In the ubiquitous realm of social media, especially, Facebook – how does one strive to get noticed in the massive information shuffle? Below is a guide to help you achieve better visibility results with the time allocated on Facebook. Facebook defines ‘EdgeRank’ as a mathematical equation: Comparing a multitude of Facebook Page Insights. Visibli, TechCrunch and Buddy Media have conducted some interesting research regarding increasing your rank/popularity on the world’s largest digital platform.
Facebook analyzes everything published as “objects.” These can be status updates, links, photos, video or anything else that can be shared on Facebook. Every object receives a ranking ( EdgeRank), which determines if it will show in your personal newsfeed. Objects with a high EdgeRank appear in your “Top Stories” feeds. Objects with a low EdgeRank will not.
An object’s EdgeRank is based on three factors: affinity or the relationship between the creator and user, weight ( type of content with likes, comments, etc.) and time decay. Add these three factors together using a formula that only Facebook truly knows and you’ve got your facebook EdgeRank score.
Strategies to increase your Facebook edgerank score
What exactly is going to cause your fans to engage more with posted content?
Where is Your Content Seen?
1- Your Fan Page Wall.
2- The News Feed of Your Fans
3- Social Plugins (e.g. Like Box)
4- Other Plugins (e.g. Wibiya Toolbar)
Types of Content There are various object Types:
1- Photos. Tend to get heavier EdgeRank weight.
2- Videos.
3- Links.
4- Status updates.
5- Questions.
6- Apps. Updates through apps get lesser EdgeRank weight, more about this later.
How to increase the Facebook edgerank effectiveness score of updates….
1- Length of Posts
The longer your posts, the lower the engagement rate. The more verbose you are, the less people have time to read your stuff. A study by Buddy Media showed that posts under 80 characters or less increase engagement. They actually get 27% higher engagement.
2- Use Long URLS
There is definitely logic behind this tactic. It is really more conducive to use long URLs. You can avoid link shorteners like bit.ly and tiny.url. In addition, a subsequent study from Buddy Media shows that three times higher engagement rates exist for posts that use a full-length URL.
The reason is the ‘trust ‘ factor. People want to know the source as they are so wary of all these links. Spam is everywhere, like “See who’s checked your profile” It is just crazy to see the numerous spam links that are going viral these days. Hence, people are a bit skeptical of clicking on links. However, when you post the full-length URL and users can immediately see where they’re clicking, a trust factor is created.
3- Post in High-Traffic time
What you should know is that you don’t necessarily want to emulate the exact strategy or best practice of another business or brand because it might be totally different for your audience. So, you do actually have to experiment. You can certainly scrutinize and study and try different methods and experiment, but ultimately, you are going to manifest e your own successful destiny. Internet Guru, Mari Smith calls it , “high traffic window.”
A recent study by Buddy Media on the different companies in a broad range of industries indicated that posting between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard, which is 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Pacific, is the sweet spot. Engagement rates on Thursdays and Fridays are 18% higher than other days of the week, that’s also in Buddy Media’s report. Users should experiment to find the optimum time periods.
Furthermore, here is another interesting fact regarding time frames for posting outside of business hours, which many brands and businesses are missing out on this key factor. The fact is that brands that post outside of business hours have a 20% higher engagement rate.
4- Post frequently
The key here is balance. It seems that constant streams of content keep the Facebook edgerank algorithm happy. If you post several times a day, make sure it is unique content each time. Not a good idea to bore your fans. Two to three unique updates per day is an ideal to strive for..
5- Manual vs. Third-Party Apps?
There is much diverse speculation and conversation about this usage currently. Do you remember the weight factor? The second primary component in the EdgeRank. Facebook actually gives less weight to third-party apps. Any content that comes in through a third-party app will get slightly less weight than if you post manually. For example, through NetworkedBlogs, HootSuite, etc. is not literally writing on the Facebook wall. Manual posting will achieve best results.
Most Likes Within 1 Hour 20 Minutes
This is another fascinating study by Visibli. Your content on Facebook attention span is definitely limited: (within one hour and 20 minutes will have half the likes) that it’s ever going to receive, (Within two hours and 15 minutes, 60%), ( Within four hours , 70%.), ( Within seven hours, 80%) And, finally ( Within 22 hours, your post has gotten 95% of the likes) it is ever most likely going to receive.
Your updates need to be amazing
One of the changes that Facebook has made was the addition of the blue angle in the top left corner to unmark a top story with more options available in the “dropdown menu” located on the top right of each update. Facebook will make a use for this to know what’s best to show up in users news feeds. The thing is, since users have more control over their news feeds, pages with boring or irrelevant content will have a lower visibility into their fans news feeds. therefore, your content needs to be compelling.
Tipping Point
As far as your fan page goes, many people will reach a plateau, then they will say: “I’m doing everything you tell me. I’m posting regularly and I’m engaging with likes and comments, and I’m getting as much activity as I can, but nothing much is happening.” And I will say, “Well, how many fans do you have?” and they will say 50 or 120.
We all have to start somewhere. It is okay. You will find that these scales will tip when you reach about 500 to 1,000 fans. To keep up with the growing Facebook platform, initially, is to gain momentum and promote your Facebook fan page everywhere. Consequently, achieving the ‘edgerank’ for maximum optimization includes keeping the affinity, engagement, weight of content and time decay factors in balance. A good formula for ranking high and being successful on Facebook.
