Financial Times clocks up 1m followers on Google+

The Financial Times has exceeded the one million followers milestone on Google+.

The news outlet with a metered subscription service online has more than double the number of followers of the New York Times and five times the number that the Guardian has acquired.

It is almost a year since the launch of Google's social network, with the Financial Times creating a page in November, when organisations were granted the ability to have a Google+ presence.

On Saturday (16 June) the FT thanked its one million followers on Google+ as it reached the milestone, a post which at the time of writing had generated 64 comments indicating the level of engagement.

According to a blog post on the Financial Times, "Google+ is much more than a social network" as it gives the "ability to personalise content to specific audiences based on what users are interested in".

In the post the news outlet states that "this platform is an important new communications channel", with search facilities and hangouts, the chance to include the audience in debates.

Earlier this month the FT said it is looking at ways to allow those with a subscription to the news outlet to login and read the digital publication from social reader apps such as Flipboard and Zite, enabling its audience to read the FT on their platform of choice.

In today's blog post on the importance of Google+ as a platform, the FT states that it "also wanted to create additional touch points for our readers, allowing them to read FT content where and how they choose".

The post continues: "In developing its Google+ page, the FT opted to emphasise captivating content and exclusive reporting. As early adopters quickly took to Google+, it might have been easy to focus on highlighting tech and digital content on the platform, but the FT has gone far beyond this remit, sharing a wide variety of content from correspondents around the world and has seen a strong response.

"Part of the social media team’s strategy has also been to play up to the highly visual nature of the platform and rich-media content such as videos, images and infographics have proved particularly successful."

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