How to Get More Facebook Page Engagement
Engagement is the name of the game these days on Facebook no small thanks to Facebook’s new Edgerank algorithm. Without giving dedicated attention to your Facebook marketing strategy you could find your audience dwindling. Having thousands of fans is one thing. But what if none of them see your posts?
In a nutshell Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm controls the visibility of your posts. If people don’t engage with your page, your visibility will diminish. What you post matters. Simple. So what’s the secret of producing a Facebook newsfeed to enhance your EdgeRank and build profile?
Post Type Matters
What you post is important. You probably know there are six different types of post: a text-only status update, a photo, a link, a video, a platform post, and a question. Most businesses use the text only status update but research shows that people engage up to 20 times more with photos. Enhance status updates, links and questions by adding a photo. Best of all, photo albums are very effective because people click on the individual photos.
Posting Guidelines
Most business people I talk to are unaware that the character length for a Facebook post is 5000. There’s been a trend for people to stick to 140 characters or less so they can post on Twitter and Facebook at the same time using one of a number of tools. Time saving though it may be, it’s likely to backfire. Longer posts get more engagement. It shows your audience you’re putting effort into what you write. Longer posts are accompanied by a ‘see more’ link which the reader can click to reveal the rest of the post. Whether your readers click or not may well be factored into the EdgeRank algorithm.
Now when it comes to the timing of posts, weekends and afternoons are generally the times when content is likely to get more shares because there’s fewer admins posting! It makes sense once you think about it.
As for frequency well it’s a double- edged sword. Some suggest you shouldn’t post more than 1-3 times a day. That’s only likely to be true if your fans aren’t engaged with your page. Luckily research suggests that you can post as frequently as you like if people enjoy what you post. Having a receptive audience is what counts.
Building a Larger Audience
Can you nudge EdgeRank to show your posts to a wider audience? It’s unclear how much influence this has but careful use of photo albums is one way to try. Distribute a photo album though all your social networks. You can also pay to promote the album on Facebook or go the sponsored story route. Once the album has some likes promote it through your own Facebook newsfeed. To do that just add another photo and re- publish when prompted.
Get Familiar With Post Targeting
Post targeting gives fan page admins access to features previously exclusive to advertisers on Facebook. This means you’ll have a breakdown by location, gender, work place and so on. Post targeting allows you to either release simultaneous posts to different segments or target an individual post at a specific segment. In the latter case, you may be able to access specific people who were only so-so about your page. If 5 or 10 or 20 of their friends comment, EdgeRank concludes you’ve hit a demographic and will show your page to that person. This means that Facebook can work best when posts are highly targeted. Of course fewer people may see your posts but you’ll build momentum more quickly.
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