Google+ Users Only Spend 3 Minutes per Month on the Site!

I’m not surprised to announced that recent data from comScore shows that Google+ users spent only 3.3 minutes per month on the site in January, down from 4.8 in December. This number pales in comparison to the 7.5 hours per month users spend on Facebook (and yes, that is HOURS not minutes).

This all begs to answer the question: what is Google trying to do with Google+? We’ve seen them frantically use their employees to promote the tools. We’ve seen them announce that its search results would put preference to those with content on Google+ and even more preference to pages that have been “+’ed” We’ve seen them hold press conferences, make exciting announcements, and revamped Google’s design.

But sadly, Google has fallen short. They’ve missed the key item that many businesses fail to consider- differentiation. Rather than offer users something different in the social world, Google tried to simply “recreate” the social space (ie try to take over from Facebook and Twitter). Google failed to realize it needed to come up with something new rather than improve on design or security settings. Yes, it’s great that I can add a friend to a circle to only share certain information with them. But why am I sharing the same information that I’d share on Facebook or Twitter?  I want the internet to un-complicate things for me, not add on to them.

I’ll say what I’ve been saying for a while. For Google+ to truly succeed, they need to think about what they’re really offering users rather than trying to take a piece of the social pie. Only then will the tool truly find a way into the hearts of its users and get users coming back for more. I don’t see Google+ becoming the big social network it hopes to be any time soon, but I can say that they will continue to try and force people and brands to use it.

I want Google+ to become something, but until I can find something that it offers me, I won’t be an avid user.

-Bryan Nagy