The Mystery of The Facebook News Feed: How to Optimize The Hidden Jewel of Facebook

Great description! Time to go sharpen some edges. Thanks!

Nice Job on the description!

I’m right there with Amy! So nice to finally have a clear understanding! Thank you.

Hey Carrie,

First off, great post and insights. I find a great way to instantly get tons of shares and comments and likes
is to use Funny!!

However, I like to make sure that the “funny picture, quote, etc” is somehow related to
my topic…

As you can see how I did here…

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1698492&fbid=1639217823336&id=1323492340

I shared a photo of a Deer Hunter sitting on a highway in front of a “deer crossing sign”.

And put a quote…

“Stop chasing your prospects… Why not let them come to you like this guy has figured out?”

Since I teach online marketers how to Target their Market, Build Personal Brand, etc…

This photo, while funny, is congruent with my over all theme!

This built relationship and started conversations that carried over in to many interactions
on different posts throughout the day.

Hope this insight was helpful.

Your Friend,
Kevin DaSilva
Facebook Formulas

P.S. To find photos like this and 1000′s more just search Google for “Funny Pictures” or
“Funny Quotes” (although I was turn the quote in a picture by making a PowerPoint Slide
or something since Photos catch the eye a lot more than a text update)…

Use this technique and you will find tons of awesome stuff to share.

Great stuff! Many thanks guys!

Thank you for such great post! I revealed many important things for me. However, I have a question: How clicking ‘Mark as spam’ on your post by people, who liked a page, affect future posts of this page?

I would appreciate some advice on my business’ page! I have rarely gotten responses on my posts and want to catch more people to interact and to like my page.

Would having a contest with a $10+ value prize be good in my situation? Should I wait until I get more interaction?

Please, check out my page. Of course I’d really like you to “like” it no matter your location, then suggest it to your friends. THANKS!

Marian, it’s probably not appropriate to provide one-on-one site evaluations in post comments because every situation is unique and there are rarely “sound bite” solutions, but after reading your comment, I visited your FB business page. Perhaps I can give you some things to think about.

1. The purpose of your business page isn’t clear. The posts are pet-related but the majority seem to be general (support for no-kill shelters, adoptions, and a pet food recall for a specialty brand that isn’t commonly available). Of course, these can be valuable, but not as the main content of your page unless one of your goals is to be an information consolidator. There are few posts about you or your business.

2. You have a very local business. I don’t know how far someone would travel to give their pet a “sleepover” or how far you’re willing to travel for a home call, but I assume it’s not more than a few miles. I would imagine that some of your fans are friends, family or existing clients, and that some are in locations where they would never become clients. Of course, you want interaction on your page, but with whom do you want to interact?

3. Depending on who your fans are, a $10 service value may or may not be attractive. Remember that you’re a very local business (unless I’m missing something). You may want to reward your more visible and active commenters/supporters but you generally don’t want to “buy” them. And the reward should be something they can use. For example, if an active commenter can’t use your services because they don’t live in your state, the reward should be something they can use where they live.

4. It seemed that the posts that received Likes or Comments were generally posts about you and your pet clients. If your human clients are on FB, you can use your business page to connect more closely with them and keep them updated on how their pets are doing. Obviously, you want to be careful not to post too much personal information, but people will certainly respond to posts about their own pets. This is something you can offer when people hire you. Your business card or their payment receipt could have the link to your business page and let them know that you post information daily (if that’s something you can really do). Pets usually do something cute or notable (even if it’s only sleeping) every day.

5. You might add posts about general pet care and health, products you use and why, products you wouldn’t use and why not, and ask open-ended questions. Posting facts doesn’t generally elicit comments unless the topic is controversial or emotional.

But first, I’d recommend that you think seriously about who your audience really should be and the goals of your business page. A huge and active fan base can be a lot of work, and isn’t appropriate for every business. Sometimes a smaller, more relevant and connected fan base is a better goal. Building engagement with your existing customers and getting local referrals might be the best way to leverage your business page.

I’m going through a similar process for my own fan page. I have a blog and am on Twitter, but have been slower getting my FB page online because I’m thinking about how it will fit in my marketing plan. Some of the same people follow me on Twitter or read my blog that would be fans of my page and I don’t want to inundate them with copies of the same content, but I do want to provide easy access if, for example, today they’re on FB but not on Twitter. Different issues but the process of thinking it through is the same.

Best of luck.

Great article Carrie! Question: Is there a way for a page administrator to tell if they’ve been “hidden” from a fan’s News Feed? It’s not necessarily an “unlike” which would show up in Facebook’s Insights. However, the ramifications are just the same – the Page’s status updates would never have the opportunity to show up again in a “fan” News Feed after they opt to “hide” your updates. Any ideas on how to track/manage this? Again, great post! Thanks for sharing!

Nice! This helps the whole “top news” thing make sense. Great post!

Yes, I tell my friends that if they want more fans that it is important to me in the top news feed. I have a very interactive page by asking questions, getting feedback, and having open house at least once a month. I am always happy when I make top news feed, and try to get there every day to keep my page growing.

This was a very interesting read in deed. However, Had never understood how other pages use to outperform the current one which I am handling. However,I have clearly understood the overall news feed optimization. I still feel that facebook interaction is still one way, until you follow the methodology of Edge ranking or the diamond ring strategy. This was very simple to understand. Will keep a track of all your articles.. very insightful and engaging as they are simple to understand!

Nice article, this is very helpful!
The analogy of the diamond is interesting, but I thought it might be worth noting that this use of the word ‘Edge’ is a bit out of context. I’m making an assumption that the Facebook Engineers making the presentation were using the software engineering definition of the term ‘Edge’, as in an edge on a graph of connected nodes.

In this picture:
O—O
We have a graph of two nodes connected by an edge. You can imagine a more complex graph of thousands of nodes connected by thousands and thousands of edges. Let’s say I’m a node, and my friend is a node. The ‘edge’ is the piece of content they’re posting which connects us. Since they can do this many times, I actually have several edges connecting me to my friend, and each of them are ranked using the formula above. When Facebook’s News Feed algorithm is deciding what to show in my feed, it looks at all the edges emanating from my node, and picks the highest-ranking ones.

I’m simplifying things and making certain assumptions about the context of their presentation, but this is probably more in line with their use of the word edge. If I’m wrong, I apologize!

Great article and great comments, especially Blaze! I learned from every point you made. Thanks!

Great article.

I think it all comes down to creating remarkable content.

If I focus on adding value to my customer base then I think that the three “edges” will come naturally.

I need to have a title to my content that is going to make people want to read more and I need to provide an answer to a problem that people have in an area that I have a lot of knowledge about.

If I do those things I will have more people “liking’ my content sooner and commenting on the content more often and visiting my page more often because I am helping solve their problems.

Ryan

Love this! Just started a giveaway on our Facebook page, hope it works out.

Thanks for sharing.

EC

When trying to publish a book wouldn’t you protect your story or content with a copyright?

Great post! Our firm recently had to explain this concept to a client, I have to say I like your explanation!

You’ve outlined a pretty good explanation. One thing that we keep in mind at RadioShack is for every status update (with few exceptions), we try to ask ourselves, “What do I want the user to do during or after reading this update?” The answer should always either be A) click LIKE B) leave a comment or C) share this to their own wall. It might be a combination of those, but that’s getting tricky. Of course, users will naturally do multiple sometimes, but it’s better if you give them a clear direction to at least one.

Another thing to remember is to mix it up by keeping tabs on what interactions you’re getting most, and try to keep a balance. If you’ve got a bunch of posts that are getting nothing but likes, you need to focus on getting comments for the next update or two. If you’re getting more comments, do a ‘click like’ post. Also, a ‘click like’ post is the quickest/easiest to get a good response, so if you’ve gone a while with lower engagement, a ‘click like’ post can boost your engagement long enough to get that EDGE rank up so your next few posts get seen.

Very interesting read! I think personal brands, small & large companies, etc. alike all tend to get lost in the strategy that is Facebook marketing. I myself have found that it is indeed necessary to be very patient in reference to increasing engagement via Facebook as well as Twitter for my personal brand via my Website as well as on Radio. This article will most certainly become a bookmarked tab and a reference for when I do begin to set up posts for online and I will be taking much of your suggestions in to consideration.

Thank you for sharing.