Facebook Reach on Post Just Spiked!
-
Yesterday I put a post with a photo on our company Facebook page Normally our reach on a post is 500-600 out of a list of 77,000 followers. However, since posting this one yesterday afternoon, our reach has hit almost 9,000!
The only thing different with this post vs. any others we've done is that I put a text link for the company name back to the same Facebook page that the post was put on. I didn't intend to do this, it's just that when I started typing in our company name, Facebook suggested making it a link, so I thought, why not? I'm thinking somehow that made it appear in more people's timelines than usual. We posted it the same time in the day as every other post, and this was the only thing unique about it.
Any thoughts?
-
Ah, that's about what I suspected. Tagging back to our FB page was the ONLY thing we did differently in that particular post. I just ran another post with similar content and also tagging our page, but the reach on that one was about what we expected. It's nice when you occasionally find yourself on the right side of the algorithm.
-
So as you probably noticed, Facebook's algo has been hitting brand's pretty hard when it comes to post reach recently. The only thing I'm seeing across the board that actually works is paying for your post to be promoted, and then usually the organic rate goes up.
Ignite did a big study where they found an exact equation for how much you pay and how it increases, not only ad views, but organic reach too. Despite what Facebook says.
That said, there are "tricks" that some people have noticed that help you more reach. I'd equate these tricks to SEO tricks back in the day, like keyword stuffing, only they're perhaps less annoying.
These tricks will help you see a little increase, but eventually Facebook changes the algo to get rid of them or essentially fix a bug in their algo. One of these tricks is tagging your band in your post. My theory behind why this works is because Facebook finds a post with others tagged it more valuable (brands can only tag other pages). We tried this trick with Moz's account, and we saw only a negligible difference, much less than yours!
-
I dug into the post metrics and they haven't shed much more light on why this one has so much more reach than any others. Its a photo post, as are many of our others, without the photo being that much more interesting. It's also a contest, which we've run many, many times before with less reach, so I'm still scratching my head. The only variable is that there was a link in the post BACK to the FB page it was posted from. Still don't know why that would have an impact, though.
-
Edgerank doesn't exist anymore.
This is why I don't do Social Media any more. There is enough to contend with SEO hehe...
-Andy
-
Edgerank doesn't exist anymore. Its much more complex now and without a catchy name. (I still catch myself calling it Edgerank when trying to explain Facebook feeds to people though) http://marketingland.com/edgerank-is-dead-facebooks-news-feed-algorithm-now-has-close-to-100k-weight-factors-55908
Check the post metrics in your Facebook insights for a deeper understanding of that post. Might help you glean more ideas as to what specifically was different about this post and maybe it can be replicated in future posts. Much of Facebook is trying to determine when to post those things that should be seen right away, when to post the interesting stuff that can sit all day, when to tag who & how, varying of images & links & shares, and determining what your community appreciates so you can deliver more of that to them.
-
I think that what you are seeing here, is an aspects of Edge Rank. This is Facebook's own algorithm that determines how a post is promoted, by looking at various factors.
Have a read of: http://www.whatisedgerank.com/
If you understand how Edge Rank works and how it ties in with visitor interaction, you can do a lot more with your Facebook pages.
I probably don't spend enough time on SM than I should do (due to amount of work), but it is definitely something you should look in to more.
-Andy
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Workaround for importing email contacts into facebook
Hi, Just wondering if anybody has found a work around for importing import email contacts into facebook? The invite email contacts button is not long visible, and I read on a forum that it now only appears for the arts and entertainment industry (not applicable to me). Thanks for reading!
Social Media | | E2E0 -
Facebook Apps
Just discovered this site http://northsocial.com/examples/ They charge a few dollars a day to use their Facebook apps. However, I am thinking it will be pretty simple to develop apps like these ourselves. Also, once the app is created we can use it for all of our social media accounts. Wanted to get some opinions on the matter. My questions are: 1. Do apps help generate more likes? 2. Can Apps be promoted? 3. Is it challenging to create a Facebook app? 4. Are Facebook apps worth investment of time?
Social Media | | Bryan_Loconto1 -
Setting up facebook
can anyone tell me how to properly link my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/Shiftinsurance with my website www.shfitins.com. On OSE it shows that I only have 1 FB like when i have 29. I would like to make sure this is accurate. thank you.
Social Media | | shiftins0 -
Anyone do SEO for facebook business pages? I'm having trouble with timeline layout.
I am working on my facebook business page and am frustrated with the new "timeline" facebook layout which really does not make sense as a business page. I have not found a way to change it to a traditional layout and have read some posts that said facebook does not allow you to go back from timeline. Does anyone have a good layout suggestions for a facebook business page with SEO in mind? Thanks.
Social Media | | frankthetank20 -
Facebook Shares and the rel="canonical" tag
We use canonical tags for multipart videos, using part 1 of the series as their canonical tag. The logic behind this is that if you have eight parts, it's better for part 1 to get all the link juice for the entire series, so that when someone searches for the main keyword, part 1 is the highest ranked part to appear in search results, and the link juice from every part is aggregated into that one page. The problem is the Facebook made changes to their URL sharing practices to reflect the canonical tag. So as long as the tag is used Facebook ignores the image and description from say part 2, and uses the description from part 1. Can this be waived by using Facebook Open Graph Protocol? Thanks!!
Social Media | | Tug-Agency0 -
Facebook "Voting" App
I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a "voting" app on Facebook. We have some user-generated recipes that we want to post and allow our fans to vote for their favorite. Similar to this: http://www.facebook.com/New7WondersofNature#!/New7WondersofNature?sk=app_114026852036251 I've contacted Woobox but they only allow users to choose between 2 options and we would need 5. Any thoughts?Thanks!
Social Media | | EssEEmily0 -
What can be done to optimise a Facebook fan page for search?
I was wondering if there are any tips to help a FB page rank well for a given search term? Any help welcome! Adam
Social Media | | adamlewis100 -
IFrame facebook fanbox and tweet blocks
I am looking for a Facebook fanbox display, and a recent tweets display which looks nice and uses an iframe. The reason I desire an iframe is to eliminate these otherwise followed links which I do not necessarily endorse. When you use a facebook fanbox, if 12 users are displayed then you have an extra 12 links added to your page. When you use a recent tweet display then each tweet, depending on your configuration, can offer many links. The tweeter's avatar is a link along with the sender's name and any links added to the message.
Social Media | | RyanKent0