Google+ Has Become My Least Effective Platform for Social Media Promotion (Even as My G+ Circle Keeps Expanding)

I recently noted how the small social network Plurk proportially generates the largest traffic and engagement levels to my blog, so here's the other end of the spectrum: Google+. In the last couple months, the search engine giant's social network has generated extremely small clickthrough rates, as you can see by this pie chart on clickthroughs to this post about the artwork of Graphic Dix. This is a pretty typical spread: Plurk has the lion's share, Facebook does fairly well, and I believe most of the clicks in that "t.co" slice are from Twitter. Google+, by contrast, has a small 4% sliver. This is a significant dropoff from the first couple months this Summer, when Google+ first launched -- then, Google+ ruled. This dropoff to my blog fits patterns noted by others, that Google+ sharing has been waning quickly.

So what's going on? There is one obvious theory -- a lot of Second Life users, gamers, and others have quit or been kicked out of Google+ for having a pseudonymously named account -- however, it's also probably wrong. My own Google+ circles keep growing, now over 1000 people, about 75% of whom are named after avatars. However, they're not sharing or clicking content with as much enthusiasm as Plurk or even Facebook. My theory? Google+ does a really great job of sampling content in a way that discourages clickthroughs.

For instance, this is what that post about Graphic Dix's art looked like, in my Google+ stream:

So you get a pretty large thumbnail, maybe 50% larger than the kind of thumbnail the same post gets on Facebook, and it conveys a lot about the post. (Plurk and Twitter, by contrast, rarely expose blog posts with thumbnails like this.) So in other words, Google+ users have less incentive to clickthrough. Which may be great for their overall social network experience. For bloggers whose bread and butter are pageviews... not so much.

Of course, my blog may be an atypical case. What's been your experience, fellow bloggers?

Comments

[Geo Meek]

Google need to brake things faster to keep up with you.....

[MaggieL]

Maybe that because G+ isn't designed to be a tool for pimping your blog.

I'm just sayin'...

[Hamlet Au]

That points to a deeper problem: Media sites large and small are increasingly dependent on social media for their readership. If Google+ fails at this, media will be shared less and less on Google+ compared to other social media platforms, slowing growth and engagement even more. Because sharing media is an extremely large part of what other social media sites do well.

[Cajsa Lilliehook]

I probably show up in your list on G+ but I rarely go there. Why? Well, it's too much like FB in terms of conversation - as in conversation is unnatural to follow. It's more for browsing to for links, but I can do tha without G+ on a feed. I am not tempted to be very active there because then I might get deleted - so it's kind of dead loss.

[Isabeal Jupiter]

I, too, get most of my hits from Plurk, but that's because I only post links to my blog on Plurk and Twitter. Facebook is for my RL, and Google + just pissed me off with the #nymwars. SL peeps seem much more engaged in Plurk, so that's where I spend my time.

[Mark C]

If you follow even a few professional bloggers on G+ it rapidly becomes overwhelming. The posts are so large that I don't really have time to look at them all.

On the plus side, I have over 700 followers, because Robert Scoble put me in his circle of tech nerds that he shared, even though I have made a grand total of one publicly visible post. So...there's that.

[nexus burbclave]

For me, personal order of operations plays a role in this. By the time I've gotten around to looking at Google plus, I have typically already seen your SL-related content either via Reddit or Twitter. I do, however find interesting links from you on some of the stuff you put into Google plus that is tangentially related/non-related to your virtual world work, moreso than I would via twitter and reddit. Perhaps they are better tools for focused connections (such as check out my latest post), and Google plus is better for broader connections...or perhaps YMMV.

[Doreen Garrigus]

I have you on my regular news page. If I happen to see on G+ that you have posted something, I open your blog from my iGoogle. I almost never click through.