Tag: Facebook

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Facebook and EdgeRank Explained

Just as PageRank is to Google.com placement, EdgeRank is to Facebook placement in a reader’s News Feed. In other words, your EdgeRank on Facebook will determine if a fan sees your updates in their News Feeds and where.

First, here’s a graphical image from TechCrunch and LiveStream that explains the concept of EdgeRank.

EdgeRank
The formula for Facebook's EdgeRank.

The bottom-line is that when you have more comments, likes, and tags on a Facebook Business Page wall post, your EdgeRank will be higher. Additionally new news is preferred over old news. If your EdgeRank meets a certain threshold, your post will be show in a subscriber or fan’s News Feed. There appear to be not only EdgeRank numbers for posts but for whole Facebook accounts.

Here’s one free tool that I have found that allows you to check your own Business page’s EdgeRank.  Most of the pages we work with that have under 100 fans but more than 80 fans will have an EdgeRank that is about 12 to 15 or average. The free interface is quirky and you may have to refresh the page several times to see your numbers, but this tool will give you a general idea.

Can you ever really know your “real” EdgeRank. Most likely not. It seems this number is like Google’s PageRank (not to be confused with Google Toolbar PageRank) and is secret and a part of the special algorithm that racks and stacks sites.

So what can you do to improve your Facebook EdgeRank?

  • Post regularly on Facebook.
  • Post four to five times a day on Facebook.
  • Post shareable items that are current events or trending topics.
  • Move away from an all about me focus.
  • Actively work to engage readers.
  • Start a log sheet of all fans when added as Facebook will hide their names once added.
  • Use your list of fans to interact with @messages.

If you have additional suggestions or thoughts on Facebook EdgeRank, make sure to click comments and let me know!

 

 

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Facebook Business Page Interaction – What is the Best Level?

I have been doing quite a bit of testing this past month on Facebook interaction levels and what is the best number of updates for a business page now that Facebook has completed its most recent changes.

First, it is important to know that for over a year we have recommended two status updates a day so that you would not spam your audience and fans. However, with the changes that Facebook made in September everything is now different. With people being able to subscribe to your page without being a fan; fans being able to block, filter, or subscribe to the type of updates you provide; and now your inability to react directly with fans and not even know who is a fan by name, interaction levels need to be different.

This is what I have found out so far in my testing:

  • For Facebook Business Pages with about 100 to 500 fans updates about five times a day seems to work to get you exposed.
  • Actively responding to comments or posting is key to fan interaction growth.
  • Doing only two updates a day seems now to simply get lost in the Facebook noise.

For Facebook Pages that have 500+ fans the thirst for interaction is stronger. In many cases up to 12 updates a day PLUS interaction with the posting of comments, doing polls, and sharing video appear to not hurt a page but rather grow a page. You can review an interesting analysis done before the new Facebook changes in this interesting article for more background. Remember however that their findings are pre-Facebook changes and so may not be valid today but are good for review.

I am continuing our testing through the end of the month. Find out how you can join in and help and get our white paper recommendations at the end of our testing period sharing our findings.

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Facebook Nails Small Businesses With News Feed Changes

Are you finding that your fan engagement has dropped on Facebook? If you have under 1,000 fans most likely your activity has dropped or come to a crashing halt on your Facebook Business Page. Why? This study may shed some interesting insight in regards to what is happening to the traffic on your Facebook Business Page.

“Pages with less than 1,000 fans saw a decrease in engagement. Pages with more than 1,000 fans saw a steady  increase in engagement, right up to Pages with over 100,000 fans, which saw a 27.8% increase in the rate of engagement.”

“When you consider how the news feed now works, with the vast amount of  content and updates being shared, it is evident why the number of fans will  become more important. You need a higher number to increase the chances of your  content being found.” Read the full article and see the graphs.

So far in our testing on engagement levels including likes, comments, and interaction, we are seeing a marked decrease in participation and exposure for the 22 clients that we are monitoring since the changes. Although our testing and monitoring is not over yet, what we see it important in regards to how businesses may want to consider using Facebook in the future.

“The study from Edgerank Checker has found that over a sample of over 5,800 random Pages, 82% experienced a reduction in the amount of impressions on the Page.”

Yikes, that is scary. Your content, that you are working so hard to create for Facebook users, is getting lost in the noise. It appears that a standard two updates a day that many were using (to prevent spamming readers) in this new world on Facebook, will mean that your message gets lost in the shuffle. However if your users are on Facebook enough, they will see your content appear in the
right sidebar ticker, so take heart.

I personally am predicting a strong push from Facebook to move businesses into their pay per  click program. If you are interested in trying Facebook advertising. I invite you to review all Facebook our service offerings.

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Be a Part of Our Test on Facebook

I am in the process of creating a new white paper on if moving your posting times on Twitter and Facebook increase your level of engagement. Additionally, I am testing the number of posts that fans like to see on Facebook. I invite you to become a part of the process and get our white paper when we publish it for free.

Here’s how to participate:

Facebook McCordWeb
On this Facebook business page, we are posting five times a day. We would very much appreciate it if you would like our page and then let us know if you can see our updates in your news feed. Do they appear, are they too frequent, do you only see them in the ticker, is the timing right? We appreciate your letting us know your thoughts as this will change our service offerings and how we manage our clients for Facebook services.

Facebook McCord Web Services
On this Facebook business page, we are only posting once and maybe twice a day. Here we are testing to see if you can even see our update. Can you see our update in the news feed, is our update lost in the shuffle or noise, can you even see the update in the left sidebar under your page likes. We would very much appreciate your liking this page to help with this particular test.

Remember, we are not trying to spam you but really want to evaluate what fans want and see on Facebook. We will continue our test until the end of December. If you choose to participate, we will post a link to our white paper for you to get it free when it is completed.

Thanks for considering joining our test and letting us know feed back on what you see. Although we test what can be seen on other Facebook accounts, to have a more sets of eyes letting us know what they can see if truly invaluable.

Thanks!

Nancy McCord