Google Plus has already become the fastest growing social network, with over 50 million registered users in 88 days! It took Myspace 1,046 days to reach these many users, Twitter 1,096 days, Facebook 1,325 days and LinkedIn 2,354 days... Google Plus benefits from the fact that everyone knows what a social network is at this point, and the reach of Google.com
What will it take for Google Plus to disrupt Facebook and Twitter? Here are five things that could make Google Plus the social network of the future:
1. Repeat Users - How many users are going back to Google Plus and using the social network, over and over again! This is the most crucial metric! Over here, Facebook excels, and also Twitter.
2. Engagement - Amount of good time spent on Google Plus! Are users spending time? How much time? The more time users spend on Google Plus, the more engaged the social network will become...
3. Invitations - Are users inviting their friends to join? Are their friends joining? More sent invitations, more new joins, more new sent invitations from new users... this is how social networks go viral!
4. Everywhere - Can Google Plus plant their flag everywhere as Facebook has done? Google Plus on websites, email signatures, search, major media sites, company sites and more...
5. X factor - The unknown variable that will make users everywhere want to join Google Plus and try it out... and check it out... and come back for more... what is that "I Love IT" X Factor?
Update:
Larry Page, Google CEO, talked about Google+ growth on the Earnings Call on Jan 19, 2012:
"Looking back on 2011, I am most excited by the fact that we
significantly improved our velocity and execution, my priority when I
became CEO in April. With Google+, we shipped on average a new feature
every day since we launched in June. That's more than 200 updates in
total. And those things include a bunch of new Hangout features. In
fact, David Beckham just did a great Hangout with his fans here this
morning. We launched circles in Gmail and + Pages for businesses and
many, many other things. I'm also pleased to announce that there are over 90 million Google+ users, well over double what I announced just a quarter ago on our earnings call. Engagement on + is also growing tremendously. I have some amazing data to share there for the first time. + users are very engaged with our products. Over 60% of them engage daily and over 80% weekly.
As I said last quarter, Google+ is much more than the individual features themselves. It's also about building a meaningful relationship with users so that we can dramatically improve the services we offer. Understanding who people are, what they care about and the other people that matter to them is crucial if we are to give users what they need, when they need it.
Take last week's Search announcement, which I'm really excited about. We've now included personal results in Search. So you can easily find information like photos and + posts that are super relevant to you, as well as the people you care about or are interested in. You can even restrict all personal results or easily view Google in the world mode just as you would have before. I really like it, and I encourage all of you to try it out, too." (from www.seekingalpha.com)
Google Plus : Can it disrupt the mother of all social networks and social media? Is it safe to say that it is a two horse race now between Facebook and Google+? The growth trajectory of Google+ above must have everyone on the right worried...for now!
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