Take a look at any brand’s social media goals for the year and you’ll probably see the words “Fan Acquisition” somewhere on that list.

It’s easy to become numbers hungry in the social media game but in reality, page “Likes” are just a small piece of the pie.

Unfortunately, if your only goal is to acquire more “Likes” to your fan page, you’re missing a crucial part in creating a successful social media presence. Truth is, getting users to “Like” your page is only half the battle…maybe even less! The real obstacle lies in getting users to engage with your page. Perhaps this idea renders true now, more than ever, with the “Taking About This” metric.

No community manager wants to hear that the thousands of fans who “Like” their brand’s page aren’t even seeing the content they publish on a daily basis. But the truth is, many of them aren’t. In fact, only a small percentage of fans are actually seeing your page’s content in their News Feed.

Think about it: how many brand pages do you “Like” on Facebook? Of those pages, how many of them do you typically see while browsing through your News Feed? Certainly not all of them. And likely not even half.

Why? Edge Rank and Graph Rank, the algorithms Facebook uses to ultimately determine what is important enough to show each individual user. Facebook keeps track of which posts you interact with and will continue to show you similar content in order to “customize” your experience on the platform.

If you’ve recently become a fan of a Facebook page, the new content will begin to show up in your News Feed. If, however, you choose not to respond to any of the content you’ve been shown, that particular page’s posts will disappear from your News Feed. On the flip side, if a page publishes an update that is receiving a good deal of interaction, the affinity score of the post will increase which in turn increases the likelihood that formerly “unreachable” fans will see the content.

What does this mean for community managers? It means that the social space, like any other, is extremely competitive and your content strategy needs to be on point in order to reach the fans you worked so hard to acquire. Of course, there is no magic formula for content—each user expects to see something different from the brands they choose to interact with. There are, however, some basic guidelines worth mentioning:

1. Know your audience. Are your fans heavily skewed male or female, or split down the middle? Facebook Insights offers a wealth of useful demographic information that will help you understand who you’re talking to.
2. Use rich media. Facebook typically weights rich media like photos and videos higher due to their viral nature and the increased sharing possibilities.
3. Make it easy. What did we do before the “Like” button? In the social world, giving a ‘thumbs up’ is the absolute easiest way for a user to show consensus. It’s also one of the most effortless ways to garner engagement—just ask your fans to “Click Like if…” and you might be surprised by the outcome.
4. Ask for opinions. Generally speaking, audiences love to put in their two cents. Create a friendly debate and watch the comments roll in.
5. Add in some fun. Everybody loves to escape reality, if only for a moment. Ask good-humored questions that spark the imagination of your fans. Make these questions more relevant by tying into your brand, product, or service. For example, “Would you rather be eating [product name] on a beach in Hawaii right now, or in the mountains of Colorado?”

What are some other tried and true tactics you’ve used to boost engagement on your Facebook page?

Photo credit: Denis Dervisevic