What is the Deal with Facebook?

For a better understanding of how magical Facebook marketing can be, here’s a mini breakdown ow how things work before we dig into the real goodies …

Facebook uses an algorithm called Edgerank, which determines what content people will see in their newsfeed. Because the newsfeed is what drives a majority of the traffic and engagement, you will want to do everything you can to ensure your posts show up as often as they possibly can. The major factors that drive engagement include interaction and content. The more a person interacts with your page, by liking or commenting on your posts, the higher the likely hood that your post will appear more often on their newsfeed.

Now that we have a bit more understanding of the back end of how things work, here is a short-list of other factors that may affect your Facebook post(s) visibility (besides posting good content of course).

1. Linklessness:
   Try your best to avoid using links within your posts. If you want to share an article, try writing a brief description and then include the link in the comments section. Adding a link is content heavy and will slow the reader down or perhaps even have them pass by without even clicking to view your content.
   
   
2. Picture Perfect:
   Keep in mind that people love visual stimulation, especially in today’s modern world of technology. Pictures and videos receive a higher engagement level on Facebook than common text. They are also more noticeable and appealing; therefore, they tend to get “liked” and shared more often.
   
   
3. Rush Hour:
   Higher traffic times (when more people tend to be online) produce better results so take into consideration that times that you may be posting at. The research that I have considered on this topic show that very early morning, lunch hour and late evenings are the best times as people are more active or scrolling their feed trying to relax or find a source of entertainment.
   
   
4. Steadiness:
   Interaction levels play such a huge role in your success on Facebook, it is very important to maintain a consistent presence. Another great way to increase engagement is to create content that is not only relevant but personal too. Because the hard truth is that people do not want to hear about your products (or services) all the time. And think about it, why would they when they have been bombarded daily with advertisements from all possible platforms. So, keep in mind to add that personal touch to your posts! Keep the viewers intrigued without always trying to sell them on something.
   
   
5. Word Count:
   Depending on who you ask, the recommendations for a posts word count will vary. In my experience, no more than 140 characters is sufficient enough to keep the viewers attention. Pull them in instead of boring them by dragging on with every single detail. While I am on this topic, another very important thing to keep in mind is to spell check. This has happened to way too many of us over the years and at least you can always “edit” after posting but it’s best to avoid the humiliation before too many people see it as the world-wide web travels faster than you may realize.
   
   

If you are not yet using Facebook for your business, but are considering it, I would like to recommend the following posts:

• Social Media Benefits for Business (Hootsuite)
• Facebook Advertising Tips (Wordstream)
• Engaging Your Business Facebook Page (HubSpot)