How To Get More Facebook Comments, Likes and Shares

Update your page daily

Did you know that your Facebook page content is viewed by less than 10% of your fans? Typically, the updates you post are viewed by 3-7% of your fans. For each consecutive day you update your page, your chance of appearing in the newsfeeds of your fans incrementally increases.

If a fan doesn’t click, comment, or like your posts for a long period of time, there is a good chance they are no longer seeing the content you post. EdgeRank, the Facebook algorithm that determines the visibility of your page updates within news feeds, is a little complicated. Activities that require a higher level of engagement weight heavier in the EdgeRank algorithm.

News Feed Optimization - Using EdgeRank to boost visibility

What post types does EdgeRank look for?

• Questions
• Videos
• Photos
• Links (use long URL’s – not shortened ones)
• Tags
• Updates (keep these short – approximately 80 characters or so)
• Apps

What can we do to get more comments, likes, and shares?

• Ask questions that are polarizing.
  On one page I asked “Had dinner last night and got into a food debate. Who knew there was such a divide over mushrooms? Are you pro or anti-mushroom?” – We received 25 comments!
• Ask questions that are easy to respond to, like fill-in-the-blank.
  “You might work in property management if _____________. (fill-in-the-blank)” – We received 22 comments.
  “You might be a military wife if you ___________” earned us 29 comments and 2 shares.
  “When I move, the firsst thing I clean in my new place is _____________.” received 23 comments, 2 likes, and 1 share.
• “This or that” questions work well too.
  We asked “iPhone, Blackberry or Android?” and received 21 comments.
• Ask for likes.
  “Like this post if you’re working today” earned 18 likes.
• Share moving or funny photos and videos.
  One recent video posted received 40 likes and 12 shares.
• Tag other businesses in your updates to get responses.
  “We’re diggin’ the light show at Villa Pallavicini ”Villa P” in Arizona! Their facebook page is VERY Socially Engaging – go “like” it and see for yourself. Great job Liz!” Liz responded with a like, a comment, and a wall post that tagged us from their page “Thanks to Socially Engaged Marketing for letting everyone see the “light” this holiday season!! Check out their page for all the best in Social Media and Marketing.”
• Ask poll questions.
  Poll:”What is your favorite Holiday movie?” received 13 votes.
• Follow-up to answers – creating conversation:
  When someone replies to your question or update, you can now tag them in response. To tag, simply type @ and start typing the person’s name you wish to tag. The key to business pages is that the person has to comment on a post before you can tag them in response. This is great for following up, starting conversation, and getting more visibility in the Tickers of the friends of your fans.
• Ask questions that you can follow-up with a blog post sharing everyone’s responses.
• Post frequently – 1-3 times a day Monday – Friday
  BUT only if they are funny, entertaining, or interesting – boring posts will kill your engagement.
• Test out different times to post. 
  My clients get the best responses to posts I make approximately 8am, 12pm, and 3pm EST.
• Post to Facebook manually for best results.
  Although Facebook has stated that they are no longer docking EdeRank scores for third party apps like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc., my experience shows higher engagement with posts made manually to Facebook.

What to do if your page has fans but the responses have dwindled?

• Sponsored stories or Ads may help boost connectivity
• Tag friends in comments requesting their response “Hey Amy, what do you think about this?”
• Post photos and videos – ask for tags
• Take it offline: Ask everyone that visits your office to “like” your page, comment on an update, and share updates with their friends

Tagged as: comments, edge rank, edgerank, Facebook, Insights, likes, shares