Google Plus: Big With Status-Seeking Singles; Losing Ground At Colleges & Cafes

Conventional wisdom says that Google+ is big with the tech crowd and, more specifically, with males than females. But Experian Hitwise has a different way of looking at who’s using Google+. It doesn’t dispute the conventional wisdom, per se, but adds perhaps another perspective to the discussion.

In a blog post today, Bill Tancer uses the company’s “Mosaic” lifestyle segmentation system to conclude that the Google+ audience is expanding.

… in just over six weeks, we’ve moved from innovators to early adopters to early mainstream users visiting the new social network.

An accompanying chart shows that Google+ was initially a big hit with the “colleges and cafes” crowd (described as “young singles and recent college graduates living in college communities”), but that community is visiting Google+ less over the past month. (see red line below)

Meanwhile, the “Status Seeking Singles” segment adopted Google+ early (green line above) and continues to make up a large part of the userbase now, along with a group that Experian Hitwise calls “Kids and Cabernet.” The latter segment is described as “prosperous, middle-aged married couples living child-focused lives in affluent suburbs.” (dark blue line above)

Experian suggests that this “Kids and Cabernet” group is the first sign of Google+ adoption beyond innovators and early adopters and that watching the future migration of other lifestyle segments will help indicate if Google+ will become a legitimate Facebook competitor.

And what remains to be seen in the immediate future is if this week’s launch of games on Google+ has any impact on the types of people that visit the site consistently.