Making Your Business Friends With Facebook

According to a study posted on Facebook+Journalists, the best thing you can do on the social network is start a conversation. Posts that include a question or a call to action got the highest average amount of feedback and/or “Likes.” Personal reflections from the writer and uploaded photos were the next 2 most important things.

Why those three? [I hear you asking]

Because Facebook has tipping points. By understanding those factors, we can game the system.

Underneath the Facebook News Feed is a very mysterious formula called “Edge Rank.” Mark Zuckerberg’s company is super secretive about how this works, but according to TechCrunch these are the three most important components:

1. How often the individual interacts with you. This means that if you post questions and get lots of answers, you’ll appear more often in each person’s News Feed.
2. The kind of content. Text is weighted less than links, links are worth less than photos and photos are worth less than videos.
3. Age. Older content is considered less important, but posting too many things too quickly will harm the posts more than help them.
Do well on any of those factors, and an individual post will be promoted to higher relevancy on all of our follower’s News Feeds. Succeed on many of them consistently, and our whole page will be consistently recommended.

Additionally, Facebook+Journalists says usage spikes at these times throughout the day: Before people leave for work, just before lunch, just before primetime and late night just before bed. Those would be good times to post questions or otherwise ask for feedback.

When we ask people for feedback, photos or news tips, nerds like me call that crowdsourcing. I think the key to keeping that going is to make sure we respond and say “thank you” to everyone who helps you. Making them feel like they’ve got a connection with you brand should reinforce their habits of doing business with you.