It’s hard to ask this question in general, because it differs as to why for each business. Facebook and Google+ both present certain advantages and disadvantages. How do you find which is best for your business?
Below, we look at some statistics that allow us to form an opinion of the advantages and disadvantages of each social network.
An interesting infographic by Pardot looks at many different comparisons between Facebook and Google Plus. We’ve cut out the relevant demographic information for you below. The full infographic can be found here.
↓Google+ ↓Facebook
Facebook versus Google+
Which social media site is better? To be honest, any business looking to have a digital presence should be using both of these networks, but it’s still a good idea to look at the strengths and weaknesses of each.
The Benefits of Facebook
Stronger Reach Capabilities
Google+ is rising in terms of its number of users, and is now the world’s second largest social media network. However, it still pales in comparison to Facebook in terms of total users and user interaction. Facebook has just been around for longer and has cemented an obscenely large number of users into its network.
Better Apps
Similarly, Facebook has a staggering amount of third-party apps, with many of them (like Zynga) becoming multi-million dollar companies just off of app sales. Since Facebook has been around for much longer, it has given them a leading edge on the diverse number (and quality) of apps.
More Effective Promotions
Note that this talks about promotions on the actual site itself. Facebook allows for very easy creation of business promotions like sweepstakes, photo contests, and so on. In fact, Wishpond has an incredible suite of tools and analytics to get you started on any Facebook or Twitter promotions your company may be interested in. Google+, on the other hand, still does not allow contests on brand and business pages.
The Benefits of Google+
Pinpoint Targeting Capabilities
Google+ Circles allows companies to isolate and separately target different followers based on their interests. By having clear-cut categorizations, this makes the targeting and distribution of information and promotional materials to market segments incredibly easy.
Complex Analytics
With Google+ Ripples and the ability to use Google Analytics on Brand Pages, Google+ has pulled ahead of Facebook in terms of analytics.
Since Google owns Google+ (obviously), anything shared through Google+ will be much more optimized in search rankings. The +1 feature is also known to carry more weight than Facebook’s “Like” button when it comes to determining popular and trustworthy content.
Concludingly, what matters is which social network you feel is generating the most engagement for your business. There are a lot of similar social networks out there that you can dedicate the majority of your time online to. Try a few of them out, analyze the numbers and go with what you feel or see as the reigning social network of choice.
Written by: Justin @Wishpond. Justin writes content about social media marketing for Wishpond. Wishpond builds easy social marketing apps for businesses.
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