Further tips for improving your Facebook EdgeRank

August 5, 2011

In May we wrote a post on how to improve your brand’s Facebook EdgeRank (You can read that here). However, with many brands still unsure of what exactly it is and how vital it can be we have now outlined additional top tips to boost your Facebook EdgeRank.

There are now more than 750 million Facebook users. 50% of these users log on to Facebook on any given day and the average user has 130 friends. These statistics mean that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for friends and brands to gain a place on users’ News Feeds.

Optimising your Facebook EdgeRank – the unique algorithm which decides what posts appear in your Fans’ ‘Top News’ stream – is therefore becoming increasingly vital.

This algorithm ranks posts based on three main factors: affinity, weight and timing. The higher your ranking for these factors, the more likely your posts will be visible on a Fan’s ‘Top News’ feed.

Though there is no way to officially identify your EdgeRank score, using Facebook’s Insights tool is vital in gaining an understanding of how you are doing and how well you are interacting with your Fans. Insights can tell you how many active monthly users you have in relation to your overall likes. This will give you a clear indication of how high your EdgeRank is.

To put it simply, EdgeRank is all about engagement. EdgeRank is weighted so activities that require higher levels of user engagement get a higher score than those activities that don’t. For example you may want to consider asking an open ended question. This means the higher your engagement level with Fans, the higher your EdgeRank score will be.

Here are our Dos (and a Don’t) on how to increase engagement within Facebook and boost your EdgeRank:

DO:

Run a poll or competition

A good competition or poll not only drives interest in your Page but also increases engagement. They’re fun and actively ask users to interact with your content, increasing the number of ‘edges’ it receives. By building up excitement as the competition comes to a climax you can really build an engaged and receptive audience who are incentivised to interact with you.

Post videos

In our previous post on EdgeRank we recommended using rich media to stand out from your competition – but it’s a point that bears repeating. Videos rank highly compared to other ‘objects’ such as status updates. Not only this, when done correctly they are also easy to digest for the audience, are eye-catching on the page and can succinctly get your message across in an entertaining way. If you create your own videos this is a great opportunity to leverage already existing content you have on YouTube.

Ask questions

Another great tip is to phrase your Facebook post as a question. People generally won’t respond unless they are invited to, so this is a highly effective way of increasing engagement on your Facebook Wall. Social media is about conversations after all! What’s more, ask them questions that are brand relevant and you can gain insights into how your brand can better meet your audience’s needs.

Use links to share content

Social media is all about sharing. Posting links to interesting and relevant content produces a thumbnail for your post (helping it to standout) and also encourages people to click and share the information. You can use this to your brands advantage by driving traffic back to your site or social presences such as Twitter or Flickr for example.  There is also another benefit – creating links that direct to your other sites optimises your brand for search, meaning that it is easier for your audience to find you. This approach of sharing links not only helps with EdgeRank but also boosts SEO to increase your visibility amongst fans and non-fans.

Engage with your fans

It’s important to remember that when you Post it doesn’t mean your work is done. If someone responds to your Post take the opportunity to engage them in conversation. (This must be done in a timely manner and you should only respond if you can add value). This helps to build up a relationship and shows them that they are a valued member of your community. It’s also a virtuous circle as it will encourage more people to engage with your Page – in turn increasing your EdgeRank.

And finally

DON’T:

Autopost

Using tools like HootSuite and TweetDeck might seem efficient but it’s important to remember that, when it comes to EdgeRank, manual posts have more weight than posts automated through apps.

Your audience can tell which posts are automated or have been specifically written for Twitter (e.g. featuring hashtags) and which have been personalised – and for this reason autoposts do not produce as much engagement. Autoposts also have a tendency to disappear from your Fans’ News Feeds more quickly.

Why should you care about EdgeRank?

Optimising your EdgeRank means that your brand is found on your audience’s News Feed – and you are part of an exclusive and trusted club. You are able to talk to your audience every day, build greater engagement and you are ideally positioned to create deep, meaningful and long-lasting relationships with them. Understanding the benefits of Facebook EdgeRank and implementing our strategic insights can help create an engaged community, gain a trusted and receptive customer base and, ultimately, maximise your ROI.

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