Improve Your EdgeRank to Get More Facebook Visibility

As the world's largest social media network, the potential power of using Facebook for business is hard to ignore.
Unfortunately, your Facebook page itself is pretty easy to ignore.
You can post as many status updates as you want, but those updates are unlikely to be seen unless they score highly on Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm. EdgeRank determines which posts will appear to each user by looking at:

• Recency. Newer posts rank higher.
• Popularity, which is measured by the number of likes, comments or shares.
• Affinity, or the user's past level of interaction with your posts.

You could also add "money" to that list, since Facebook has a tendency to hide business posts unless you pay to promote them.

Paying to promote posts might be a worthwhile option, but you can still get free visibility by improving your EdgeRank. If you get more people to interact with a post and increase its popularity, more people will see it (and also interact with it). And those same interactions, over time, add to each customer's affinity for your brand.

The goal, then, is to get people to comment on, share or like your Facebook posts. There are numerous ways to accomplish this; below are some examples.

1. Use video. Without a doubt, video content is important for Internet marketing. Video gets more attention than regular, text-based status updates, and Facebook's next News Feed facelift promises to make visual content like videos even more prominent. 
2. Use photos. Photos average even more engagement than videos.
3. Present text graphically. Since images get so much more engagement than plain text, incorporate your text into a photo or other graphic. This could mean a full-on infographic, but simple quotes on simple photos are some of the most-shared pieces of content on Facebook. 
4. Tag people. You can tag them in photographs, videos or status updates. Besides showing that you are connected to the community, each tag serves as a share on that person's profile.
5. Encourage check-ins. This is similar to tagging, but people tag themselves as having physically visited your location.
6. Have a contest. It could be as simple as a photo caption contest in the comments section, or something more creative that requires shares or check-ins. 
7. Reward them. Give your customers something free for checking in.
8. Create an offer. A Facebook offer could turn "likes" into customers.
9. Give coupons. You could have people claim the coupon by commenting on or sharing the post.
10. Be funny. Humorous posts are more likely to be shared and go viral.
11. Be enlightening. Thought-provoking, inspirational or "deep" quotes and posts can be just as popular as humor.
12. Be current. Comment on what everyone is already thinking about. 
13. Ask questions. Answers equal comments.
14. Request feedback. Besides getting comments, this allows you to connect with your audience and learn something from them.
15. Do something unusual. Preferably, something that demonstrates your brand's personality.
16. Keep it brief. Save long posts for your blog.
17. Don’t post too often. If you do, each post will get less EdgeRank "votes."
18. Post at the right time of day. You can use simple A/B testing to determine what time of day works best for your business.
19. Ask for comments, shares or likes. The fact is, if you ask people to engage, they are more likely to do so. 
20. Ask Facebook users to select “Get Notifications.” By clicking the "Like" button on your page, customers can choose to be notified each time you post--so they will always see what you have to say.

By experimenting with different options and finding what works for your audience, you can turn your Facebook page into a valuable brand-building and lead-generating resource.