Survey: Only 40 Percent Of Marketers Are Using Google+, But Many Plan To Change That

Marketers have been slow to adopt Google+, with only 40 percent currently using it, but many say they want to learn more about it and plan to increase their use of Google’s incipient social network.

Facebook, meanwhile, remains the dominant social networking site for marketers, with more than 90 percent adoption.

The numbers come from Social Media Examiner’s fourth annual survey of marketers and business owners. The January survey collected replies from more than 3,800 marketers around the world, a group that was almost equally split between B2B and B2C marketers.

Most Popular Social Media Marketing Sites

When asked to name the social network sites/tools that they use, 92 percent listed Facebook — tops on the chart. Twitter (82 percent), LinkedIn (73 percent), Blogs (61 percent) and YouTube/video (57 percent) round out the top five social networking channels.

Usage of social bookmarking/news sites dropped from 26 percent in 2011 to 16 percent this year. Forum usage also fell from 24 percent to 19 percent.

Twenty-one percent of those surveyed say they use photo sharing sites (like Pinterest and Flickr), and 38 percent say they plan to use those sites more in the future.

Google+: Slow Adoption That Could Change

Google+ was a distant sixth with 40 percent adoption. The survey reveals that marketing experience matters: 58 percent of marketers with 3+ years of experience are using Google+, while only 29 pecent of marketers with six months or less experience are using it.

Google+ has only been around since last June — about six months before Social Media Examiner’s survey. So whether that 40 percent figure is strong or weak may depend on whether you’re a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of person.

But the survey makes it clear that marketers want to learn more about Google+ and have plans to increase their marketing efforts there. Sixty-seven percent of respondents say they plan to increase Google+ usage, and (not shown below) 70 percent expressed an interest in learning more about using Google+.

To me, the numbers suggest that marketers are wisely taking a wait-and-see approach to Google+ so far. There’s no sense throwing a lot of time and emergy into Google+ — or any social networking site — if your target audience isn’t there.

The Social Media Examiner survey is filled with interesting stats and figures, and can downloaded for free until April 19th.