Whether you have 100 fans, 1,000 fans, or 30,000 fans, you notice that every time you post an update that is shared among those fans’ walls, a small percentage are liking, commenting, and sharing. You grow frustrated so you change the format of the updates. You post pictures because you know pictures speak a thousand words. You embed video but they don’t go viral either. Same response. You can understand that 90% of blog readers are lurkers but you don’t understand why you can’t tap into the Facebook market. You begin to hate that consultant and those blogs.

I don’t blame you. But it’s not their fault.

Part of the blame rests on your shoulders for focusing on the number of fans. That’s just a number and numbers don’t mean as much as names. Anyone can click a like button; it takes a fraction of a second. Focus on the fans who interact with you, whose names frequently like, comment, and share what you post. Focus on the fans who love you and not the ones who merely like your page.

The rest of the blame rests with EdgeRank, a Facebook algorithm that determines what every user will see in their news feed. Based on the three variables of affinity, weight, and time decay, it is this formula that is the cause of 84% of your Facebook fans to never see your page updates. Simply stated, Facebook assumes the lack of your fans’ liking, commenting, and sharing is enough reason to not show your updates to your fans.

• Timing: Posts tend to get more shares on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and weekends. Also, posting around 9 AM has better engagement
• Be direct. Ask directly in your posts to share comment or like. 
• Be consistent: Post at least 3 times per week
• Ask open ended questions with words like: where, when, what, how would
• Use photos and videos
• Post interesting and useful content. Avoid self promotion or SALE, SALE SALE! 
• Offer special discounts and try running contests
• Keep it short. Posts with 80 characters or less get more shares.
• DO NOT use 3rd party apps to post your content on your page such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or Buffer. A lot of these posts get lumped together on your clients walls and it do not appear as personal to your followers. 

 Consider Facebook advertising or showing your page posts as ads to increase the number of fans. Then increase your engagement tactics so you can reach a higher percentage of new fans.