Is Google+ worth 5 minutes a day?

[scottb]

I realize Google+ doesn't earn much respect. One piece of evidence is the lack of postings in this forum. But I wonder if any of you still use it at all or see even a minimal benefit from it.

Several weeks ago, I started paying attention to it again for the first time in several years just out of curiosity. I see a positive in the number of followers I have gained. It's evidence that people still use it.

On the negative side, I have had only one click through to my site and no impact on search rankings. I thought social media is a ranking signal. Maybe it isn't with Google anymore.

Your thoughts?

[bill]

G+ never made a public API available. That was supposed to keep people from cross posting to and from other SNS. It worked for a little while, but in the long run we see that this has not had the desired effect. What we have is an ever shrinking island of users posting uniquely to G+.

I have one G+ community where I get more interaction than any other SNS. I can post the same content on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but I won't see as much interaction as I do for that one G+ topic. I don't see this with all G+ pages though, and that's likely the case for most. When you're in a G+ ghost town it's really lonely. When you have a good community it's surprisingly active, and the interaction is not spam (for the most part).

I still make it a point to post at least press releases to my G+ Pages, even on seemingly dead-zone accounts.

[keyplyr]

If you think G+ as just a SM site you're not really seeing the full picture.

Think of G+ as your home page for your Google account and if you have a physical business, the Google page for that business.

Now that they've added several announcement and messaging features, it's set up pretty well as a Contact Us page for business.

[bill]

I control many business location pages for physical sites worldwide. However, I haven't seen much benefit to posting to the G+ portion of those listings. I never saw much difference in the listings where I posted on the G+ side and those with just standard business information and no G+ postings. I think it's more important to fill out those location profiles and to provide up to date site location data, but the SNS side doesn't appear to be an effective use of my time.

[keyplyr]

Agreed... it's always been an overlooked resource.

[scottb]

I can see the benefit for a local business and have used it for my locally based clients. My own site has a niche national audience (travel) and doesn't need the business information.

There is a small benefit in the process of creating Collections. I have been adding old articles to each collection. It forces me to review and improve the articles before I post them. Yes, I can do it on my own without posting to G+. But this way I get more followers, get a small SEO benefit (in theory) and maybe pick up a few more visits each month.

It seems worth 5 minutes a day, but not much more.

[JS_Harris]

I see sites with buttons all over the internet and the G+ button always reads 0 and until that changes I can't justify investing time and resources on their platform.

Also, complicating matters a bit, is that I have an adsense account locked into the same email address and would rather keep financial dealings and everythign else seperate. One account rules them all is also lose one lose em all so... anyway, my opinion is that there are better places to spend resources on to improve results of your website. G+ hangouts are fun though, live networking.

[nomis5]

The answer to the OP's question is clearly a resounding no. G+ is now shut down.

[Leosghost]

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it...

[scottb]

Fortunately, I quit posting months ago after answering my own question.

I suspect this thread is what really pushed Google to kill it ...

[skibidi]

But if it's not competitive, why do the users have to keep it alive? It's really uncomfortable and complicated enough for any action. That's why there's no respect for it.