Facebook - How to Get Your Fans to See Your Page

Reports from small business owners is that the November changes to Facebook and then the recent Timeline change have both impacted negatively in page interaction and lead in many cases to a fall in sales. 

This may be very frustrating to page owners, but facebook now works on the very reasonable assumption that if someone really does like a page they will interact with it and continue to do so.  It means that Facebook users no longer have to go and unlike the pages that they are no longer interested in - as those pages will slowly slip away into the mist naturally.  If you think about it from a user's point of view, it is totally sane.

But from a page owner's point of view, it can be a bit of a nightmare!

There are many very complicated metrics that work to decide exactly how long your posts continue to be shown in someone's feed before they start to drop out and not be shown as often or not at all.   And to make things just that bit more fun, it's not the same for all interactions, for all users, or for all pages, so there is no magic formula I or anyone else can share with you. 

However, what we do know is that  
more interaction = more chance of being seen

Here are a few basic things you need to know:

• liking a page no longer means the liker will see all that page's posts in their feed
• people no longer have to like your page to see it in their feed
• in order to see a page in their feed, a person must interact with it
• the interactions must continue - once someone stops interacting with the page it will begin to drop out of their feed until posts are no longer seen.

Okay, so, you need to be interesting - it's that simple.  Think about what your fans want to see - why did they like you or interact with you in the first place?  Are you funny?  Do they like your goods?   Do they like to answer questions you ask?  Are your photos shared far and wide? 

In the coming posts, I will talk about how to work out what your followers like and how to use that information to keep them interacting... meanwhile, make sure you post on average once a day to keep people interested!

Simple Facebook Facts - How to Engage Customers

Talking to small business owners and sole traders, it seems that the majority don't understand how Facebook's metrics work, especially since the changes late last year, and still rely on people 'liking' the page in order to get customers to their page and seeing their wares.

Here's the cold hard fact:  when a person "likes" your page it no longer ensures she sees your content. 

Here's what you must do: Stop focusing on getting lots of likers and instead focus on giving the ones you have a good experience.

Here's how it works : 
Give fans content that they engage with.  In order for it to be of use to you, they must comment, share, click like and so on - this registers with Facebook that they want to see your page, therefore Facebook is more likely to show your page on that user's wall in future.  If their engagement drops off, so Facebook will bring your page to their attention less and less.  So you must find ways to get them to interact and do so repeatedly. 

Remember - Engagement is what keeps those likers seeing your page.

What can you do?

• You can ask your fans questions - people love to share opinions.  You can do this as a status update sometimes and other times use the questions application (app).

• Add photos - not too many at once, and certainly not lots of batches one after another or you will swamp people's walls and they are likely to 'hide' your page - you do not want that to happen.  Photos will often get comments and likes by fans, and is an easy way to engage them.

• Have competitions - simple and fun things work best.  Make sure whatever it is, it's relevant to your business.  For example, if you sell cards, ask for a caption for a card and offer the winner a prize from a certain folder - many potential customers will go and look through the folder to choose what they might win.  That way you get lots of interactions from the one competition and you share your products with potential new buyers.

•  Add video or links to videos that are appropriate to your business.  Videos carry a lot of weight with Facebook so getting people to interact with them is very valuable indeed.

The key to all interactions, though, is to remain honest to your company, your values, and your own voice - just be you - in the hope of gaining a following by giving the customer what he or she wants.