As a business, you want your brand to be as visible as possible to your consumers. However, some business owners miss the mark when providing status updates, and are especially prone to falling behind if they aren't aware of Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm.
Facebook now places a certain amount of weight on each status update you post. What is EdgeRank you ask? It's a way for Facebook to rank the importance of a post.
Facebook uses a secret formula based on affinity/relationships between the creator and the user, interaction and time to determine how visible your update will be to your followers.
For instance, affinity refers to when a user clicks the Like button on your fan page, comments on a status or looks at a picture. Interaction involves more in-depth engagement - comments carry more weight than Likes, so if a post receives a plethora of comments, it's more likely to show up in followers' "Top News" section. Lastly, time is fairly self-explanatory, since newer posts are weighted more heavily than older ones.
One way to procure more comments, according to Social Media Examiner, is to tailor status updates to fans' requests. Ask for opinions, stories or advice - any way to provide a greater opportunity to interact.
"You want to post objects that will encourage interaction through comments," the blog Online Wealth Partner explains. "Just simply saying, 'I’m tired' does not encourage interaction but, saying 'Who else has had an exhausting week and tell me why?' creates a 'buzz' to answer."
Photos and videos also encourage Likes and comments. Facebook recently enhanced its photos, making them bigger and more prominent. This gets people's attention and provokes clicks.
Links that require calls to action also work well, as long as you tell your followers why you are posting and why they should click. Also, you shouldn't be afraid to ask fans for Likes in order to increase your EdgeRank, especially if you're a new company in need of some momentum.
In the end, it comes down to quality content.
"Facebook users want - and will respond to - relevant content," notes Social Media Examiner. "A car company that posts nothing but advertisements in their status updates won't get nearly the response they would if they posted information about tire recalls, car seat safety test results and tips to improve gas mileage."