Features such as Ripples and the Circles function do seem incredibly appealing. It’s fair to say that the audience segmentation and targeting options are unparalleled and in a marketer’s perfect world, everyone would be using the service.
But guys, I hate to piss on your rainbow, but no real people in the real world are using Google+.
Based on anecdotal and statistical information, it seems as though the only people that are truly involved in any sort of Google+ community are the people that stand to benefit from widespread uptake of the platform. That is never going to entice the masses into abandoning their longstanding relationship with Facebook, Twitter and their new BFF, Pinterest.
At the moment, Google+ is like a pool of piranhas. The piranhas in this metaphor being online marketers, waiting to segment, target and sell to any real person that dares to step into the water.
Is this the problem with Google+?
It has great features, millions of members and plenty of famous advocates – and yet it remains the much maligned ghost town of the internet. A digital Chernobyl – deserted and almost completely devoid of organic life.
How has it come to this? Well, as Google+ teeters on the precipice of epic fail territory, we decided to create an infographic documenting some of the most shocking Google+ statistics on the internet, as well as some stats sourced from magical maths inside my brainbox. Key stats include:
- 30% of G+ users make one post – and never post again!
- People spend a combined total of 134,000 years on Facebook each month.
- Users spend 30x more time on PInterest than Google +, and 136x more time on Facebook!
- The average post on G+ receives less than 1 reply
So how do you feel about Google+?
Whilst it feels strange to pit Google as the underdog, does Google+ stand a chance against the behemoths of the social media world?
Time will tell – we hope that we won’t have to wave goodbye to Google+ as we did with Google Wave, but the stats don’t look good and it does appear to be a case of ‘too little, too late’.
