Is Google+ The Land Of The Dead? Not Likely

The Media Has Sung This Song Before*

We've read these posts for the last year, had countless stories, opinions, concerns, debates and sometimes out right rude comments towards people over a topic near and dear to many here but I've not seen anyone point out the very obvious… This tune is familiar in the media.

My offer still stands to any media outlet, company, or brand who would like to see how to make this space pop for them: 15 minute Google+ hangout, from my living room to yours.

Is G+ in fact dead, dying, or full of dead bodies?? Not so much a new story idea. We've heard these 'dead social network' arguments before… I remember them well. The media said the same thing about Twitter.

In fact, this beautiful article written by G+'s own in 2009 titled a familiar "Is Twitter Dead?" ( http://bit.ly/KIQoEb ) You could literally replace every instance of "Twitter" with the word "Google+". Take a moment to read it, but for the rest, here are some of my favorite quotes/statistics from these articles, Side by Side with the recent "ghost town" article we all love. (http://bit.ly/JlhbpC)

*New Accounts*
TWITTER • Nielsen Online reported two months ago that most new users (60%) bail on Twitter after creating an account.
GOOGLE+ •Roughly 30% of users who make a public post never make a second one on Google Plus

*Dead Accounts*
TWITTER *• The Internet marketing firm HubSpot says more than half of all people who signed up for an account never posted a tweet (55%), aren't following anyone (56%) and have no followers themselves (53%).
*GOOGLE+ • Even after making five public posts, there is a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again on Google+

*Same Users Making All the Content*
TWITTER • TechCrunch says that the ol' 80-20 rule is in full effect on Twitter: 20% of Twitter users are creating 80% of the activity. Harvard Business School says it's even more extreme than that: 10% of Twitter users post 90% of the Tweets.
GOOGLE+ •According to RJM's report, the average post on Google+ has less than one +1, less than one reply, and less than one re-share. Google+ simply does not show the same level of ravenous user adoption and engagement that we've seen in other social networks.

ಠ_ಠ Say what? The media sure likes to talk about how dead a product is, almost with eerie redundancy. Is twitter is 'dead' today? Elgin's points on "I signed up for Twitter in late 2007, looked around and didn't really understand it, then stopped checking it, " rings very true on Google+ too. How many of you did the same thing on Twitter, sign up, do nothing, return later, only to wish you stuck with it that first go around?

Remember G+ Ghosts… We are all ahead of the curve here… and in a few years will frequently talk of "the good old days." So take heart of the awesome amazing strangers around you and +1, share, and comment till your heart is content and worry not about our beloved product. +Google has things figured out I'm sure. 🙂

TLDR The media tends to often say a new product is dying with lots of stats. They mean nothing. Google+ = Awesome 🙂

#googleplus #ghosttown #twitter