How does Google+ Pages square up to Facebook?

Last week Google+ unveiled its own take on brand and business pages: Google+ Pages. While Google may claim its network is not a Facebook competitor, its latest social marketing offer is a clear parallel to Facebook marketing tool, Facebook Pages. The question is, which brand page offers the most value to both users and advertisers?

Over at ReadWriteWeb.com, we found a comparison of Pages efforts from two leading luxury car companies: BMW and Mercedez-Benz. The verdict is that while Facebook has a first-mover advantage in terms of user numbers and its “comparatively advanced develop platform”, Zuckerberg and co. should not get too complacent just yet.

Engagement is the golden ticket to social marketing success. Let’s look at the BMW Pages as an example. Over on Facebook Pages, user numbers are high. BMW’s Facebook Page had 6.7 million fans as this article was written, compared to 394 BMW followers at Google+ (obviously, this is a fairly unfair comparison, given Google+’s recent entry to market).

Interactivity for BMW on Facebook is also high, with all fans invited to create their own customised BMW and to post to the BMW Page wall. BMW’s Google+ Page, still has a remarkably clean wall by comparison, since fans can’t post directly to it. There is less interaction, but on the plus side, the wall is clean and focused with little spam or irrelevant content.

Google’s social network has already proven successful at engaging users on specific areas of interest. Intelligent features such as Circles and Hangouts (group video chats) offer rich opportunities for brands to engage fans who have expressed interest in their product or niche.

The winner in this latest social media face-off remains to be seen. Google+ has yet to encourage its reported “tens of millions of users” to follow brands, but with the might of Google Search and YouTube’s community behind it, numbers may soon not be enough to give Facebook the advantage.