Research shows Google is growing

Recent research has revealed that Google+ is still increasing its user numbers, albeit at a steadier pace than it has done in the past.

Conducted by BrightEdge, the study showed that three quarters of the top 100 brands now have a presence on the social network, with H&M on top in terms of its follower numbers.

The clothing company has a total of with over 1.3 million, followed closely by Toyota with almost 1.2 million.

Meanwhile, new companies that have traditionally enjoyed success in the physical world have started signing up, with Visa, Hermes and Wells and Fargo all joining in the past few months.

Of those businesses with a page on Google+, 30 per cent had pages displayed in search results for their brand name in July. This is six times higher than the previous study by BrightEdge for Google+ adoption in February.

The SEO company commented on the results, suggesting that the increase could be due to “the rising importance of social content in search results along with the growing adoption of Google+ by brands and users.”

Despite the fact that Google+ adoption has risen to around 75 per cent of the top 100 companies, Twitter and Facebook still have higher adoption rates among big name brands, with a 80 per cent and 90 per cent adoption rate respectively.

However, the type of businesses that does well on Google+ is not necessarily the same as those that gather the most followers on Facebook and Twitter. Car firms in particular have shown a strong presence on Google+, with Toyota, BMW, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche accounting for 50 per cent of followers in the top ten. The network is also acquiring a reputation as being popular with technology fans, supported by the fact that Sony, Intel, eBay and Amazon are all performing well.

But things are changing and new brands are gathering followers quickly as they start to realise the potential benefits of building up a name of the Google network.