Only 1 “Top Brand” Has Created A Google+ Page In The Past Two Months, Report Says

The world’s top brands are adopting Google+ very slowly. Only one has created a new Google+ page in the past two months, and only four have increased their activity level above three posts per week. The numbers, which suggest that brands are still unsure about how — or if — to adopt Google+ as a marketing channel, come from a new study by the social media analytics firm Simply Measured.

Using the Interbrand Top 100 Global Brands list, Simply Measured compared Google+ adoption on December 7th — the one-month anniversary of brand pages — with adoption two months later, on February 7th.

At the one-month anniversary, 61 of the top 100 brands had created a Google+ page; since then, only Honda has joined them.

In addition to the slow adoption, the chart shows that brand activity on Google+ hasn’t caught fire yet, either. At the three-month mark, only 15 of the Top 100 brands were posting more than three times per week. After one month, 11 were at that level.

On the bright side, and despite the apparent lack of activity, brands are gaining followers on Google+. Simply Measured says that 21 of the top brands now have more than 5,000 followers (“circlers”), 13 have surpassed 100,000 followers, and 36 have more than doubled their follower count in the past two months.

Top Brands On Google+

For some time, Google itself had the most popular page on Google+ with YouTube not far behind. But things have changed, and now other pages are well ahead of those. As of Simply Measured’s study, H&M had the most popular page with more than 456,000 followers. As I look at it now, the page is above 490,000 followers.

I would argue that Britney Spears, with her 1.8 million followers is the top brand on Google+, but she’s not part of Interbrand’s list, nor is she on any of the “top brand” lists as far as I know.

Also worth noting is that BrightEdge previously reported 77 of the top 100 brands as having Google+ pages — higher than the 62 that Simply Measured shows. It could be that the two companies are using different “top brand” lists, or that some brands have created Google+ pages for smaller units of their company, but not one for the overall brand itself. I don’t know if that’s the case, but let the record show that the numbers are different.

Regardless, it’s a mixed bag for Google+ where brands are concerned right now. It’s not a good sign that only one of the world’s top brands has created a new page in the past two months and that few brands are increasing their activity on Google+. It’s also not a good sign that none of the Super Bowl advertisers last week bothered to mention Google+ in their TV ads. It is a good sign, though, that the brands who are using the site are attracting more followers.

There are additional brand/Google+ stats on Simply Measured’s website.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.