Many companies are asking themselves which is best for their own results.
Though Facebook is holding its top place well ahead in the social media marketing environment, Google+ recently overtook Twitter for the second place, causing many to wonder if positions will continue to change over the next little while.
It is also causing businesses to take a second look at Google+, which has been underestimated for a while.
Small businesses, especially, are beginning to discover that there are some considerable advantages to social media marketing using Google+ instead of Facebook, leading many to wonder whether there will be another change in power in the future. The EMSI vice president of media operations, Alex Hinojosa, said that Google+ is already performing far better for professional firms, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, than Facebook.
This is because social media marketing through Google+ is very compatible with SEO efforts.
According to Hinojosa, “I knew Google+ would attract a big following because it really lends itself to business uses and SEO.” He has been watching the exponential growth of the value of Google+ since its creation, but especially more recently.
A recent study by Global Web Index showed that December 2012 produced a massive growth in the number of users at Google’s social network. This was a spike that brought it to 343 million users around the world. An active number of members of that size presents a tremendous social media marketing opportunity for businesses of all sizes, particularly those that are smaller and have more limited budgets.
Today, it is estimated that about one quarter of the internet users around the world have a Google+ account. Facebook’s figure is still about twice that much, at 50 percent. Hinojosa explained that “Facebook continues to go through self-imposed changes that are seeing mixed responses from longtime users,” going on to say that “The new No. 2 has much, much more to offer than simply being an alternative to the big dog.”
As many users become increasingly frustrated with Facebook’s changes and other aggravations with that platform, the social media marketing opportunities elsewhere – especially at Google+, but still at Twitter, as well – continue to climb.
