7 tips to increase your Facebook posts’ EdgeRank
Whether your Facebook Page updates rank high in your fans' "Top News" or not depends on a Facebook algorhythm called EdgeRank.
What is EdgeRank?
From No wall posts, no likes @ conversity.be/blog:
EdgeRank is the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine the order of items in your Feed. In the end, it’s really simple, as it has just three factors: affinity, edge, and decay.
Affinity is basically the connection between you and the piece of content. The more times you’ve interacted with the source of the content (Facebook calls it an “object”) in the past, the higher the affinity. For example, if you comment on your sister’s Wall everyday, content from your sister will have a high affinity score because you interact a lot with her.
Second is “edge.” [...] All that edge refers to the relative weight of objects. For example, a comment on a Wall Post probably carries more weight than a Like because it take more effort to post a comment. [Note: making your Page content mostly text will probably affect your Edge negatively].
Last, and simplest, is decay. This is the time that has past since the object was created.
In their infographic Conquer the Facebook, Facebook App Post Planner calls these popularity, relevance and recency:
These three parameters define how many of your fans see your status. With most Facebook Pages, this usually varies between 3% and, say, 12%.
So how do you increase the EdgeRank for your Facebook Page posts?
From the previously mentioned infographic Conquer the Facebook:
- Ask questions. Tip: keep it simple and easy to answer. Ask "Would" not "Why".
- Post fill-in-the-blanks. Tip: go for "knee-jerk" responses. One word answers are ideal.
- Post photos. Tip: crop your pics before posting. Make the mini, "News Feed" version enticing.
- Talk about the news. Tip: be controversial, but not offensive.
- Ask for likes. But limit your call-to-action to ONE action.
- Talk about Facebook. Facebookers LOVE to talk about Facebook.
- Celebrate today. Check out famous birthdays, etc.
Your blog as the center of your social media solar system
In Content Marketing Institute's recent B2B Content Marketing report [.pdf], blogging was the 6th most popular content choice, behind social media, articles, in-person events, enewsletters and case studies. But of even greater interest is the report’s discovery of a “confidence gap”: only 40% of their respondents rated blogs as effective, while a considerable 60% said it was “less effective/ineffective. ”
What it is
Shorthand for “Weblog, the blog offers an easy way to present brief chunks of frequently refreshed Web content. Backed with easy-to-use technologies for syndication (e.g. RSS), comments and trackbacks, blogs are often the blazing centers of social media solar systems that can incorporate sophisticated SEO strategies and community-building campaigns.
3 key play points:
- Encourage conversations: even “bad” comments can be an opportunity for developing good customer relations.
- Be a good netizen: participate on other blogs as well as your own. Develop a Top 15 hit list where you need to be “hanging out. ”
- Loosen up. Authenticity trumps perfection when connecting with readers.
More where this came from:
Further reading:
- 10 Blogging Tips for Beginners and Experts @ junta42.com
- Content Marketing Playbook 2011 @ contentmarketinginstitute.com (.pdf)
Definitions: paid, earned, owned media
From Your new, new media options @ smartinsights.com:
The main types of media are:
- Paid media. Simple. Paid or bought media are media where there is investment to pay for visitors, reach or conversions through search, display ad networks or affiliate marketing.[...]
- Earned media.[...]Earned media [...] includes word-of-mouth that can be stimulated through viral and social media marketing and includes conversations in social networks, blogs and other communities. It’s useful to think of earned media as developed through different types of partners such as publishers, bloggers and other influencers including customer advocates. [...]
- Owned media. This is media owned by the brand. Online this includes a company’s own websites, blogs, mobile apps or their social presence on Facebook, Linked In or Twitter. [...]
Forrester's take on the subject:
8 theories about influencers
From The state of influencer theory on the social Web:
The discussion about influence’s actual being has been ongoing since the social Web first began. As the infographic depicts, there are several theories influencing the professional conversation.
- The Tipping Point (2000) by Malcolm Gladwell: Movements are caused by three types of influencers: connectors, mavens (subject-matter experts) and salesmen. Examples: Old Spice Guy, Dell Listens.
- Six Degrees/Weak Ties (2003) by Duncan Watts: Data analysis shows influencers rarely start contagious movements; instead, average citizens provide the spark. Examples: Egyptian revolution, Tumblr – Digg events.
- One Percenters (2006) by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell: It is the content creators amongst Internet communities that drive online conversations. Examples: Lady Gaga, Ford Fiesta.
- The Magic Middle (2006) by David Sifry: The middle tier of content creators and voices break stories, and discussing that trickles up into widespread contagious events. Examples: 2008 Obama election, Motrin Moms.
- The Groundswell (2008) by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff: Movements start within communities, and leaders rise up out of the community and can have many roles including content creator, critic and collector. Examples: Haiti earthquake texting, Pepsi Refresh Project.
- Trust Agents (2009) by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith: Influencers are people who build online trust and relationships with communities that look to them for advice and direction. Examples: Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV, Republican Party’s #FirePelosi campaign.
- Free Agents (2010) by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine: These trusted influencers are independent of traditional command and control organizations and crash into walls of storied culture. Examples: @BPGlobalPR, Robert Scoble at Microsoft’s Channel 8.
- Leaderboards (2010-11): Influence can be quantified by online actions taken by a person’s community, including retweets, mentions, comments and more. Examples: Klout, Empire Avenue.
Benchmarked: top 8 f-commerce vendors
From Say Hello to the F-Commerce Ecosphere [Infographic] @ socialcommercetoday.com
Nominally f-commerce describes the range of activities in which Facebook is used to assist in the buying and selling of products and services. In this sense f-commerce is a subset of social commerce – the use of social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions to assist in the buying and selling of products and services.
Econsultancy.com has a list of 101 examples of f-commerce.
One of the f-commerce forms are f-stores: f-commerce where transactions take place on Facebook itself. Shoppers can purchase real goods with real currency wityout leaving Facebook.
From Facebook: Benchmark of F-Commerce Services @ thomascrampton.com
http://www.8thbridge.com/
Merchants partner with 8thBridge to create social shopping experiences for their customers inside Facebook and on their ecommerce sites. Customers are empowered to shop with merchants on their own terms in a shopping experience that is portable, personalized, and participatory.
http://northsocial.com/
North Social has been building innovative and impactful social media applications, promotions, and marketing campaigns for some of the most forward thinking brands on the planet since 2006.
http://www.shopigniter.com/
Leading brands and retailers leverage ShopIgniter to promote new product announcements with exclusive offers.
http://www.payvment.com/
Payvment is a Facebook storefront for ecommerce merchants. The Payvment app lets you import your ecommerce products directly to your Facebook Fan Page, which means that users can shop and complete the transaction right there on the site.
http://zibaba.com/
Zibaba, a preferred Facebook development company enabling retailers and affiliates to easily set up Facebook storefronts directly on their fan pages, is a complete eCommerce solution.
http://www.usablenet.com
Based in New York, Italy, and the UK, Usablenet is a global leader in extending companies’ online brands to their customers, wherever they are: on mobile, on Facebook, at an in-store kiosk, on a tablet, and more
http://www.moontoast.com/
Moontoast helps musicians, artists, authors, athletes, and other affinity-based brands monetize their social networks in a way that builds fan loyalty, leads to incremental revenue opportunities, and increases per-sale profits.
http://www.milyoni.com/
Milyoni has created the leading f-commerce solution in the market with over 50 brands representing over 60 million fans. Milyoni's f-commerce solution Conversational Commerce rovides an online social shopping experience that operates completely within Facebook and an innovative suite of social merchandising tools to engage fans in conversations with implicit or explicit product promotions.
Word of the day: SoLoMo (social, location, mobile)
From WordSpy, the Word Lover's guide to new words:
SoLoMo
n. Mobile phone apps that combine social networking and location data. [Social + location (or local) + mobile.]
The term caught my eye in Google Defines Social Strategy at InformationWeek.com:
SoLoMo offers a reminder that data sets do not exist in a vacuum. Search expert and Web 2.0 Conference co-chair John Battelle has described several categories of data that are relevant to Google and its kin: There's the social graph (contacts, friends), interest data (likes, tweets, recommendations), search data (queries, history), purchase data (what you buy, credit card numbers), location data (where you are, have been, and are going), and content data (behavior when engaged with content).
An example: I'm in Diegem, and hungry. I use the Google App on my smartphone to give a "pizza" voice command. The app returns search results for pizza deliveries in a 20 km radius of Diegem, who are open right now, with clickable phone numbers to order and sorted by the amounts of "likes" or ratings from people within my social graph.
Below is a chart that shows how different players in the field are looking for their own value proposition within the SoLoMo space. Anyone know who the author/source is?
Social CRM: not just for Customer Relations department
Traditional CRM is based around information that companies could collect on their customers and then input into a CRM system that allows them to better target various customers.
Social CRM is a philosophy and business strategy designed to engage the customer in a mutually beneficial relationship. It's supported by social technology, business rules, workflow and processes.
Social CRM's key changes:
- CR Department
In most organisations today, the Customer Relations department will play a bigger role by taking charge of the brand's social presence, while handling customer engagement online. - Advocacy and Experience
Rather than sending passive messages to customers, incorporate them into the system as advocates. Now, there is collaboration amongst both parties to solve business problems.
More where this came from:
- The Evolution of Social CRM [infographic] at getsatisfaction.com
YouTube factsheet
Who started it?
YouTube was founded in February 2005 by three ex-PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. The very first video uploaded was called ‘Me at the Zoo’, on 23 April 2005. By June 2006, more than 65,000 videos were being uploaded every day. In November 2006, YouTube was bought by Google.
What is it?
YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos. YouTube is available in 19 countries and 12 languages.
How can it be used?
Music videos account for 20% of uploads. Popular genres include:
- Music videos, film trailers
- Cuteness: cats and babies
- Violence: fails and explosions
- How-to videos
- Bikini babes
YouTube videos can be displayed on web pages outside the site, once they have been embedded into social network sites and blogs. In order to embed, YouTube users simply copy the html code that accompanies each YouTube movie.
Who uses it?
Every minute, 24 hours of video are uploaded onto YouTube. YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers each day. YouTube now uses the same amount of bandwidth as was used by the entire internet in 2000.
The U.S. accounts for 70% of YouTube users. Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years of age.
What other applications does it work with?
There are numerous web sites, applications and browser plug-ins that allow users to download YouTube videos – a feature that YouTube itself does not offer. Since June 2007, YouTube’s videos are available on a range of Apple products, even though these do not support Flash.
Should you use it?
Whether your aim is to entertain or to inform (or both), video is a powerful channel for quickly engaging your customers, responding to their complaints, and demonstrating your social media prowess.
For brand exposure, YouTube is one of the most powerful branding tools on the web. Not only is YouTube the second biggest search engine (just behind Google itself ), but its videos also rank high. But what I most like is the way in which advertisers can be creative with some of YouTube’s lesser known features, such as interactive video games.
A great example (which I discovered by chance while researching for my book) is the Trivial Pursuit YouTube game.
Further reading:
- 10 Fascinating YouTube Facts That May Surprise You @ Mashable.com