Engagement: In Social Media terms, this is the ability to get your audience to interact with your brand. 
Specifically with a Facebook Page this would mean to interact with the visitor in such a way that they Like, Comment, or Share something related to your Facebook Page.
Statistics show that the majority of a Facebook’s users interactions with a brand is going to be via their News Feed. So getting the visitor to “Like” your Page is of critical importance because that enables you to have a shot at being in their News Feed.
As we know, Facebook uses a algorithm they developed called the EdgeRank Algorithm which basically tries to determine what New Feed content is of most value to you. A number of criteria go into EdgeRank’s formula (learn more about EdgeRank) to determine what a Facebook user sees most frequently in their News Feed.
EdgeRank simple definition: Facebook’s algorithm that determines where a particular post will show up in a specific user’s News Feed.
The bottom line:
The more users interact with your Facebook page, the greater the affinity score, and the more likely they are to see your Page posts in the future!
Here’s a good, quick summary from InsideFacebook.com on Facebook’s EdgeRank method:
Affinity is the relationship between the user and the page or friend that created an item. Weight is affected by the type of story, for instance, whether it is a photo upload or a comment on another person’s status. Facebook tends to value rich media content and often when it introduces something new like Questions, it temporarily weights activity from that feature higher. The third factor affecting EdgeRank is how recently an action was taken.
These factors are why you might see every check-in and linked shared by your best friend, but only see whole photo albums from someone else. EdgeRank is also the reason most fans don’t see every post from pages they like.
So how do we help boost user interaction (affinity / News Feed visibilty) with your Facebook Page?
Here are ways a TabSite Contest can help!
- Contests draw users in and allow for multiple times and ways of connecting, as well as a simple method to reach the friends of contest entrants and voters.
- Make the contest entry requirements simple (photo, name, and e-mail for example) and the prize inviting.
- All TabSite contest tabs can have a Like Gate, enabling your Page to capture the Like and that most important base connection with the user. Use the Like Gate!
- Upon entering the contest a user has ability to share their entry. Enable all social sharing options to help the user share your entry on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.
- Entrants can vote for their own entry. When they do so, all votes get the opportunity for social sharing. This would again be another affinity connection for your Page with that Entrant that links them and increases the score towards them seeing more of your posts in their News Feed.
- As friends of those who have entered or voted click the links that are shared and come to the Facebook page to vote or enter themselves, this then builds further affinity connections as the entrant/voter, and friend of theirs have engaged with your Page, together building a stronger EdgeRank connection triangle (entrant/voter, friend of entrant voter, and Page) thus giving both entrant and friend of entrant a stronger possiblity of your Facebook Page posts being in their News Feed.
- Using the Facebook Comments box plugin per entry encourages posting and when the default “Post to my profile” check remains, this further connects the poster and your Facebook Page.
As TabSite releases the 2-stage voting (main round, and then finalists voting rounds) this will then build another further connection for entrants and voters to return to the page and with their next round of voting goes more social sharing and connecting options with your Facebook Page.So, the circle of connection between a fan and a Facebook Page grows with use of tools like TabSite’s Contest tool. For Page Admins this is a way to be building the “EdgeRank Score” of a Facebook user in relation to your Facebook Page, thereby helping to boost visibility of your Timeline News Feed posts in the News Feed of your fans.
In short, the more a Facebook Page can engage a user such as through a contest where there are the potential for multiple “Likes”, Comments, and Links that relate the fan and Page, the EdgeRank score is boosted. Further boosting occurs as these same fans share their entry vote and their friends engage with your Page.
TabSite Contests, available at Gold and Platinum Plans, offers Facebook Page Admins an engagement tool that ultimately can assist in boosting fan reach via the News Feed.
Free 14 Day Trial of TabSite Contests >>
– Mike Gingerich, TabSite co-founder
