Spread EffectImprove Your Facebook Edge Rank: 5 Secrets To Get More Eyes On Your Content
Facebook is in the midst of its biggest change to date and if you don’t adapt your strategy you might be reaching less than 10% of your fanbase.
You worked months, even years to build a respectable numbers of fans to your Facebook fan page, but with the Facebook algorithm change it appears that Zuckerberg and crew are way more concerned with keeping you from cluttering up the timeline of your fans than it is with whether or not they’re actually seeing your messages. Right or wrong, that’s a debate for another day. For now, let’s work on getting more eyeballs on your content.
If you aren’t aware of Edgerank click the link above to get a brief overview of the dragon we intend to slay.
Post More Photos
For the sake of keeping it simple, we’re going to stick with four posting formats. Photos, text, videos and links in this post.
Dan Zarella – the mad scientist behind the awesome social media posts at Hubspot – hand an awesome infographic showing that photos are the most likely source for “likes” or “shares.” In fact, not only are photos more likely to be shared, they are shared nearly 300% more often than the runner up, video posts.
Although photos were great for “likes” and “shares,” they basically sucked for comments. If you want comments…
Don’t Overlook Text Posts
In a visual world, text posts aren’t dead or dying. In fact it’s the number one most commented-on type of status update on Facebook. That said, most people that post text on Facebook are doing it wrong. We’re not interested in the mundane. If you want to engage with a user, do the same thing you’d do in person – start a conversation.
Starting a conversation is still the king of networking. How do you start more conversations?
Ask a Question
Polls are a great way to generate buzz about a topic, but since we’re focusing on just the four types of updates listed above we’ll leave the polls out of this. Rather than using a poll, why not try letting your audience answer a question without pre-determined options. You might be surprised at what they come up with. Questions are over 3x more engaging than a typical, non-question text update.
Multi-Network Integration
Here’s a secret that most of the big guys overlook. Sharing a status update from Facebook via Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ actually drives your engagement numbers through the roof, because it doesn’t use a status update in order to drive engagement. Think of it this way… if Edgerank uses the number of posts and your engagement numbers to determine your Edgerank then it stands to reason that less posts but more interaction equals higher Edgerank. Still with me? If you post a Facebook link on another social network with a catchy title (something that makes people want to click it) you are posting less and engaging more. Give it a try.
Work the Viral Approach
Just like the example above, if we can drive more interaction through our page in less posts that’s always going to be a win for our brand. To work the viral approach you’ll need to offer value to your fans and encourage them to like or share posts in order to win a prize. Popular examples would be contests where users submit photos, tips, recipes or even try to guess how many gumballs are in a jar. The point is to get fans to engage your page in hopes to win something. The prize doesn’t have to be big; a t-shirt, a $25 gift certificate or a free sample of a new product often does the trick without costing you a fortune.
Remember, it’s against the Facebook Terms of Service to run a contest without using one of their apps to do so. Don’t risk your account!
In short, the idea behind Edgerank is that the brands that show the most engagement (likes, comments, shares) are obviously those that are providing the most value to their customers, and – in turn – are also the updates that their audience wants to see. These five tips will get you started, but ultimately you’ll have to provide value to your customers in order to increase your Edgerank. Good luck.
