Google is taking measures to prop up its fledging social-networking initiative, Google+, targeting a mass audience with its first commercial on national television this week.

First seen on Thanksgiving day, the search-giant positioned its latest social foray as a more natural way to share content with friends and colleagues.

We want to raise awareness of the new ways that Google+ allows people to share online, Google representatives said in a statement.

Just like in real life, you share certain things with certain people, and Google+ was built with this in mind. Our vision is to transform the way people connect, communicate and share - across all of Google.

The ad highlights ways in which Google+ is different from the category leading social-network, Facebook, including ways to organize different social groups, and video-chat capabilities.

Earlier this week, the network received a needed boost in profile as US President Barack Obama's reelection campaign team joined the network.

But while the rate of growth is unrivaled, primarily because of its tie-in with other Google services, Google+ is still small in comparison to mature rivals Facebook and Twitter, which have 750 million and 200 million registered users, respectively.

Indeed, while rivals like Facebook and Twitter have become online destinations in themselves, over 50 percent of traffic coming to Google+ originates from Google or Gmail, according to ComScore data.

Facebook also enjoys stronger user engagement than Google+. In the increasingly competitive digital marketing environment, advertisers are concerned with not only reach and targeting, but also user how long users are interacting with the site.

The time spent on Google+ is roughly an average of 5 minutes 15 seconds on Google+. In comparison, Facebook users spend 55 minutes on the site per day, on average, according to Facebook's self-reported statistics.

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