OK... So i was as confused as everyone else here. So I did a bunch of testing and research. Here are the results:

A. Adding people to your circles doesn't make your posts visible to them like Facebook.
In Facebook, if you add a friend and they confirm, you see each other's posts. Google+ acts like Twitter. But it's worse. They have to add you to a circle and they have to view the CIRCLE STREAM to see your post:

B. If you want to send your post to people who did NOT follow or "Circle" you, YOU CAN. But they will complain.
But it may be worth it if your contacts are highly targetted or know you personally. Here's the caveat. You can only send out 100 UNSOLICITED notices at a time. Google allows this because it assumes these are people you already have a relationship with. 

In other words, Google allows you to spam people you know. 

If you want to do this, at your own risk, just create circles with a maximum of 100 people per circle. If you create 8 of these circles, you can spam 800 people. See image below.

So, here is how the features in the first big picture work above:

1. Go to #2 and in the suggested people list, Do #1. Select All.
Then drop them into the "acquaintainces circle" everyone (unless they changed their notification settings) will get a notification email about you. This is the only way to imply that all 3,873 i've put into circles should "circle" me back.

2. Find people religiously. Several times a day.
If you put everyone in the suggested people list in a circle... Google will keep giving you new suggestions.

3. As you can see, the "circle back" ratio is at about 10%.
Twitter was at 45% in the beginning. It's about 15% now. Facebook is still at about 40%.

4. I have a top 100 list of CEOs I want to expose my work to.
I pulled them out of Acquaintences and put them in a 100 circle. I did this because Google will not let me send a message to all 3,414 members of the "Acquaintences Circle." So that circle is basically useless as a broadcast mechanism. The only use it serves is to generate a notice that the members have been added to a circle. And points #1 and #3 apply. 

If you want me to build your user base and drive you sales... Let's talk. bob.wan.kim@gmail