The future of Google’s greatest social networking effort to date, Google+, may be debatable, but the search giant hasn’t found it very difficult to lure brands to Google+.

And for good reason: Google+ has been Google’s most respectable social effort to date and brands have learned that getting on board services before they get big is often a far better strategy than waiting until it’s too late.

While it remains to be seen whether those brands that joined the Google+ bandwagon early will be rewarded with ROI, there is some promising news according to social media analytics provider Simply Measured.

It looked at the Interbrand Top 100 brands that are present on Google+ and found that, six months in, 22% of the brands circler counts exceeding 100,000. Nike, which joined just two months ago, is one of them. All told, the total number of circlers counted has grown 138% since Simply Measured’s first report three months ago, and circler engagement is up 112%. Engagement with content, which Simply Measured says is driven primarily by photos and videos, is up too, although not as much (65%).

As one might expect, not all brands and verticals are treated equally on Google+. Four luxury brands — Ferrari, Gucci, H&M and Burberry — are tops in terms of the number of circlers they have. Combined, they have more than 2.5m circlers. In terms of verticals, brands in the automotive, electronics and luxury categories are by far the most popular.

According to Simply Measured CEO Adam Schoenfeld, “With a user base surpassing 100 million and growing fast, Google+ is becoming an attractive channel for brands to engage with consumers.”

For brands like Ferrari and Gucci, that does appear to be the case. But there’s a wide chasm outside of the top-tiers of the Google+ brand page leaders. Armani, which ranks twenty-second in circlers with 111,000, is followed by Adidas, which has just 26,000 followers.

A lot of this has to with how great an effort different brands are making on Google+, which raises the question: just how much time and money should brands invest in Google’s social network to get results? Ferarri’s 730,000 circler count is impressive, but the iconic automobile manufacturer has more than 8.1m likes on Facebook. Adidas, which has a far less impressive circler count, has an equally impressive 7.6m likes on Facebook.

Obviously, Google+ isn’t yet a year old, so comparing circlers to likes isn’t entirely fair. But at the end of the day, savvy brands will begin to make comparisons. What’s the cost of acquiring a new circler compared to a like? At what point does fan acquisition hit a plateau on both networks? What’s the value of circler versus a Facebook fan?

Right now, Google can’t offer a Facebook-sized audience, so it should probably focus on doing what it can to ensure the answers to these questions cast Google+ in a favorable light.

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

In these times of recession, online gaming is a boom industry, as witnessed by Zynga’s IPO today.

The deal values Zynga, the maker of FarmVille and CityVille, at $ 9bn and is the largest US internet IPO since Google raised $ 1.9bn in 2004.

And new data from gaming firm Pando Networks gives further evidence of the continued growth of free-to-play games.

While the data only reflects Pando’s figures, it gives an insight into the growth of gaming worldwide since 2009.

The company has seen a 1024% boom in game downloads in Europe between October 2009 and 2011, with developing nations such as Turkey seeing a 534% growth in free-to-play gaming on the Pando platform in the past 12 months.

Pando CEO Robert Levitan said the popularity of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games is being driven by several industry factors.

These factors include the transition from a ‘paid’ to a ‘free-to-play’ business model as evidenced by Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, as well as the release of new hit games such as League of Legends from Riot Games.

“We expect continued robust growth as traditional game publishers move to full digital distribution and embrace the free-to-play model,” he said.

A full list of worldwide stats from Pando Networks can be seen in this infographic.

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

Yelp’s S1, which was issued last week as a run-up to a $ 100 million IPO, reveals a lot of new data about the reviews leader. The big question about Yelp has been whether it can grow against increased pressure from Google, and also begin to take market share away from traditional media players such as Yellow Pages.

Yelp’s plan for growth relies heavily on overseas growth. It is now in 22 international cities on top of 43 domestic markets. But it would also grow its primary business via local and brand advertising; monetizing mobile services that now make up 40 percent of its searches; boosting revenue from deals (where it has lowered expectations); and more revenue sharing dollars from restaurant reservations and travel.

Launched in 2004, Yelp had initially risen to the top of the heap among service and city guide leaders by dominating Google’s organic local search. After Google’s effort to acquire Yelp for $ 500 million ended under murky circumstances, Yelp has seen its prior dominance of Google search fade away. Moreover, Google Places – enhanced by Google’s purchase of Zagat — now looms as a competitor in its own right for reviews and advertising.

“Our success depends on our ability to maintain a prominent presence in search results for queries regarding local businesses on Google,” notes the S1.

Yet, Yelp is growing splendidly, even with the apparent Google woes. Yelp earned $ 47.7 million in 2010 and $ 58.4 million in net revenue in the first nine months of 2011, representing 80 percent growth over the first nine months of 2010.

During the nine months of 2011, the company claimed 19,000 paid accounts – up 75 percent from the same period in 2010, And 529,000 claimed pages –up 114 percent. And in a business where the number of current reviews is its currency, it has an archive of 22 million reviews, up 66 percent from the same period in 2010. Overall, it sees 61 million monthly users.

Yelp is primarily known for its restaurant reviews. That is still its primary image, and what has made “to yelp” a verb. But Yelp is also more diversified than generally perceived, and resembles a combination city magazine/Yellow Pages.

Restaurants and dining now make up 23 percent. Other major segments include shopping (22 percent), services (10 percent); beauty (9 percent); arts and entertainment (8 percent); Health (5 percent) Night Life (4 percent) and Travel and Hotel (4 percent). It also has a broad demographic, with 42 percent between the ages of 18-34, and 33 percent between the ages of 35-49.

What investors will be looking at is not only Yelp’s ability to grow and move into new areas, but also it’s potential for profits. The company has accumulated a deficit of $ 32.1 million since its launch, and lost roughly $ 7.6 million in the first 9 months of 2011. Sales and marketing costs have been especially heavy, eating up $ 38.5 million for the first nine months of 2011.

Business Insider suggests that “Yelp is Groupon without the cash flow,” basing its comment on Yelp’s increasing marketing costs for customer acquisitions. But to us, Yelp is working to get over a tipping point. And unlike Groupon’s one-time relationship with local businesses, Yelp is working on Yellow Pages-like renewal rates.

In fact, the key to Yelp is to continue its ability to maintain and leverage its huge user base; satisfy advertisers; and stay abreast of social media trends that help match users with establishments based on their interests. It won’t be easy and is not a sure thing. But Yelp’s trajectory to date has been an impressive one.

Shares of Yelp Searches

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Small business support organisation the Forum of Private Business has called for a ‘two pronged’ approach to boost economic growth in the UK.

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