In 2011, Facebook introduced the EdgeRank algorithm whose purpose was to set the criteria how, when and why any given post shows up in a user’s news feed. EdgeRank bases the posts you write by three components: affinity, weight and timeliness.
- Affinity is the amount of interaction between any two Facebook users. The more you incite interaction, the greater the possibility that your post will appear in users feeds.
- Weight is how much weight, or importance, an action carries in regards to your post. For example, a share carries more weight than a comment, a comment carries more weight than a like, a like carries more weight than simply clicking to view the post in full.
- Timeliness, or Time Decay, is the older the post, the less relevant the post becomes much the same as breaking news.
The lower your brand ranks with EdgeRank’s algorithm, the less engaged your brand will be and the fewer opportunities you have to engage with Facebook users. Shockingly, only about 17% of a business’ pages posts actually show up in a fan’s feed.
So, how can you boost your business pages EdgeRank?
Here’s how:
- Make it personal {but not too personal}: Yes, there is a line. Especially for company pages. Fans like to see ‘behind-the-scenes’, get to know the personality of the business and employees, celebrate the highs and lows. If it makes sense for your business, go ahead and share some of your personality – sharing personal content makes your fans feel like they are part of your brand – but use good judgement. And go ahead and ask your fans to share, too, by asking them something about themselves and engage in their replies.
- Visual content draws response: Photo albums increase engagement by 180 percent; images by 120 percent; videos by 100 percent. Interestingly, asking fans to write a caption further increases engagement by as much as 5.5 times higher!
- Hold a Contest: There are contest guidelines for pages to engage in a Facebook contest so be sure to follow them. Also, have a plan for your goals (increase engagement? Fans? Comments?) and a way to measure them. Also plan what your prize will be – real or virtual – and follow through.
- Please Respond: You may be surprised (or not) to learn that 95% of brands do not respond to comments left on their Facebook pages. For shame! By not responding, you are essentially saying you do not care about what your fans have to say. Taking a few minutes to reply to fans will increase engagement and establish lasting relationships with your fan base – even gaining trust and respect from those fans who are merely scanning the conversation.If they bring up an issue or complaint with your business, reply quickly and politely. Publicly address their concerns and offer more personal assistance. The effort to face a concern head-on can turn a poor situation into a loyal fan depending on how you handle it.
- Find the Best Time To Post: Know when your fans are using Facebook and time your posts accordingly – otherwise, no one will see it and your time and effort will be wasted. Do some research and determine when your fan base is online.
- How Often/Frequency: EdgeRank Checker Pro will analyze the ‘life’ of your post hourly and will give you the average ‘lifespan’ of your posts. The average life of a post is three hours -but that varies greatly depending on the brand and content, obviously. It is smart to post more than once per day to get the most engagement from your posts.
- Keep Current: To stay in the conversation, make sure you are involved in current events such as holidays and news topics, for example.
- Questions: Posting a question is an excellent way to entice engagement. Sometimes we post what we are doing in the studio, or music we are playing while we work, and so forth – and then turn around and ask our fans what they are doing, listening to or having for lunch. These conversation starters make it easy for fans to start a conversation. Questions should as “WHERE”, “WHEN” and “SHOULD”, but avoid asking “WHY” which seems to get the lowest likes and comments. Also, ask for feedback on a product or service encouraging them to be part of your process.
- Your Fans: This one feels self-evident, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it. You need to understand your audience as much as possible. Know what they are interested in, pay attention to what they respond to from the content you post, and figure out what is most compelling to them.
- Variety is the Spice of Life: Photos, asking a question, contest, polling question, case study, behind-the-scenes fun – keep it interesting and entertaining – and not all about you! Mix it up.
To conclude – think of yourself as the person at a party that everyone gravitates towards. Humorous, caring, personal, knowledgable, helpful, engaging. Your fans want to be engaged with your brand, so let them in and share with them good news, events, advice, and take an interest in them as well. It cannot be all pushing out your message and agenda which will turn away people – like person at the water cooler who only wants to talk about themselves and never takes any interest in anyone else.
Getting more fans and more engagement out of Facebook isn’t difficult, but it does that marketing savvy and some work. If you need more engaging ideas and help with a plan for your social media, give us a shout (or, find us on Facebook!).
~Amy
