It’s true that Facebook and Google Plus are both social networking websites, the largest and the second-largest in the world today, respectively. The comparison, however, has to end there. Google Plus, as anyone who uses most social media services as part of an overall marketing strategy would know, is more than just a simple social networking website.

While both Facebook and Google Plus are great for sharing pictures of your most recent vacation or videos of funny cats and dogs, the latter actually has more serious business capabilities. Let’s delve into these 5 reasons why there is no comparison between the two:

Unique Google Plus Tools

1. Integration with other Google services

Whatever Google services are out there—YouTube, gMail, Blogger, Google Drive, AdWords and Google Search—your Google Plus account is integrated into every single one of them. Facebook and most other social media sites, on the other hand, are mere standalone platforms.

2. Google Plus has better personal data stewardship

I have been a Facebook user for years, and I have had firsthand experience on how poor Facebook is at being a steward of personal data. For instance, I’ve been forced to make some of my personal data ‘public” even when I’ve set my account to private. Then there’s the ever-ubiquitous issue of how hard it is to permanently delete your Facebook profile. On the other hand, Google Plus has better personal data stewardship, if only for the tool called “Data Liberation” which allows you to download personal stuff you’ve put up on the site, and then delete your account without any fuss.

3. More unique Google Plus tools

The Hangouts feature in Google Plus alone should be more than enough to make anyone seriously consider it as their primary social networking site. Hangouts on Air is essentially a no-cost group chat/ video conferencing tool that allows an unlimited number of users to join for any one session. It’s one of those unique Google Plus tools for actual business conferences with people from all over the world, or even just a way for friends who are miles apart to come together and just hang out. You can even set up a weekly talk show broadcast straight from your living room to the world using this most amazing of unique Google plus tools.

4. Better friend management

Sure, Facebook has a “Groups” feature that allows you to form ad hoc groups of friends, but it can get infuriating at times. For instance, I could no longer count the times I’ve found myself a member of a group I don’t really want to be part of. Then again, Facebook’s “Groups” feature is simply an add-on to the site. In contrast, the “Circles” concept of Google Plus has been there since the site was launched, and it happens to be more in keeping with the way we make friends in real life.

More than anything else, sharing content using Google Plus Circles is so much faster, easier and more precise. The platform becomes and even more valuable marketing tool when a Google+ user adds you to his “Circles”, because that means you have been given permission to send them email.

5. Google Plus has no ads

One of the most annoying things about Facebook is that every single page is chock-full of ads. Google Plus, on the other hand, offers a much smoother social media experience as there are no ads there. And if statements made by Google top brass at conferences and in interviews are to be believed, things will stay that way for some time.

So the next you hear someone say Facebook and Google Plus are basically the same because they’re both social networks, you can either tell them why they should not be compared, or you can just smile with the knowledge that you know better.