• Edit your profile - Help your friends find you on Google+ by adding a photo and a few details. Check the Edit Privacy Settings page to see how you can restrict access to selected parts of your profile.  
  
  

• Create your circles and add your family and friends to it. You can put people in more than one circle, for example, work friends and mountain climbers, and share your updates with the right audience. Watch this video for more on circles. 
   

• Add people to your circles - drag and drop people from this page to your circles. You can also import friends from your Yahoo contacts, Hotmail contacts, or upload an address book. Click on the 'All Suggestions' drop-down for these options. Watch this video for a quick demo.

• Find interesting people to follow - You can also find interesting people to follow by using the 'Search Google+' search box. Enter a name, location, or interest (cooking, sketching) to find people, posts, pages, events, or communities based on the keywords you've entered. 

• Finding People and Pages (replace "watercolors" with the topic/medium of your choice)
• Finding Communities (replace "acrylics" with the topic/medium of your choice)
• Finding Events in your location (replace "painting" with the topic of your choice)
• Finding Shared Circles (replace the "art tutors" with the topic of your choice)

Note: This only shows profiles that've chosen the 'Visible in Search' option in the Profile Settings. If you do not want your profile to show in the search results, edit your profile settings accordingly.

• Share an update - share photos, videos, or text updates using the share box displayed on the top of your stream or the Google bar. Watch this video for a quick demo. 

• Join a Hangout - watch an 'On Air' hangout or join a public hangout. Find out more about hangouts by watching this video or by going to this link. 

• Play a game - check out the fun and interesting games and invite your friends to play with you. Game updates stay in their own tab so they won't invade your main stream or annoy friends who are not interested in playing games.