Google+ Communities: Revolutionizing Niche Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing took a major leap forward recently with the creation of Google+ Communities.

Considering Facebook’s first mover advantage when it came to social media marketing, it has always had an edge over the competition, namely Google+, when it came to businesses setting up shop and promoting themselves within the social network. So, despite the numerous complaints businesses have launched against Facebook for the poor quality of their business services, companies and brands have stuck around. With the launch of Google+ Communities, however, that might change very soon.

The key issue businesses have with Facebook for their social media marketing efforts is that the EdgeRank algorithm is quite biased, and the result is a lack of exposure for businesses on their fans news feeds. That’s right – EdgeRank determines what people see and what they do not see on their news feed. The EdgeRank system is based on engagement, so if a fan neglects a brand, it is unlikely that the brand’s post will appear in their news feed. Seems hard to believe considering how much companies spend on their Facebook advertising efforts (i.e. promoted and targeted posts) but it’s true. In fact, it was recently announced that only roughly 16% of a brand’s fans see that brand’s content. If only there was a better way! Well it looks like there might be.

In the last week, Google+ has launched their Communities feature which rivals Facebook’s entire marketing core as it guarantees that 100% of community members will see a brand’s posts. This means that 100% of a brand’s social media marketing efforts on Google+ can produce results, and that is a return no company can ignore. Facebook Groups, despite their targeted nature, still abide by the EdgeRank system when it comes to a Facebook user’s news feed. With Google+ Communities, any member of a community can see the content posted by a brand. Not only that, but because of the infrastructure and backing of Google, posts on Google+ Communities are also indexed on the social network and the monstrous search engine. That means that content posted by a brand on a Google+ community is available to 100% of both Google+ members and your average Google user. Oh, and did we mention that you don’t need to pay Google for this service? That’s right, contrary to Facebook where you must allocate a portion of your social media marketing budget to gain some exposure to your fans, Google+ Communities is a free service integrated into the social network, and the benefits are substantially higher.

With the superiority of Google+ Communities, it seems like Facebook may have to reevaluate their platform as it pertains to businesses. The advantage of exposure, cost and SEO (Oh yeah, did we mention Google+ is backed by Google?) it is a wonder why businesses would continue to allocate so many, if any, resources to the social networking giant as opposed to Google+.

Would you considering focusing more of your efforts on Google+ now that Communities are available? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!