In the quest for Facebook dominance, everyone talks about gaining “fans”, or “likes”. It is believed that a larger audience will magically make all of your content viral and your hotcakes will sell like hotcakes so that you can retire in style. This is only partly the case. As you may have noticed, not everyone sees everything you say on Facebook, nor do you see everything that your friends and fans post.

The secret code that dictates which of the posts you write show up in the “news feed” (that mind boggling stream of information along the right side of your page) is called Edge Rank. Here are the basics of how it works. Each post (quote, picture, video or link) that you put up is called an “object”. Upon creation that “object” gets a score, called an “edge”. It is assumed, and Facebook is not commenting, that they rank by type (pictures are best, video second, links third and written posts without any of the other elements included ranking last) and topic.

Once the object is part of Facebook (and please be aware that they own partial copyright to everything you post) a new edge is assigned for every interaction. (like, comment, share, or tag) The more “edges” an object has, the higher its Edge Rank,and the higher the likelihood that it will show up in the news feed.

One other factor that plays into this equation is each fan or friend’s affinity for your page or profile. People who interact with you regularly are much more likely to see your content on their page.

So, what can you do to ensure that your vital marketing messages or funny cat videos reach the widest possible audience? Here are some suggestions that may help improve Edge Rank.

First, create high ranking content. Use photos, videos and links. Post stuff people want to read, watch and learn more about.

Then optimize your content by sharing it yourself, liking your page posts with your personal profile, even leaving a comment from your personal profile to your own page, anything to get it started. Share your posts into groups, on other accepting pages, and onto the profiles of friends who are interested, the wider you broadcast the better.

Next, invite others to comment, like and share your content. Try asking a question that everyone has an answer to, such as their favorite in a specific category, or their choice for winner of an event, contest, election, whatever.

Offer an incentive to those who share by installing a fan appreciation app that keeps score. ASK them to share it, like it and leave comments.

Use your fanpage profile to comment and leave links in other places to create more traffic. The more people see your content, the higher its edge rank becomes, the more likely your audience will see your content.

Build subscribers. Each profile and page can be subscribed to by any fan or friend, which allows them to see all, or most of your posts. Ask your fans to subscribe to your page. Go here for more information: http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=246210718757459

To gauge how you are doing, watch your “talking about” number. The higher this number, the higher your edge rank. No matter how many “likes” you have if this number is zero, that is the reach of your content. Work to get this number up above 25% of your “likes” for a page that will grow.

For an even better picture of what is working, explore “insights”. There are dozens of stats showing how your content effected your audience. Work on creating more content like the posts that get you the most attention!

If you need more help with your social media, we offer training and management services for networks of all sizes. Contact me at Mark@social-ism.biz.