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!

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