Is Everything You Post on Facebook Seen by Fans?

Notsomuch….

It has been said many times that when posting to your business Facebook page, you need to vary the times and days of the week for the message to be seen by your fans; after all, they are logged into Facebook and varying times of the day, and for different lengths of time. Like email marketing, marketers are always looking for the “right” time to post information.

Even if you find that “magic moment,” your message may not be getting to the masses as well as you’d like. Like Google and SEO, Facebook has an algorithm that gauges the “strength” or popularity of your messages and assigns them an EdgeRank – the higher the ranking, the more of your messages get in font of your fans.

While a bit obscure, you can learn more about EdgeRank in this article. In its most basic terms, every message you post receives ranking based on how much it is “touched”, whether it is liked, shared, or commented on. The more it is “touched” the higher ranking it gets.

I also came across this article, which suggests that 50% of people who “like” a page do so quickly, but do not return to the page often, giving brands a false sense of numbers; while they assume they have 180 fans that are actively reading their material, many may simply like the page but never look at it.

It goes on to suggest that only 20% of a brand’s messages may be seen in people’s newsfeeds.

Tom Weber conducted an interesting study to try to crack the Facebook code. His article on the DailyBeast is a good read, and gives some insight into this topic.

One suggestion is to take a look at your Facebook page periodically to look at the number of impressions and activity that are associated with your posts. An example can be found below:

Take note of posts that have higher impressions and activity levels; this indicates the type of information your fans are interested in. It may also give you insight into the days of the week and times of day people are interacting with your information.

Not getting good impression numbers? Not sure what to share with fans? Some suggestions include mixing it up a bit – post a combination of company information, industry related articles and news items, and “fun” information, such as games, drawings, or contests. The iMediaConnection article also offered these suggestions, which are a great guide to get you thinking of new ideas:

• Asking open-ended questions
• Inviting opinion, comment and conversation
• Connecting organically to offline news, cultural or sports events
• Limiting brand and sales language and catalog-like copy
• Creating games, quizzes or surveys
• Soliciting user-generated content
• Posting photos and videos
• Including links in posts
• Developing limited time offers

What types of information gives you the best results? As a consumer, what types of information do you like to see most on brand’s pages? Like all things Internet, getting your message to the masses can be a challenge, but in the end, persistence can pay off. It may be frustrating, especially when you’re getting started in social media, but paying attention to how your readers respond will give you great insight into a successful social media campaign.