Blog/News Section

Google+ Has Lots of Brands, Not So Many Followers

According to top research firms, most of the major brands in play around the world have created a Google+ page for their business. The problem? Only a fraction of them are managing to pull in visitors, which is what many expected to occur with the launch of Google+ and Google+ branded pages.

One research firm, BrightEdge, found that of the top 100 brands (which was determined using Millward Brown’s Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands in 2011), 77 have created a presence on Google+ with a branded page. That’s in comparison to Facebook, where 93 of the top 100 brands have created Facebook pages.Another research firm, Simply Measured, looked across the top 100 brands and found that while 61 had Google+ brand pages, only 13 of those top brands had more than 5,000 followers. On Facebook, many of the top brands have hundreds of thousands of followers. Some in the millions.

A Win or Loss for Google+?

That’s not to say that Google+ is failing, it’s just slow to build steam. Brad Mattick, VP of marketing for BrightEdge, stated that the increase in top brands on Google+ is a big jump and they’re starting to gain some momentum. He stated “Brands are seeing more interaction, which is generating more growth.”

On the other hand, Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured, believes that we’re not seeing the full scope, and that most brands are “just dipping their toes in the water” to test out Google+. That means a lot of brands aren’t pushing full social media management and marketing, which could have some impact on the performance of those brand pages.

Google doesn’t have a lot to celebrate yet, and they have a long way to go before they’re sharing similar significance with Facebook in social media. What could work in favor of Google in all of this, is that the top 10 brand pages (Google brand page excluded) have over 80% of the market share because of resistance and reluctance to come on board from other brands. This could prompt other to get on the boat and catch up, essentially generating the idea that if they don’t stay on top of Google+ then they’ll lose ground and fall behind.