Post discoverability on Google+ vs. Facebook vs. Twitter

Working in the social media sphere every day, you get used to the pace of posts flying by. We are all flooded, every single day—both by content we care about and by content we couldn't care less about. In today's Marketing Monday article, +Greg Trujillo of CT Social discusses how to keep your post relevant longer on Google+ and how Google+ compares to Facebook and Twitter.

Though the amount of posts can be overwhelming for consumers, businesses who use social media have a real financial concern with the longevity of what they create. When they post on Twitter and it disappears from the top of the stream in seconds, how can they create a meaningful brand message?

Post longevity measures the approximate length of time that a social media post can be discovered. And your ability to take advantage of that longevity (as opposed to the immediacy of most posts) can significantly affect your long-term marketing opportunities.

For example, when you are on Google+, you can see posts that other people you follow have given a +1 to. This allows more people to see the post and potentially interact with it. Depending on how viral the content is, you could potentially have a post that people interact with for a few days or even weeks.

As with most things, there are distinct differences between the longevity of posts when you compare Google+  versus Facebook versus Twitter. It is important to know what sort of longevity you should expect so that you can choose the right social media network for the situation and set your expectations correctly.

So how long do my posts last on different social networks?

Facebook – When you make a post here, you are already limited to sharing the post with only a small amount of fans. Example: Let’s say you have 100 fans on your page. When you make a post, Facebook will show it to 20% of your fans. So in this example, 20 of your fans will be eligible to see your post. If half of them are not online today, then only 10 see it. If no one likes the post or comments on it, then no one else will see the Facebook post.

This means that post longevity will have to be increased by having a larger following, and by writing posts that are very engaging. This can be very difficult if, for example, you’re writing for a company that does mold remediation in Orlando.

This demonstrates the true nature of Facebook’s pay to play advertising. Posts boosted with paid advertising are some of the only ones that last longer than a couple of days.  

Twitter – On Twitter, your post goes by even more quickly than they do on Facebook. Unlike Facebook, all of your Twitter followers will be able to see your tweet when you post it. That is, if they can find it among the tweets flying past their home stream. Retweets can help your post last longer than a couple of minutes, but don't expect any Twitter post to last longer than a couple of hours.

Google+ – Google+ is a lot like Twitter and Facebook. Like Twitter, Google+ allows you to make a post that all of your followers will see, and like Facebook, as people give +1’s (likes) to your post, it becomes more visible to people that are not following you (but who are following people who follow you). The in-stream longevity of your post on Google+ is about that of Facebook’s… if Facebook did not reduce how many people saw your post.

The Real Magic – Search

Facebook - For post longevity, search is where it all goes down! If I search on Facebook for 'Orlando Social Media agency' I’ll only get people, pages, groups, apps and events. No posts show up! If you happened to hashtag your post, you will gain more visibility when someone searches that hashtag as long as other people have not also used that hashtag after you.

Twitter - If I perform the same search on Twitter, I can find people, agencies, and posts that are relevant to my query! This increases the chances of your post being seen long after you posted it. Hashtag search is going to work a lot like Facebook, so if other people are using the tag frequently then it will be difficult to find your post with that search type. However, if your tweet was favorited and/or retweeted a few times, it may appear in the "top" tweets section, giving it more visibility.

Google+ – Performing the same query on Google+ allows me to see People and Pages, Communities, Posts, photos, Hangouts, Events, etc. Nearly anything that is done publicly on Google+ can be found.  There is search power for Google+ beyond the social network, however; not only can you find posts on Google+, but you can also find Google+ posts on Google Search. Each post is treated as its own page and gains rankings on the search engine just like any other page would. This increases the overall longevity of a post to potentially years instead of just hours.

Most activity on social networks is gone and out of people’s minds very quickly. With Google providing a way to keep your post in front of people over a larger period of time makes it a no brainer for me to spend my marketing hours creating content on Google+. After all, we already pay enough in our time and effort. Why pay more to reach people who have already liked your page?