Google+ data seems to come in one of two flavors--either statistics that support the Google-Plus-is-a-ghost-town argument or figures that lead to headlines such as "Google+ brand pages seeing adoption, engagement growth." The truth is certainly somewhere in between, but I have to say the more sober numbers and analysis seem to have a greater ring of truth.
A recent study of brand pages on G+ furnished optimistic findings such as:
- 64% of the Interbrand Top 100 now have an active Google+ Brand page.
- 22% of the brands now have circler counts over 100,000, up from 13%.
- More brands are posting more frequently: 43% are posting over 3X a week (up from 15% in February).

I thought I would do my own small examination of the engagement enjoyed by the top ten brands on Interbrand's list. Here is what I found comparing the Facebook and Google Plus presence and engagement of the ten most valuable brands in the world:
Brand | Facebook Fans | Google+ Circlers | # of FB Posts (4/24 - 30) | # of G+ Posts (4/24 - 30) | Avg # of FB Likes/Post (4/24 - 30) | Avg # of G+ +1s/Post (4/24 - 30) | ||
Coca-Cola FB, G+ |
41,943,732 | 523,783 | 2* | 3 | 5,637 | 44 | ||
Microsoft FB, G+ |
1,779,336 | 202 | 10 | 0 | 522 | NA | ||
Google FB, G+ |
9,586,681 | 594,677 | 6 | 17 | 1890 | 323 | ||
GE FB, G+ |
313,473 | 2,004 | 7 | 5 | 148 | 7 | ||
McDonalds FB, G+ |
19,680,889 | 10,198 | 7 | 0 | 4,388 | NA | ||
Intel FB, G+ |
10,165,230 | 374,339 | 6 | 4 | 7,295 | 68 | ||
IBM FB, G+ |
119,648 | 5,745 | 5 | 0 | 138 | NA | ||
Apple FB, G+ |
6,240,280 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | ||
Disney FB, G+ | 35,650,607 | NA | 5 | NA | 32,404 | NA | ||
HP FB, G+ |
1,804,691 | 190,109 | 6 | 5 | 238 | 11 |
In order to compare the number of fans/circlers and likes/+1s on an apples-to-apples basis, I computed averages based only on the brands that are actively maintaining a presence in both social networks. I have noted the current averages in the chart below.
Brand | Facebook Fans | Google+ Circlers | # of FB Posts (4/24 - 30) | # of G+ Posts (4/24 - 30) | Avg # of FB Likes/Post (4/24 - 30) | Avg # of G+ +1s/Post (4/24 - 30) | ||
Coca-Cola | 41,943,732 | 523,783 | 2* | 3 | 5,637 | 44 | ||
9,586,681 | 594,677 | 6 | 17 | 1890 | 323 | |||
GE | 313,473 | 2,004 | 7 | 5 | 148 | 7 | ||
Intel | 10,165,230 | 374,339 | 6 | 4 | 7,295 | 68 | ||
HP | 1,804,691 | 190,109 | 6 | 5 | 238 | 11 | ||
Average | 12,762,761 | 336,982 | 3,042 | 91 | ||||
+3,687% | +3,257% |
Of note is that:
- Fifty percent of the world's top ten brands are absent from Google+, while nine are present on Facebook. Apple is the lone holdout on both platforms.
- The activity on G+ brand pages is much less than would be expected, based on Google+'s and Facebook's Monthly Active Users. With Facebook at 901 million MAUs and Google at 100 million MAUs, one would expect brand pages on Facebook to have 800% more activity than on G+; instead, the brands present in both social networks have almost 3700% more fans/circlers and over 3200% more likes/+1s on Facebook than Google Plus. What would cause a brand's social graph and engagement to be much less than expected on Google+ compared to Facebook? The discrepancy is not due to a lack of activity on the part of brands--the number of posts made by brands to both platforms is quite similar. There are three possible explanations, and I suspect all three may be correct to one extent or another: G+ users are significantly less interested in engaging with brands on the social network; those who use G+ are far less active than the folks who use Facebook; and the number of G+ MAUs has been exaggerated. (Much has been written about how Google counts as an active user any Google+ registrant who uses Google services such as YouTube or Search when they're logged in, which would seem to exaggerate the number of active and actual users of Google+.)
- Perhaps most telling is this: Google gets substantially greater engagement with its brand page on Facebook than its brand page on its own social network. Despite posting significantly more content to G+, Google's Facebook presence has 1500% more connections to consumers and its posts receive almost 500% more engagement on Facebook than G+.
My own small evaluation of the top ten brands is not the only sign that Google+ is failing to get wind under its wings. In recent weeks:
- An RJMetrics analysis found that the average post on Google Plus receives just 0.77 +1s, 0.54 replies and 0.17 reshares.
- The same study found that 30 percent of users who make a public post on G+ never make another. Even after making five public posts, there is still a 15% dropoff before the sixth post.
- A Nielsen study found that over 70% of US moms who went online in March visited Facebook. The study also lists percentages for Blogger, Twitter, Wordpress and Tumblr, but the study omits Google+. It is hard to imagine that if moms were visiting G+ in any significant numbers that Nielsen would have excluded Google+ from this study.
- Janrain reported that Facebook is approaching 50% penetration among social login services. As recently as 18 months ago, Google held a tremendous advantage as the social login of choice among consumers, but today 45% of consumers use their Facebook accounts to log into third-party sites and only 30% use their Google credentials to do so.
- A recent Pew Internet study found that 73% of search users said they would not be okay with a search engine keeping track of their searches and using that information to personalize future search results because they feel it is an invasion of privacy. The idea of search as a social signal is a core tenet of Google's social strategy, but it seems few consumers are comfortable with the concept.
- Experian Hitwise recently tweeted that G+ experienced traffic growth of 5% from March to April 2012, which sounds pretty impressive until you consider the same company reported 27% traffic growth from February to March and a 55% month-to-month growth rate in late 2011. It seems G+'s adoption is decelerating rapidly less than a year after its September 2011 launch.
I am not trying to pile on Google Plus, but I would like more transparency from Google and others when it comes to data about G+ usage, engagement and growth. As a social media leader at a Fortune 500 firm, I must evaluate the benefits of dedicating resources to maintain a presence on Google Plus, and I would like to be armed with real data to make the right decision. For now, our choice about Google+ is informed by the fact that our brand has a mere 230 +1s on G+ , 0.1% of our total fan count on Facebook.
Perhaps Google+ will someday succeed at becoming a major social network, social layer, or whatever other social strategy Google chooses to pursue. For now, it seems to remain a niche social network with little engagement and stagnating growth. I am happy to proven wrong, but it is going to take thorough, accurate and transparent G+ data to do so--something in short supply at the current time.