This Infographic Shows Why Google+ Is a Ghost Town

There’s a lot of conflicting data out there about Google+. A few studies over the past few months have portrayed the fledgling social network as relatively moribund, but another recent report from Experian Hitwise says visits to the network are growing substantially, hitting 34.9 million for the week ended Aug. 4 compared to 21.9 million visits for the week ended July 21 — a 59% jump in two weeks.

Whether the network is thriving or not, this research from Umpf, a UK-based social media firm, shows that activity on G+ is low compared to other social networks.

To prove the point, Umpf analyzed 100 online news stories across G+, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The company then determined the average number of users per 100 million likely to share a story. As the infographic below shows, the gulf between G+ and Twitter in this regard is stark: Only six G+ users out of 100 million shared, compared to 197.3 out of 100 million for Twitter. The difference wasn’t as large for Facebook and LinkedIn, but G+ was still a distant fourth.