Google+ versus Facebook— Facts Revealed! (A Social Networks Survey: Part 1, Engagement)

Capulet versus Montague. Mac versus PC. Red Vines versus Twizzlers.

It’s time to add a new duo to these disputed rivalries—that’s right: Google+ versus Facebook!

Rarely, if ever, is Google considered an underdog. Yet, in the battle for social networking dominance, Google+ has become the David to Facebook’s Goliath.

The role of these two power players competing in the same social space begs a number of questions: Is Google+ a viable alternative to Facebook? Are users really going to sign up for Google+ at the same rate as Facebook? And, will users eventually use Google+ as much as (or more than) Facebook?

Over the next month, we’ll be exploring the assumption that Facebook has the upper hand over Google+ in terms of usage and engagement.

Using SurveyMonkey Audience, we surveyed over 1,400 people to get a sense of how the public uses the sites. We then distilled the results down into four distinct categories:

• User engagement
• Feature usage
• Predictions
• Site strengths and weaknesses

This week, let’s look at the three basic measures of user engagement—registration, daily access, and willingness to post or update. The data shows that, on average, Facebook users are two times more engaged than Google+ users.

Over three quarters of all respondents surveyed identified as Facebook users (77%) while just 31% of respondents had Google+ accounts.

Facebook users check their accounts almost 2 times more (64%) per day than Google+ users (34%).

While only about one-quarter of Google+ users (26%) post or update their statuses at least once per month, nearly three-quarters of Facebook users (70%) post at least once per month.

In terms of sheer volume of user engagement, Facebook is the clear winner. But what are subscribers actually doing when they’re logged in? Check back with us next week when we’ll explore what features on Google+ and Facebook are most popular among subscribers. In the meantime, click here to see the full set of this week’s results.

Interested in running your own social networking study? Looking for respondents to fill out a survey? Sound off in the comments section below.