One of the rarely spoken about subjects concern Facebook is the concept of Edgerank.
Edgerank is the system Facebook uses to determine what a user sees in his newsfeed. There are a number of variables that Facebook uses to decide whether a fan wants to continue seeing your page.
The most important variable is …
Recent Interactions.
When someone does not interact with a fan page, the page is slowly suppressed in the news feed. Depending on the number of friends the person has, the number of pages the user likes, and the frequency of posts by both groups this suppression can be completed in 7-14 days.
So as a general rule of thumb, if you do not get someone interacting with your page in 2 weeks, they're gone.
In the recent Facebook update (March 2011), this problem was addressed. Now you can send messages to all your fans quickly and easily by using the new Send An Update feature.
How To Send A Fan Page Update:
You can quickly send a fan page update by going to your fan page, and clicking on "EDIT PAGE" in the upper right corner of your fan page. (You must be logged in as an administrator to see the edit page link.)
On the edit page screen, click on "MARKETING" in the left column.
This will put you on the Page Promotion screen. Then click on "SEND AN UPDATE" and enter your message. Facebook will then send a notification to all your fans containing your message.
What Kinds Of Updates To Send:
- Write a short note telling the fans what you've recently added to your wall and send it to all your fans.
- Pick a topic that has generated interest with your fans on your wall and send a direct link to the topic. Facebook Notes work great for this.
- Create a survey using Facebook's Question feature on your fan page and send the fans directly to the survey. This way you'll increase the chance a fan will interact with your page by commenting.
You can also use this technique to tell fans about specials on your website by adding a link to your website. This only takes a few minutes to do, and will bring some of your fans back into your reach. Do not do this more than a few times a month because people will unlike your page if they think you're badgering them.
