Should Facebook Worry About Google Plus’ Brand Page Growth?

Posted by David Cohen on February 17th, 2012 4:03 PM

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Search and social management platform BrightEdge reported explosive growth for the top 100 brands on their Google Plus pages. So should Facebook be concerned?
According to BrightEdge, Google Plus fans, or the number of users in circles, for the top 100 brands soared by more than 1,400 percent in January, to 3.1 million, from 222,000 in December.
BrightEdge provided Google Plus follower totals for the top brands, which it refers to as the G+ Ten.  While the growth rate of the these pages is impressive, we’re not sure Facebook needs to start sweating yet.
Below is BrightEdge’s G+ Ten, with Google Plus fans followed by Facebook likes. The differences are staggering.

1. H&M, 462,000 on Google Plus, nearly 9.7 million on Facebook;
2. Samsung, 372,000 versus more than 6.4 million;
3. Pepsi, 350,000 versus more than 7.5 million;
4. Coca-Cola, 336,000 versus nearly 39.3 million;
5. Starbucks, 335,000 versus more than 28.3 million;
6. Sony, 258,000 versus more than 2.1 million;
7. Intel, 258,000, versus more than 6.2 million;
8. eBay 253,000, versus more than 2.1 million;
9. Google 193,000, versus nearly 7.6 million; and
10. Amazon 184,000, more than 2.8 million.

Facebook obviously had a head start, with Google Plus launching this past June, but closing these gaps will take time, and plenty of it, unless Google Plus can actually maintain monthly growth rates comparable to the one it posted in January.
And even at that pace of growth, it would take a while before Google Plus becomes big enough that people want to log on more frequently.
Readers: How long do you think it will take for Google Plus to pose a significant threat to Facebook when it comes to brands, or will it ever happen?