Study: Fan Engagement On Google+ Narrowly Trails Facebook, Nearly Doubles Twitter

Here’s more evidence that smart marketers shouldn’t neglect to include Google+ in their social media mix: Google+ generates nearly as much engagement per follower as Facebook and nearly twice as much as Twitter.

The surprising results come from a Forrester Research study of the social profiles of 50 global brands on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter. Forrester looked at more than 3 million user interactions with more than 2,500 brand posts during the first quarter of 2014 and found that Google+’s rate of engagement per post compared very well with its competitors:

Forrester stressed that the engagement rate — the total number of interactions with each branded post as a percentage of the relevant brand’s total fan or follower count on the relevant social network and profile — shouldn’t be considered primary success metric, rather as a stepping-stone toward getting positive business results from social efforts.

But combined with data from an April 2013 Forrester survey that found 22% of more than 60,000 U.S. online adults said they visit Google+ at least once a month — way behind Facebook’s 72%, but the same as Twitter — it’s clear that G+ should be in the mix. The report’s author, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst Nate Elliott, recommends that brands mimic their Facebook efforts on Google+, noting that most social management dashboards can automatically post on both networks.

The full report costs $499 and can be downloaded here.