How to make your news popular on Facebook using News Feeds

Businesses and organizations on Facebook who really understand how to leverage social media are constantly looking for the best ways to engage their fan bases and the Facebook community at large. They want to drive traffic to their sites and increase sales.

Of course, there are many ways that this can be achieved but since I am a developer of Facebook applications, I thought I'd let you know a few things about how Facebook's News Feed system works and how your news can be optimized to take advantage of Facebook's organic viral streams.

What are Facebook News Feeds?

News Feeds are the stories that appear on your Page/Profile Wall or your Home Page. They are, in my opinion, the most important viral tool on Facebook. Think of them as free adverts to your Fans. As you can see in the News Feed above many of our Fans liked and commented on this story, increasing engagement on our Page and in turn increasing sales, since it was an article that praised one of our applications (Social RSS).

Do all News Feeds get seen on my Fans Home Pages?

All the News Feeds posted to your Page Wall will appear in the "Most recent" tab on your Fan's Home Page. However, the "Most recent" tab displays the News Feeds in chronological order. This means that if your story (News Feed) was published 8 hours prior to the Fan logging on to Facebook, it may be quite a way down the list and the Fan might miss it. What you are really trying to achieve is making your story popular enough to be featured in Facebook's "Top News" tab (again located on your Fans Home Pages).

How does Facebook decide which News Feeds appear in the "Top News" tab?

Without getting too technical about this, Facebook has an algorithm (called the "Edge Rank") that helps them decide how popular a News Feed is and also how relevant the News Feed is to the individual Fan in question. For those of you interested in the formula they use, here it is:

∑euewede

e - Edge (Edges include comments, likes, tags etc.)
u - Affinity score between the viewing user and the edge creator (in other words has this particular Fan interacted with your News Feeds a lot previously).
w - Weight for this edge type (Eg. Facebook gives "comments" a larger weight than "likes").
d - Time decay factor based on how long ago the edge was created.

So how can this knowledge be used to create more engaging News Feeds?

How to create engaging News Feeds

1. Use media. Through our work on the Facebook Platform we have found that using media in your News Feeds creates much higher engagement. Images, flash files and mp3s can be used in News Feeds, so you can choose the media that suits your company best.
2. Ask your Fans direct questions. Eg. What do you think of the new iPad? This often creates a discussion between your Fans.
3. When you are designing content for News Feeds always ask yourself, is this going to be of interest to my Fans? Would I comment on it?
4. Don’t post too many News Feeds. If you bombard your Fans with content, they may start to hide news from your Page. Wait until your latest story has “decayed” and then post up another.
5. Always “like” and “comment” on your own News Feeds. This will give your News Feed a boost in the right direction to start with. Some applications such as Social RSS have an “auto-like” system, that automatically posts News Feeds for you and “likes” them without you needing to do anything.
6. Use voting. People like to vote on any subject. Democrats or Republicans, Football or Baseball, Mac or PC. Including votes on News Feeds can be a successful engagement technique.
7. Make sure you post your News Feeds using an application that includes a “share” link on the story (Social RSS includes this feature). This way your news can spread virally throughout the Facebook community.

These are just 7 ways to produce engaging News Feeds. There are many others, so feel free to comment on this article with methods that have worked for you. Remember once Fans start to engage with your brand on Facebook, their “affinity” score will increase and they will see more of your news. This is the key to successful marketing on Facebook.