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.
2 comments:
Thanks for the analysis Augie. I think the tipping point for Google+ is a full API open to developers. The fact that people can't share to it via apps (instagram, hootsuite, etc) really hinders its adoption. When you look at the platform, it has so many great features, but it just hasn't garnered enough eyeballs to make it interesting. I was at the SXSW session where Vic was pressed by Guy Kawasaki on this topic. They audience jeered Vic to launch a real API, yet Google continues to stonewall on this topic. I wonder if you have thoughts on the importance of an API to Google+'s success or what you think it will take to make it a hit.
thanks,
John Refford (@iamreff)
Augie, good analysis (as always).
One more thing I would point out on the relative engagement figures: a +1 on a post in G+ does far less than a like on FB. Your +1 is ONLY seen by the folks that saw the original post, it just impacts its position in the stream. It isn't reflected anywhere in your profile.
On FB, a like is much more visible. First, people that liked something are publicly displayed. Second, it is in your timeline.
Because of the difference, I am far more likely to '+1' something on G+ than I am to 'like' something on Facebook, and I imagine I'm not the only one.
G+: Welcome to the ghost town. But hey, it looks nice!
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