Are Larry Page and Sergey Brin being hypocritical by not using Google+?

The Google co-founders have been saying since before Larry Page took over as CEO last year that social was their #1 priority. Page made it clear that everyone’s focus should be on social media above all else and that the employees’ bonus structure would be determined by success in this single area. We even defended him on his choice and it has started to pay off with Google+ making strides in the right direction.

The only gripe now is that they are not active participants in the very thing they want to succeed. Certainly, they are working behind the scenes to improve the chances for success on social media, but neither update their profiles very often – Page’s profile has been dormant since a “mad flurry” of three posts in two days in June, while Brin’s profile ad four updates in May – the most he’s posted in a month this year.

Perhaps they’re copying Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s style of only posting when something is either truly important such as “we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram” or “listed a company on NASDAQ”. Unfortunately, Zuckerberg has the luxury of not having to chase someone from behind. With nearly 1 billion users, Facebook doesn’t need him to post pictures of his dog (even though he has done so in the past).

The Google co-founders do not have that luxury. They have a wide gap in which to try to make up ground from a 7-year Facebook head start. With over 3 million users following Page and over 2 million following Brin, their direct involvement with the site is extremely important. It isn’t even the people they can reach as much as it is the message being broadcast to their company…

“Do as we say, not as we do.”

They are busy men and neither we nor their employees expect status updates detailing their daily lives, but they can’t try to Zuck this up. They have to be aggressive. They’re Google. Surely something plus-worthy has happened at the company since Page’s last update over a month ago, right?