Facebook is a great marketing tool and using it’s algorithm to expand your reach and increase your profitability makes it priceless. Mastering the ability to reach more and more customers on a site with over 1 billion viewers can seem daunting, but using Facebook’s tried and true formula will streamline the process.

The formula used to optimize the social marketing ability of users, is an algorithm. It looks something like this, in a basic form: What to post + who to show it to + when to post it = optimal number of interactions with viewers. Facebook studies how it’s users interact and uses the information to create and adjust the algorithm to help boost the “optimal number of interactions”.

Each piece of the formula is vital to the users success at extending their reach. Just doing one or two is not going to achieve the desired results. Add to this, there are many different ways to do each one, and figuring out what works and what doesn’t gets a lot more complicated.

Optimal Deep Interactions

Interaction is a user taking some kind of action on a post. Likes, comments, shares, are the basic forms. Deeper interactions, such as sharing the post or clicking a link to an external website, are what you are really looking for.

The ultimate goal is to get the highest number of viewer interactions possible, because more interactions leads to more money in your pocket. Knowing that every one that sees a post is not going to make a purchase, doesn’t mean they are invaluable.

Add a hook that will encourage a viewer to interact more deeply. Without begging or demanding, try offering incentives for sharing or visiting a website, such as a freebie, or a subscription to a newsletter.

Share the Right Post

Adding content to a business page can be tricky. Viewers have an expectation, that the products and services are being offered by someone that knows the product, sure, but more importantly, that they are a professional and can handle their business with integrity and care about their customers. Professionalism is the most important thing customers look for in a business page, followed closely by relevant material.

Handle your comments with care. Disputes should be handled discreetly by a business owner. Disgruntled comments should be addressed by asking the viewer to send you a private message. Never argue with a potential client publicly. Doing so will drag the expectation of integrity into the gutter.

Not making your content relevant is a quick way to lose a potential customer. Mixing business with personal is unprofessional and not what is expected from a business. Do your best to make all of your posts relevant. Want to share an adorable cat video, go for it. Just find a way to make it relevant to your business. Include a blurb explaining why it’s relevant and never leave the viewer guessing why something has been posted.

Sharing with the Right People

Nabbing customers is no easy task. Facebook understands and gives you the ability to focus on a single audience with each post. You can customize promotions and direct them toward a single gender, age bracket, even income level!

To optimize target marketing, try creating a different post for each type of audience. Use one post to share with women, another to share with men, a different one to promote to a younger age bracket than one you would send to an older age group, and so on.

Mix and match your post content so it doesn’t exclude anyone not in your target campaign. Keep in mind that men have wives and mothers that they could share your post with, even if they aren’t really interested. Include an incentive for doing it to increase deeper interaction.

The Right Time

Viewers have to see your posts to interact with them. If you are posting when they are not checking Facebook, you are missing valuable customer reach because they just aren’t getting the message.

Timing your posts to coincide with when your viewers are looking can be hit or miss, but not impossible. Try different times to get a feel for when your posts are viewed the most and schedule your posts to publish at those times.

Facebook has a scheduler that will let you schedule posts at certain times. Use it to your advantage to publish your posts at certain times every day, like during the lunch hour and early evening, when viewers check Facebook the most. Watch your stats, and adjust your scheduled posts from time to time, to ensure you are getting the optimal reach.

Don’t let being overwhelmed by social media marketing hold you back. Mastering the individual parts that make up the Facebook algorithm will greatly expand your customer base, improve profitability, and streamline the process.

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