by Edie Melson

Many of you may have heard the term EdgeRank in regard to Facebook’s new policy for pages. It’s a new term, but its purpose should sound familiar. EdgeRank compiles information Facebook believes will be valuable for each individual user. This is done through complicated equations, not unlike those search engine algorithms use to rank sites when a topic is searched.

Facebook implemented such a drastic step because they had so many spam complaints. Many businesses saw an immediate drop in reach for their pages. This also coincided with the release of Facebook’s new sponsored (paid) promotional features. Many people assumed this was Facebook’s attempt to monetize more of their site.

Before we jump to any conclusions, we need to note that the spam reporting has gone way down since Facebook implemented the EdgeRank changes, and that’s a good thing. We could debate for days about what the thoughts were behind the nearly simultaneous rollouts, but we’d miss the point.

The point is learning to work within this new paradigm of Facebook.

Before we start though, we need to have reasonable expectations. So let’s look at what we know. At almost any time during a given twenty-four hour period, only between 16-20% of your fans will see a specific post. This is due to a lot of different variables.

• First, the fact that all of your fans are never on Facebook at the same time.
• Second, only a certain percentage interact with your page. Think about it, haven’t you liked a page and then never visited again?

In the new world of Facebook:

Engagement (interaction) is key to reaching more fans on Facebook.

Easy to say, but so hard to do. But there are things we can do to help reach more people on Facebook.

It’s vital that you post things that aren’t just consumable, but SHAREABLE! Try to post two or three things a week that you think are sharable. It could be a quote, an infographic, or an image. Then check and see what is actually being shared. To do that, go to the admin panel of your page and click on SEE ALL beside Insights. You can scroll down and see which posts at which times are getting the most reach.

The most important thing is dialogue. If people are talking to you on your page and sharing things you post, then you’ll see an increase in LIKES and in reach.

What about you? Do you have a Facebook page? If so, share the name in the comments section so we can LIKE it. Second, what are some things you’re doing to promote conversation on your page?