There have been two big social networks, Pinterest and Google Plus, that have received a lot of press in the last few months. For businesses with not a lot of time on their hands, the last thing they need is to manage to more social networks along with Facebook and Twitter. So when you compare Pinterest v. Google Plus and had to choose one which one should you choose?

The answer is actually quite easy. It’s Pinterest.

Why?

There are a couple of reasons why Pinterest is a much better social network for business over Google Plus wiht one caveat.

The biggest reason is to remember why social networks are important. They are channels that allow you to put out content that can be shared very quickly. The number one social media network for referrals is Facebook. The second referring network is Twitter and right behind Twitter and rising quickly is Pinterest. Pinterest drives more web traffic then YouTube and Google plus combined. So if you are going to try to drive people to your website, shouldn’t you use the networks that are actually doing just that?

The second reason is in usage. Recent data from comscore is suggesting what a lot of people already suspected, while there are a lot of users on Google plus, there doesn’t appear to be any real activity. Users spent over 89 min on Pinterest in the month of January but each user on google plus spent an average of only three minutes per visit on Google plus.

The one caveat that needs to be taken into account is how Google plus is effecting search. Now when you use Google search you will see the +1 button next to all the searches. This is being used to help personalize your search so Google knows what you prefer.

With that caveat in mind, our recommendation for any small business is to do the following for social media:

• Have a Facebook page and update it daily
• Have a Twitter account and if you aren’t able to monitor Twitter, tie it to your Facebook.
• Have a Pinterest board and pin your products along with other products and experiences that reflect your brand. Update it once a week.
• Use the +1 share button along with Pin It, Facebook Like and Tweet on every piece of content.

Happy Liking, Tweeting, Pinning and +1ing.