Each year the American Customers Satisfaction Index is released which ranks different vendors in different industries according to how happy its customers are. This is the first year the ACSI has measured Google+, Twitter and Linkedin. Google+ scored a 78, which earns it the highest rank for social media sites. FaceBook came in last with 61 points. Except for Google+, Pinterest beat the other social networks.
The features that set Google+ apart are the lack of ads, a superior mobile service and a commitment to privacy. These stand in contradistinction to how people think of FaceBook, which is about intrusive, irrelevant and frequent ads. FaceBook has also been heavily criticized many times for a lack of concern about the privacy of its users.
This difference in approach does not, however, make Google+ the clear winner for the social media agency’s efforts. It does mitigate the likelihood of Google+’s collapse as some predict. The social network is still growing and as more and more people find it a more peasant experience than FaceBook—except for the absence of people—then it is possible that Google+ becomes more frequented by many users. That growth will then make people check it more often and turn it into an important social network for brand messaging.
The lack of clutter might also make a brand’s efforts on Google+ more effective than FaceBook. There is less to distract customers, and the lack of ads means users are seeing brand messaging inside newsfeeds where updates about friends are also seen.
