Affinity: How often and how many fans interact with your posts.
Weight: What kind of interaction your fans have with your page. Comments have more weight than likes. Commenting on our page wall has more weight that comments on your posts. Think of it this way. The more work the fan has to do to interact the more weight it has.
Timeliness: Being in touch with your fans when they are online is important to Facebook. Posting randomly when you have time rather than staying online to
interact, “be social and present”.
Negative feedback: Page unlikes, and spam complaints when you post too often will earn you negative feedback.
Increasing your EdgeRank
The higher your rank the more of your fans will see your posts so increasing your EdgeRank is very important! Here is the bottom line. Engage your fans in a way that compels them to like or comment on your posts.
You need to call your fans to action with your posts. Ask questions, allow them to offer their opinions on your products, ask them to like your posts. Now this is the tough part you don’t want to come across as desperate or annoying, we all hate people that are fishing for compliments. So here are tips to engage your fans in an authentic way.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. Ask questions that will give you feedback on your product. Here are some examples:
“Do you like our water bottle cover in solids or prints?”
“We are going to have a sale! Do you want to see dresses or shorts sets on sale?”
“Fill in the blank my favorite “your company name here” product is
_________. “we are planning a giveaway what product would you like to win?”
2. Ask questions that allow your fans to get personal. The best part of a small business is the owner. People buy from people they like. So let your personality shine and share some insights about you with your customer.
Examples
“I am starting a healthier eating routine and need ideas for a healthy but filling dinner, any ideas? Post dinner ideas or links below.”
I have redecorated my home and love our new blue accent wall, take a peek (post a pic). Do you have an accent wall in your home?”
“We just went on vacation to the mountains, This is me and my family “roughing it” (post pic). Do you have any family vacations planned? Where?
COMMENT ON MY WALL PLEASE
Asking people to comment on your wall is a bit tricky. It does take more work than commenting on a post so you need to compel people to do it. Here are some ideas.
1. Share comments by other fans on your wall. Did you get a great feedback letter on your product. Share it on your wall and mention that you love feedback and invite people to post their feedback to your wall.
2. Ask your fans to share their photos using your product on your wall. People love to share about themselves and Facebook is all about photos so this is a great way to engage fans. Go a step further to make your customers feel special by putting all in an album. This makes your fans feel good but also serves as a visual testimonial to potential future customers. I have an album called, “The kanga girl fan club”.
GIVEAWAYS TO ENGAGE
Inspired by a fabric page I follow, Skye Rev Fabrics, I have started doing Friday Giveaways. I actually do weekend giveaways now to keep my fans engaged a bit longer and to give them a larger window to enter.
When I do these giveaways I get at least 100 comments and my posts are seen by 13,000 instead of the normal 2,000. The exposure is worth the cost of a free item. Plus I like rewarding my fans that stay with me and stay engaged. It’s not all about gaining new fans but also about taking care of those that stay with you and keeping them engaged.
Here is how it works:
1. I pick an item to giveaway. It doesn’t have to be an expensive item especially if you plan to do this weekly.
2. I post on my wall a photo of the giveaway and then announce that all you have to do to enter is be a fan and comment below that you are. (You are not allowed to have a fb giveaway that requires anything other than liking a page. And you are
not allowed to automatically enter people in a giveaway just because they are a fan. So this method meets both criteria.) I then also ask them to share the post. The share is not required as it goes against Facebook policy but many people will kindly share the giveaway.
I must retract and tell you all that running a Facebook giveaway on your page is not allowed. Many people do it and will get away with it but you can get your page shut down if someone reports you. So it's best to use a 3rd Party Application for your giveaway. For a list of 3rd party apps I recommend click here.
Note that the weekly giveaway still works fine with a 3rd party app.
EXAMPLE
“This weekend we are giving away this dress in the size of your choice, to enter you just have to be a fan of our page and comment below that you would like to enter. Then please share this post. Giveaway runs though Sunday at midnight PST. Winner will be chosen Monday morning. Good luck!"
3. Announcing your winner.
Facebook requires that winners are announced elsewhere like a blog or direct contact. You can share your winner on Facebook but you need to also state that you have contacted the winner in another way. Example: We want to congratulate Karen G for winning our Weekend Freebie Dress Giveaway! We have emailed you to claim your prize, check your inbox!”
IN CLOSING
Focus on increasing your EdgeRank using these methods and others you find on the internet. Do this consistently for 2-3 weeks and you will see the number of people seeing your posts increase. Note that you will still have fans you can't reach. If you are at about 25-30% of your fans seeing your posts you are doing a pretty good job working with EdgeRank. From that point you will need to start paying to promote your posts to be seen by more.
I invite you to post links or comments of other ideas in the comments below.