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      Facebook Fan Page – The Great “Seen” Mystery
      by Erin Chase on October 26, 2012

      So we all have a love-hate relationship with Facebook.

      We engage there. We talk there. We chat there. We laugh at hilarious photos that go viral. We cringe on debate nights when our news feeds fill up with very passionate messages.

      And for many small business owners and bloggers, Facebook has traditionally been a great way to communicate with friends, fans and spread the word about ideas, articles, promotions and deals that you find and share on your personal blog or website.

      Until recently…

      Traffic and conversion from Facebook have tanked for many bloggers and small business owners, resulting in reduced revenue and more importantly, engagement. Facebook now wants the fan page owner to “promote” their post. To pay for it to be advertised or “sponsored content” so that it will get more views in people’s newsfeeds.

      Is it worth it to pay to promote your posts? Is it worth it to spend energy analyzing the numbers, the seens, the “real time traffic” page on analytics, and the conversions, to figure out how to beat Facebook at its own game? Is testing different strategies worth your time?

      Here are a few examples from the $5 Dinners page:

      Historically, all kinds of posts, status updates, photos, recipe links have all received the same number of seens and interactions…with the occasional post or recipe that “goes viral.”Here is what it looks like now:

      Goal of this post: Share a funny holiday baking photo with fans. Engagement.

      Above…Photo that was shared from someone’s wall with no link in the status box, just a photo. Tons of shares, so the photo was seen by many, but only 4,305 from the $5 Dinners posting. This did create more new likes to the page. Conclusion: Shares = more likes?

      Goal of this post: Comedic status about texting while in the grocery store. Engagement.

      Here we have a simple status update I made from my phone. Right after I was almost run over by a rogue texter in the grocery store. No link, no photo. Lots of likes, comments.Single share. 12K+ “seens.” This is by far the highest seen we’d seen on the FB page in over a week. Conclusion: Engagement only creates more “seens.”

      Goal of this post: Daily “recipe” post that we share on the page. Drive traffic to the post. Engagment.

      This is a posting with a blurb, space between the link to the recipe post, and photograph included. The preview was removed. Conclusion: Having the space helps (compared to similar recipe posts), and removing the preview helps increase the “seen” number.

      Important things to consider when coming up with your Facebook strategy ~

      1. What are you goals for your Facebook page? (drive traffic, convert affiliate offers, just chat)

      2.What are you wanting to test? (higher traffic, pins from FB posts, affilaite conversion)

      3. Time of day and relevance of our post.

      4. It could all change again at any moment!

      So What Can You Do?

      This is where you come in…we’d love to hear about your experience with your Facebook page…what’s working for you? What isn’t?

      Tell us how you’ve been able to meet your FB  goals!

: Leave a Comment

  • Kelly @ Kansas City Mamas on October 26, 2012 at 11:37 am
    { Reply }

    One thing that is working for me is to SHAKE IT UP and only post once every hour to hour and a half. Part of Facebook’s algorithm is to look if you are using multiple ways to get your message across (status update, picture update, link share, etc.) By shaking it up a little, I’ve noticed a greater number of seen and engagement.

    PS: One of the things I haven’t seen mentioned is “seen” vs “conversions”. In doesn’t make a bit of difference if something has a higher number of “seen” according to Facebook if it isn’t converting.

    • Erin Chase on October 26, 2012 at 2:35 pm
      { Reply }

      Yes, Kelly…this is part of my experiment…seen vs. conversion. When I can, I try to watch the “real time analytics” for a few minutes after posting, and then check conversions on affiliate dashboards to see the conversion. Still no conclusions yet!

  • Dan R Morris on October 26, 2012 at 1:54 pm
    { Reply }

    So I’ve been experimenting with some of my clients’ sites a little bit differently. And by the way this was very helpful. We’ve been tracking our “fans” to see which of them are getting the most engagement on their personal pages. And then we’ve been tagging them in questions. So far it has worked crazy good. The threads have been seen by their community which has increased the likes in direct proportion.

    What I’m really trying to figure out is how many “points of contact” does a person need to have with you for the updates to show up in your stream. Still working on that one.

    • Erin Chase on October 26, 2012 at 2:33 pm
      { Reply }

      That’s a great experiment Dan…would love to hear what you discover!

  • Christine on October 26, 2012 at 3:48 pm
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    Thank YOU. I’ve recently read a lot of articles on improving your fb biz page, this one is by far the most helpful. The tip Dan offered in the comments is one I’ve never thought of!

    One tip I offer is participating in fb groups. I’ve been involved in a few fb groups (formed from e-classes etc) and we are helping each other by liking and corresponding on our biz pages rather than personal page :)