Less than 6% of small business owners find Google+ effective for marketing

In yet another blow to Google’s social networking ambitions, research by online marketing advice newsletter TheTysonReport.com has found that Google+ is proving of little value to small business owners.

In a recent survey of readers of The Tyson Report, which provides free online marketing tips by email to over 4,000 entrepreneurs, only 3.5% of respondents found Google+ “effective” for marketing, with just 2.1% judging it “very effective”.

Launched in 2011 amid much fanfare and press attention, Google+ was heralded as the future of social networking – and businesses were warned that having a presence on the platform would be vital to their online marketing efforts.

Yet, four years on it still lags well behind rivals Facebook, which 20.3% of respondents rated as “effective” or “very effective”, and LinkedIn (19.6%).

But topping the list of 16 different marketing channels was the in-house email list. Despite ongoing predictions of email’s demise as a medium, 34.2% of respondents to the survey rated it “effective” or “very effective” and only 3.5% found it completely useless.

Commenting on the survey results, Robert Tyson, Managing Editor of The Tyson Report, said:

“It’s been obvious for a while that Google+ has not turned out to be anywhere near as important as many – myself included – expected.

It’s been called a ‘ghost town’ and with little activity among many users, it’s no surprise that business owners are getting better results elsewhere.

This looks like yet another example of the ‘next big thing’ in marketing grabbing headlines but failing to deliver, while less ‘fashionable’ channels such as email continue to prove their worth.

However, one thing Google+ does do for Google is allow it to gather even more data about its users.

So while Google+ is far from the ‘Facebook Killer’ Google probably hoped, it will continue to serve a very useful purpose for them.”

About The Tyson Report

Established by Max Response founder Robert Tyson, The Tyson Report provides free online marketing tips and advice by email to over 4,000 entrepreneurs and business owners, as well as a VIP membership service with additional information and resources.

Contact
Robert Tyson
Managing Editor
07557 005278
London, UK
[email protected]
http://thetysonreport.com