on Google+:

1. Cross promote!

The easiest way to get your friends from Facebook or another social network to join Google+ is to let all of your followers on other networks know about it. A ton of Twitter and Facebook users have heard about Google+ because of the massive buzz it has gotten, but maybe they still need an invite or somebody to personally ask them to join. Post links to your profile on all of your other social accounts and let the masses know you are actively using Google+.

2. Embed a widget on your blog

Some really awesome Google Plus widgets are starting to come out for bloggers. It’s easy to throw up a sidebar widget or badge so your friends and readers can add you to their circles. Those with high-traffic blogs can pick up 100s of followers in just a couple of days easily be adding one of these to their site.

3. Dig into the suggested friends pool

Google has done an excellent job of recommending relevant friends to add to your circles. Since the number of active users is just a fraction of Facebook’s, I’ve found that Google’s suggestions are markedly more accurate. I’ve discovered and been found by: colleagues, old college friends and acquaintances. Even adding five suggested people to your circles will boost your Google+ network and encourage more relevant friend suggestions.

4. Hangout often

My favorite feature of Google+, by far, is Hangouts. I’ve been a longtime Skype user and have tried pretty much every other free group video chat option out there and Google+ blows them all out of the water. The collaborative YouTube videos are icing on the cake. I’ve “hungout” with tons of different people on Google+ and everybody has loved it. Free group video chat should entice plenty of people to try it out.

5. Ditch Facebook

Admittedly, this one is a little extreme…but hear me out. If you post awesome information to Facebook that people enjoy — but prefer to use Google+ — why not make the complete jump? If you do a good job of building a personal brand online, people will still want to hear what you have to say. Let everybody know you are deleting your Facebook account shortly and will only be posting to Google+. It will get their attention at the very least.

Trevin Shirey is an avid social media user who enjoys hiking and developing new WordPress plugins for Google+.