I recommend that every author create a profile on Facebook, garner friends and/or fans and then start posting, posting, posting! But what you may not know is this: Your posts don’t necessarily show up on the walls of those friends and fans that you’ve amassed.
Just like Google has a secret back-end system through which it determines what is going to show up on search results, Facebook has its own algorithm for determining which posts/status updates are going to show up on other people’s walls. Which means that if you’re not doing A, B, and C, then you’ll never get D — exposure for what you have to say!
So just what should you be doing to make sure you’re making the most of your Facebook efforts? Based on what we know, here are the tricks for increasing your Facebook exposure.
- Keep time in mind: Time is a important factor in your Facebook efforts, and for two reasons. One reason is because the largest percentage of people are on Facebook in the evenings (after work hours), so that’s the time of day that you’re most likely to have people eyeballing what you’re posting. Conversely, since the newest content is the most visible (your posts will disappear once there are enough “newer” ones), you may want to consider posting late at night or when there’s less competition. Try out both strategies, and see what generates the most buzz.
- Interact! The more you interact with your friends and fans, the more likely that Facebook is going to raise your ranking with them, which means that your posts will appear higher on their walls. And the more that people are responding to your status updates, the better “quality” that Facebook will consider them — again, raising your rankings. So respond to what your friends are posting, and make sure that your posts encourage people to respond to you. The more interaction, the better!
- Use “share” links. Every article or blog post that exists on your website should have a Facebook “share” link. This will allow people to share your external writings through their Facebook profile. That means that not only will your Facebook friends be reading what you wrote, but so will the friends of friends — a great way to increase your Facebook audience.
No matter how you feel about social media, Facebook is a great way to reach a wide audience. So follow this simple advice and you can make the most of it.