The FT’s 1 million milestone on Google+

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The Financial Times’ post on Google+ yesterday was understated yet powerful:

Today the Financial Times has reached 1m Google+ followers…

Just three months ago, a survey reported that of all British national newspapers with a presence on Google’s social network, the FT was the leader in terms of numbers of followers – meaning, people who have added the FT to a Circle in their own Google+ account – with more than 372,000.

Yesterday’s news shows a huge leap to one million in such a short period. As I write this post today, the FT’s Google+ profile shows the paper now has 1,004,275 followers, a jump of over 4,000 since yesterday.

What’s driving the connections? A compelling presence? Great content? Engaging people who run the G+ account? Adding them simply because it’s a media property? All of the above? Something else?

Even though the FT’s own description in its profile says only “Updates and announcements from the FT,” I’d like to think it’s a lot to do with the content that they choose to share via Google+. That suggests to me that the people behind the account have a good and very clear sense of what works on the social web.

And that fits well with what you see going on with the FT as it embraces a serious approach to being a digital mainstream medium.

It also gives a clear signal to doubters that Google+ is a place on the social web that can be worth investing time and effort to develop a strategic presence that people want to connect with and share.

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Neville Hobson

Social Strategist, Communicator, Writer, and Podcaster with a curiosity for tech and how people use it. Believer in an Internet for everyone. Early adopter (and leaver) and experimenter with social media. Occasional test pilot of shiny new objects. Avid tea drinker.

  19. Adam

    The fact that the FT keeps popping up in G+’s equivalent of the recommended user list probably has some role in that number… :-)

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