Go viral

On Feb. 5, 2013, the marketing firm Moving Targets hosted a webinar titled “The Best Social Media Practices for Small Businesses: Dos and Don'ts.” Social Media Manager Natalia Morais and Social Media Clients Services Director Jenna Gross covered a wide range of social media topics, particularly focusing in on Facebook. Here are few key items from the webinar that you should take into consideration as you continue your business’s social media efforts:

Understand Facebook’s EdgeRank
If you’re wondering why certain posts show up on your newsfeed but not others, it’s because of an algorithm Facebook uses called EdgeRank. How does it work? There are three factors EdgeRank takes into consideration: affinity, weight and time decay.
    -Affinity: This is determined by the relationship between a user and a page. For example, if a customer visits your Facebook page frequently, then your posts are more likely to show up on their newsfeed. On the contrary, if someone rarely visits your page, then your posts are not as likely to show up on their newsfeed.
    -Weight: Morais considers this to be the most important factor in the algorithm. Weight is how popular a post is. If you post a photo of a new plant you’re producing and it receives a lot of likes and shares, then that’s going to positively influence the post’s weight. Weight also seems to override affinity. A popular post is likely to show up on someone’s newsfeed, even if they don’t check your page often.
    -Time decay: It’s exactly as it sounds. Time decay factors in how long ago something was posted. If the last time you posted something was three weeks ago, that’s going to drive your EdgeRank down.

Why is EdgeRank so important? By understanding those three factors, you can influence the likelihood that your company’s posts will show up on someone’s newsfeed. Posting more often, posting content that’s likely to be popular with your customers, and increasing your interaction with people who visit your page are just a few ways you can up your EdgeRank.

Study the numbers
Another way to drive your reach is to study your Insights. This is a feature you can find at the top of your business’s Facebook page, and it allows you to see posts’ popularity, weekly reach, and more. But there are two key numbers to pay attention to for your Insights: Talking About This and Virality. 

Talking About This is the number that shows how many people “touched” your post. This means they’ve engaged with it by either liking it, commenting on it or sharing it. It’s more accurate than the number of people who saw your post, and it allows you to see a post’s popularity. This number drives your weight in EdgeRank, which in turn drives your reach.

Virality is another way of seeing what people like. Facebook says that 3 percent is a good number. By comparing a post’s virality to other posts, you can try to understand what your customers and fans are looking for from your page.

In addition to seeing what’s liked among your audience, it’s important to keep in mind what’s disliked. While Talking About This and Virality can help you understand this, Morais says there’s another number you can examine. It’s the negative feedback, and you can find it by clicking on a post’s Engaged User number. (If you don’t see it, congrats – you had no negative feedback on that post.)

So what is negative feedback? This is when someone hides your post, and it greatly affects your EdgeRank’s weight. Be on the lookout for posts that cause negative feedback and see what it is that’s causing them to hide your posts.

Another number you should study is your demographics. You may think you know your audience based on your customers, but your online audience may be a different demographic. Examining your demographics can help you tailor your post to meet your audience’s likes and needs.

Improve your posts
Do you know what separates a good post from a bad post? The answer might surprise you.

Morais gave a few examples. The first is to make sure you’re using proper grammar and spelling. She says you may not think people care about a misspelled word or improper punctuation, but they do, and they may get the impression that if you don’t take the time to check for spelling or proof your message before posting, then you’ll be negligent with them as well. She says people will usually forgive typos, but your audience will not like big mistakes. So make sure you’re editing/proofing your post before you add it.

In addition, never use all caps for your posts. This translates that you’re yelling at your customers and that you don’t understand the social media platform.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that you’re representing a business. Unless you’re a one-man operation – and your audience is aware of it – never use “I” in your posts. Instead, always use “we.” Nobody knows who “I” is, so by using “we” you’re representing the business as a whole.

Finally, make sure to follow Facebook’s promotion guidelines. If you’d like to give something away for free, then you’ll need to use an app. Facebook can take down your page if you fail to follow the rules. Just because other businesses are doing it without getting caught doesn’t mean you should take the same risk.

There are several ways to improve your reach and popularity on Facebook, but these three elements should help you get a good start. To listen to the entire webinar, visit www.movingtargets.com/resources/webinars.