The curious case of Google+

July 26, 2013

From its inception in 2011 Google+ has been through a lot of teething problems and struggles. This year the platform seemed to gain more clout when it was announced that it was ranked as the world’s second-largest social network, at 190 million active users, with 100 brands garnering 100 million followers, showing the increasing popularity of the platform.

Moreover an ever increasing number of reports nowadays indicate that Google+ is finally finding its stride and that marketers are using the platform to engage with fans, with brands such as Cadbury’s, H&M, Burberry and Sony leading the way.

However, the use of the platform was yet again questioned in the UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report for 2013. For a long while now there has been a sense of urgency associated with Google+; brands are constantly being told that not incorporating Google+ into their social marketing strategy is a mistake as they can’t afford to totally ignore the growing platform and its benefits, with many brands believing that by embracing Google+ their PageRank or visibility in SERPs will be impacted positively.

This week a scathing report was released by Econsultancy/NetBooster revealing the striking differences between client-side and agency responses over the perceived impact of G+. The report questioned the legitimacy of this perception as it was relayed that ‘63% of client-side respondents stated that they don’t know if Google+ is having an impact on their search campaigns.’

Despite this it has been reported that Google+ social shares are expected to outpace Facebook by February 2016, showing that the platform is only expected to grow further. One can argue that the brands are still finding their feet on Google+. It clearly has some use as Google would have condemned it to the graveyard by now, however, one can also argue that progress is slow and steady. Only time will tell if Google+ will turn into the social media force that so many have predicted it to become.

What do you think of the G+ platform? Tweet me @ashappyasannie or comment here!

Latest Posts

Content shared by your employees is getting shared far more than your branded content – so it makes sense to empower your staff to post more, right? The data is in – employee advocacy is a MUST. While only 3% of employees share content about their company, those shares are…

Oh, it’s so easy to talk Thought Leadership It’s not so easy to make it happen Thought leadership is how you build trust through expertise. You show your working, go deep on the messy bits, and nudge behaviour change over time. It’s the essential core of the way modern buyers…

Instagram has recently introduced a new feature called “Competitive Insights” within its Professional Dashboard. This update gives business and creator accounts another way to understand and compare how their profiles are performing on the platform. The new tool lets you compare your account with up to ten…