It is a (fairly) well known fact that Facebook content is not displayed to every person that subscribe or ‘likes’ your Facebook Page. Instead, a proprietary Facebook algorithm known as EdgeRank decides which stories appear in each user’s newsfeed. The algorithm hides boring stories, so if your story doesn’t score well, no one will see it.
The general consensus is that approximately 12% of the people following your Page’s content will ever have the chance to view it. In other words, a Facebook Page with 1,000 followers is only getting their messaging out in front of 120 people at any one time. How do you ‘beat the system’? By consistently publishing quality content that users Like, share or comment on.
The longer a piece of content exists in Facebook, the less likely it is that it will be seen (or socially interacted with). (Click to Tweet)
Facebook content has the highest probability of being seen when it is first published. Sadly, after that the views are all ‘downhill’ unless you hit on the extremely rare piece of viral content (meaning more ‘friends of friends’ vs. first connections have Liked, shared, or commented on the content). While you can increase your odds of having EdgeRank display your message to more people with Promoted Posts or Facebook Ads, non-paid organic content has little chance being seen – or found – weeks, months, or years later .
On the flip side, publishing content on Google+ keeps that content active and online for as long as you choose to keep the content online. The content published on Google+ is never archived off and remains viable in search indexes.
Example: The very first piece of content I ever published ‘public’ in Google+ still receives comments, +1’s and shares over two years later. The post still shows up via Search Plus Your World in Google Search for relevant keywords. Above all else, I am able to EDIT that content over two years later to make that ‘hot’ piece of content stays accurate and evergreen.
Not only is this holding true for that first piece of content, but it surfaces every year for content I’ve published that is time-dated (such as a holiday or recurring event such as a conference). Content I published last year about BlogHer is being searched for, found, and socially interacted with a year after I published it on Google+.
The longer your content exists in Google+ the higher the chance you have of it being found. (Click to Tweet)
Both Facebook and Google+ are vital tools to include in any full-faceted digital media outreach tactical plan. Armed with the difference in how content ‘lives’ – you can hopefully make better decisions on how to build your plan!