We’ve gone over a lot of tips to help you make the most out of your Facebook posts by uncovering “The Anatomy of A Perfect Facebook Post“. Today we’re going to discuss why the newsfeed is such an important piece of Facebook, compare it to other marketing avenues and provide you some tips that you can start using immediately.

Analogies Comparing the Facebook Newsfeed to Other Advertising Efforts:

Email Marketing: If I were to send you an email every single day, you’d probably unsubscribe, right? – This isn’t the case on Facebook where it is more acceptable to post daily and have your post appear in the newsfeed.

Blogging: If you were to post daily on your blog, how many people will go through the effort of actually going TO your blog every day? People already spend more time on Facebook than anywhere else online so Facebook pushes your content to them.

Billboard: Look at the newsfeed like a billboard you pass daily. Sometimes you notice them, sometimes you go right by and don’t pay any attention. But if you pass a billboard everyday, that brand will be top of mind next time you have a need for that business.

Here are a few stats about the Facebook Newsfeed to think about while you read the article.

• 90% of time on Facebook is spent on the newsfeed.
• 85% of engagement and interactions on a Facebook page are created from the newsfeed.
• 95% of users only ever read their “Top News”

So the newsfeed is obviously important to focus on, it’s where everyone sees your content on Facebook. And all of the posts and content in this newsfeed are ranked based on how relevant they are to each individual user. This is driven by “Edgerank”. The Edgerank algorithm is used to determine what will be shown to you in your “Top News” feed that I mentioned above, the page that is most widely used on Facebook. The alternative feed being the “most recent” feed, in-which case your only strategy is to optimize for is time. Given the importance of the Top News feed on Facebook, I’m going to break down this Edgerank formula.

What is Edgerank?

Compare it to a search engines algorithm. While Google ranks webpages, Facebook ranks posts and shows the most relevant posts in your “Top News” feed. This relevance is determined by 3 main categories:

Weight: More Likes, Comments & Shares = higher rank.

Affinity: The greater connection and engagement your fans have with your posts, the higher rank your posts will be given in your fan’s newsfeed.

Time: The more recent your post, the higher rank it receives.

*Note – There are a lot of factors that go into Edgerank, we are merely covering the surface and breaking it down into these three main categories in this article.

Couple things to keep in mind:

• As a brand, you page has to compete for affinity with your fan’s family and friends. This is why it is so vital to create engaging content!
• On average, only 15% of a Facebook page’s posts even seen by Fan’s in their newsfeed.
• Pages with over 10,000 fans receive greater reach in the newsfeed.
• The average post will only last about 3 hours in the newsfeed – so timing is everything!

How to maximize your exposure in the newsfeed?

1) Follow my tips on The Anatomy of a perfect Facebook Post – this will help you get more engaged fans which increases the weight of your posts.

2) This is somewhat covered in the blog article linked above, but get to know your fans and truly engage with them. If you relate with them and post killer content, this will amplify your affinity with your fans.

3) Look at your insights. This is the equivalent to Google Analytics for your Facebook page. Facebook now shows you the time of day and day of the week when your fans are most active. Use this to post when your fans are online.

4) Know your fans. Again in the insights, you can see a lot of demographic information to learn who your fans are, where they live and much more. Use this to target your posts and tailor posts to your fan’s interests.

Now that you know the importance of optimizing your posts for the newsfeed and I’ve given you a few tips on how to maximize your exposure; I hope that you put them to good use and share your experience with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Let me know if you have any questions.

If you’d like a free analysis of your social media presence or help with managing them, you can contact us to learn more about ICND and how we can help you accomplish your goals.