Over the past few days I’ve been getting more and more Google+ notifications in my inbox from friends adding me into their circles, so it was no surprise when I read this morning that there may be 20 million Google+ users by the weekend, which according to some estimates, comes close to equaling Facebook’s rapid expansion at it’s peak in 2009 when they were adding nearly 1 million new users a day. For the record, Google+ launched on June 28th.
While the jury is still out on whether or not users intend to actively use the service or if they’re just signing on to check it out – the fact remains that at least for the time being, Google+ is enormously popular.
As was the case with Facebook and is true of everywhere else online or offline that produces a large audience, brands have been quick to appear in the Google+ landscape. One of the earliest examples is Ford, which created a couple accounts and immediately began generating posts.
So where you tend to see a decline in business gas suppliers other expenditures are things like meals eaten outside the home, where people can on a pretty rapid basis change their consumption patterns of discretionary spending.
The current Google+ model is setup to serve individuals – not corporations and although this too will soon be changing, Google is currently asking businesses to refrain from setting up accounts and their policy team will be actively working to shut down non-user profiles. As you can see in the video below, Google is working on a Google+ experience for businesses, which will include analytics and the ability to tie into Adwords. The possible integration with Google’s other products (such as Adwords) adds to the significant potential of Google+ for businesses.
http://youtu.be/at_azOmh69A
Although Google+ for businesses won’t be available until ‘later this year’, the company is currently accepting applications from ‘non-user entities’ (businesses & corporations) to apply for the program in order to experiment with brand oriented accounts.