One of the reasons a business is setting up a Page is to use Facebook as a low cost promotional tool.

But so many business are missing the mark here.

The truth of the matter is that Facebook has an algorithm called EdgeRank and this determines what gets shown to users on Facebook. This algorithm looks at every single post you make on your wall and it determines a quality score for the individual post. If the score is low it is not passed onto many people on Facebook.

The main things that influence your post quality score has to do with the number of interactions you are getting on the post, so how many likes, how many comments and how many shares. Along with this is a time element, how closely together are all these interactions taking place. If your post is having a high number of interactions in a short space of time, Facebook will deem this as newsworthy and more people will see it.

OK, so why are we talking about algorithms and how does this relate to business?

We know from experience with Facebook that people do not really interact with self-promotion. A business can have a large fan base and you can think you are doing a good job if you are getting 500 comments - but if you have 2 million fans this is a low interaction rate.

So what should you be doing as a business?

Your "Wall" is a place to build a sense of community with Fans and it is a place where your Fans can interact with you and you with them in a non-promotional way. Then the best thing to do to reach your Fan base is advertise. You can take out ads that only target your Fan base so it is highly focused and the advertising can be deal or promotionally based.

The number one reason people become Fans on Facebook is to take advantge of promotional offers.

DDB did a great piece of research across six countries and discovered that the majority of people said they joined a Facebook Page was because they were looking to get offers.

Make sure your Fans see targeted ads and take them through to a landing page where there is an opportunity for them to be able to share this page out with their friends. This way you are using their newsfeed to get yourself a nice little viral campaign going with promotional posts and a reasonable post quality score.

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For more information on online marketing and making the web work for your business call Robert on 0800 019 9860 or email directly.

You can also join us at on of our sessions at the Cheltenham Online Marketing Club.