Every organization is in search of the ultimate recipe to increase visibility on the popular platform, Facebook. Competition on Facebook is fierce, everyone fighting to grab consumers attention. Today’s Top Ten post should help give you the competitive edge
required to stay ahead in the Facebook race:
1- Understand what EdgeRank is:
It is essential for any business using Facebook as a marketing tool to understand EdgeRank. EdgeRank is the algorithm used by Facebook to determine what is displayed in everyone’s Newsfeed. Just because an individual clicks “Like” on your Facebook Page does not mean that person actually sees what you’re posting.
Facebook uses three key factors when deciding edgrank; Affinity, Weight and Time Decay.
2- Understand Affinity
Affinity is the strength of ones relationship with a Facebook friend, Group or Page. This is determined by how often someone engages with their Facebook friend(s) or company Page(s). It is important to understand Affinity is decided on a case by case basis. If I engage often with Facebook.com/gsmiweb then posts from facebook.com/gsmiweb will likely appear in my Newsfeed. On the other-hand, if I never “Like” any of their posts, never comment and never share then posts by facebook.com/gsmiweb will not appear in my Newsfeed.
In a nut shell, anything you post will only appear in the newsfeed of those individuals who engage often with your Facebook Page.
3- Understand Weight
Weight considers not how often someone interacts but what types of interaction they engage in. Different interactions carry different weight. For instance, if someone simply likes one of your posts that carries smaller “weight” than if they comment on the post or even share that post. No one knows the exactly calculations but it’s appears as though commenting and sharing carries larger weight than simply browsing or liking.
4- Understand Time Decay
Time Decay simply factors in how recent your post is. Something that was posted a week prior will most likely not show up in someones news feed even if they have a high affinity and it’s a heavily weighted post
5- Post More Engaging Content
To increase affinity you will have to figure out a way to get people to engage with your Facebook Page more often. Keep in mind you must increase affinity for each person who likes your page, or at least most of them. To do this post engaging content that appeals to most of your community. Things like questions, polls and trivia are great ways to engage an online community. Remember, affinity is decided on an individual basis.
6- Provide Clear Calls to Action
Once you’ve figured out what types of post will encourage your community to engage the next step is to provide clear calls to action. If you post a trivia question be sure to instruct people to comment on the post with their answer. Include instructions for people to Like their favorite photo, tag themselves in photos and share content. Affinity requires people engage with your Page so be clear and instruct people as to how they can engage.
Clear calls to action will also help increase weight. Again, different levels of weight are assigned to various actions people take on your page. Because of this you should switch things up and ask people to do different things. This will be more interesting for your Facebook community and will help increase weight in the Edgerank algorithm.
7-Appeal to Larger Audience
Because Edgerank works on an individual basis you should be working to engage a larger audience. If you have a small group of people who engage often with your page your posts will likely show up in their newsfeed. But, what about everyone else? Try different campaigns that will engage more of your audience more often. Dunkin’ Donuts does this well with their Fan of the Week contest.
8- Avoid Attracting Low Affinity Likers
Contests simply giving unrelated prizes away attracts folks who will never engage with your brand and thus your messages won’t show up in their newsfeed. Instead attract those who will engage with your brand. If you have a million Likes but only 25 people who actually see your content you’ve lost the Facebook race. Build a meaningful online community instead of trying to stack the decks.
9- Include Photos, Links & Videos as Often as Possible
Facebook Pages with the best edgerank scores are those that always include photos, links and videos in their post. Text only posts don’t provide many options for engagement and certainly don’t catch people’s eyes. Consider including a photo, link or video all of your posts to increase the likely hood that someone will watch, browse, click, like, comment or share. When someone engages this increases both your affinity and weight to be sure to increase the likelihood that people will engage in meaningful ways!
10- Post Consistently and at the Right Times
To avoid Time Decay it is imperative you post often, at least once a day. If your affinity and weight are good it won’t matter one bit if you post infrequently. Make it a habit to post at least one time seven days a week. Studies have shown the best times to post are; 7am EST, 5 pm EST, 11pm EST.
I hope you’ve found today’s Top Ten helpful! If you have any suggestions of how people can increase their Edgerank please leave a comment. If you would like to share your brands Facebook Page please do so and I will be sure to Like and engage as often as possible!
To learn more about Edgerank and other social media marketing tools, strategies and tactics consider attending one of GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Summits:
SMSS San Francisco September 25-26
