The idea of this is such a simple one for big and small businesses alike and is essentially marketing techniques 101. But with Facebook’s ‘edge rank’ (Facebook’s equivalent of Google’s ranking algorithms) there is a slight twist and further emphasis.
Simply put, it’s about writing a post on Facebook based around topical situations happening that day e.g. Bonfire night, Olympics, the Royal baby etc. This is a very traditional advertising method to catch onto what’s currently happening to relate to the viewer.
I manage a few Facebook pages varying in sizes and recently I posted an image with a caption about Halloween on 31st October. It reached an audience 50% larger than my fan base and had about 70% more engagement (likes and comments) than my usual posts. This also helped get me some new fans too.
It’s worth mentioning there is an argument for correlation and causation here:
I may have received more ‘likes’ just because I was posting something humorous and topical that people were already talking about regardless of Facebook’s Edge Rank. This is correlation.
However my reach and engagement may have been caused by Facebook’s Edge Rank and specifically by the fact I was talking about Halloween. In other words because I was talking about something topical, Facebook gave me more visibility in news feeds.
It’s more than likely that it’s a combination of the 2.
AND, not forgetting that the more engagement (likes and comments) you get, then the higher the edge ranking and so the further more engagement you get after that! (I hope you’re still with me.)
Either way, the main thing here is that posting on topical subjects can give you a much wider audience reach, promoting your brand out to more people and potentially gaining more fans. Therefore you may want to plan out your posts and see how you can promote your brand based around the calendar year.
