Keeping up with Facebook changes

New Facebook Recommended Posts on WordPress

Have you tried out Facebook’s WordPress Plugin? I just installed it onto my website the other day to test the waters. The plug-in requires some steps to install but it seems to be working for the most part. A small box pops up in the right hand corner of my website to let people know about other posts on my blog and the box includes a “like” button as well. If you’re a blogger, this is a great way to extend your reach, because you make it really easy for people to share your content. The plugin also includes Facebook Comments, which you can use if you don’t have another comment system in place. It also includes a “subscribe” button so people can subscribe to your Facebook Profile public posts. There’s a great post here: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-plugin-for-wordpress-guide/on how to set up the plugin. The only thing I got stuck on was the Open Graph section. Techy people seem to think us non-techy types are mind readers. I have absolutely no idea what to do next so am just using the recommend button for now until I figure the rest out.

New Facebook Collections

You can now use two new verbs on Facebook “collect” and “want” for a select few businesses that Facebook is trialing this feature on. Pottery Barn is one. You can read more about Facebook Collections here. http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/08/facebook-collections/.  If you’re a Facebook retailer, this is terrific news. Let’s hope the feature is introduced widely soon.

New Edgerank Algorithms

Facebook is making it harder and harder for pint sized businesses to be seen in newsfeeds. There’s even a petition going around demanding that Facebook change things so that pages can be seen without being promoted. Given that Facebook is unlikely to take such a petition seriously, it’s worth taking some time to assess what you can do to improve your edgerank. Firstly, images rule when it comes to edgerank. Share the right image at the right time and your “talking about this” figure will go up, guaranteed. But you can’t always post images. Another thing you can do is ask new fans to subscribe to a relevant interest list or include your page in one of their interest lists. Tip from Mari Smith: Let them know that if they include that list in their favourites, they’ll get your news in their newsfeed. Simple! Of course, having an active, interactive page that is fun and helpful too will always help your overall edgerank but hopefully these tips will help as well. Have you noticed a drop in your page’s reach? What are you doing to improve it?