Google Plus was a bit controversial when it first opened.  Most of the complaints centered around whether the world needed another social network and whether Google would be collecting too much data on people’s surfing habits.  These controversies aren’t likely to die off any time soon.  The fact is, people are spending more and more time on social networks, and Google couldn’t afford to ignore the impact it was having on the web.  The company has been relatively understated in their promotion of the platform, but clearly they have the most marketing cloud of anyone online and it’s starting to show remarkable bulk as the service has surpassed some major benchmarks.

Google Plus started in June 2011 and now has 90 million users.  This is a remarkable accomplishment for anyone, including Google!

For social media marketers who were slow to embrace Google+, I expect pink slips are waiting in your inbox!

Social Media Marketing Is About Hustle

When a new social network opens up, the appropriate response from a social media marketer needs to be ‘Yay! Another new marketplace!”  Instead, when G+ started, you heard a lot of “I don’t like it.  I like Facebook.  I’m too busy to get into this.”  The worse part?  Those statements came from so-called ‘marketers.’

These people need to be FIRED if they haven’t already been. Smart marketers jumped on the bandwagon early and built huge follower counts. They knew Google Plus would be huge, just for the simple reason that Google is already so HUGE! With them promoting it as an additional service on Google.com and YouTube.com it seemed obvious that G+ would succeed.  Succeed it has! Google Plus traffic has doubled in the last three months alone.

If You’re A Marketer And You’re Still Resisting Google+….

You must not like money!  In the next 12 months you can expect to see a giant increase in Google+ traffic, and much of it will come at the expense of current social media stalwarts.  It’s unavoidable.  Google search engine traffic remains the single richest source of ‘free traffic‘ anywhere on-line, and Google+ signals are being incorporated every day into the ranking algorithm, so the importance of Google+ will continue to grow.  Whether Facebook and Twitter lose traffic remains to be seen, but it could be likely if people really start embracing Google+.

Don’t forget, Google has added tons of toolbars and other buttons on its heavily-trafficked websites which are aggressively promoting their service.  As a clear sign the marketing is working, the Google+ iPhone app right now remains the most popular free application that’s downloaded from the Apple app store.  The growth should continue unabated for quite some time.  It’s time to get on the train, if you haven’t already.

So what do YOU think of Google Plus?  If you’re already on there and looking for new people to join up with, check me out.  I would be happy to Circle back anyone!