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Report: Google Plus Gets Government Adopters

Although Google Plus traffic reportedly is declining, government agencies are putting official pages on the upstart social network.

Government agencies reportedly are beginning to adopt the Google Plus social networking platform.

According to InformationWeek, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) were among some of the agencies to adopt the social networking platform. Since creating an account, NASA has already reached more than 18,000 followers and has put up nearly two dozen posts.

Other agencies that have adopted Google Plus include the Army’s Fort Rucker, the Texas Army National Guard, the National Weather Service’s El Paso field office and the National Weather Service’s Warning Decision Training Branch.

A July posting on the official Google blog advised government agencies, businesses and organizations were advised to wait on starting Google Plus accounts until the company developed “brand accounts.” IT staff and analysts told Government Technology in September that support for brands was one of the hurdles that needed to be solved before government would jump on board.

That occurred earlier this week, when Google announced the launch of Google Pages — accounts designed for businesses and organizations to interact with their customers in the social media sphere.

Although at least a few government agencies are moving onto Google Plus, the platform itself may be in jeopardy of losing its audience. According to a recent study by data analytics firm Chikita, Google Plus traffic has declined nearly 60 percent since September.

Meanwhile, Facebook says it has reached an all-time high of 800 million active users.