Google released some impressive numbers regarding their social media site Google+. There are 540 million monthly active Google+ users. While this means that 540 million people interact with Google+ in some way on a monthly basis (perhaps just by hitting a “plus” button on a page), the number of people active in the news stream each month is closer to 300 million. Now, that is not near to the 1 BILLION monthly active users that Facebook has, BUT Google+ is obviously gaining traction. Why is this? Because while Google representatives claim that Google+ activity does not affect search engine optimization, however, Google’s integration of Google+ activity into search results certainly makes a powerful argument (perhaps THE most powerful argument in social media) for brands to get active on the platform.
Most recently Google announced that if a user has more than 10 likes and an account that is more than 30 days old, Google+ will offer that user a custom profile URL. We have seen that here with our own clients’ Google+ business pages. Securing a branded URL is always a positive force for extending your brand. (Imagine if we all had the foresight to have claimed great branding handles on Twitter when that first started to rise in popularity). In this case you have to wait until Google decides what your suggested URL will be and gives you the option to accept it. So keep an eye on the number of followers you have in your circles (you need 10!) and how many days it has been since you created your business page (it needs to be more than 30!) and then be sure to log in and claim your brand URL.
Staking a claim to anything brand related on Google will always, somehow lend power to the way the search engine recognizes your site.
Some Google+ statistics that were recently released by the firm to show the growth of the social network include:
- 20 times growth in the number of videos being shared on the site.
- People share 1.5 BILLION photos on Google+ each week.
I would love to know how much of that social sharing is branding related and not personal. From our perspective we think that brands and businesses have found more ways to leverage Google+ and early movers recognize the power that maintaining a presence on the site lends to their Search Engine power. For more information, contact our experts at Premiere Creative and give us a call at (973) 346-8100.