Demystifying Facebook wall posts

I recently set a goal to read at least three non-fiction books each month – but more about that later. One of the books I read this month was Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk. I saw Gary present at Big Omaha, listen to him on podcasts, read his blog and follow him on Twitter, so I feel like I know what Gary is all about.

Often these short books (this one is 229 pages) are filled with obvious observations and repetitive content in the midst of which you might find one or two nuggets of information. I was surprised by how much I learned from this book, since most of the others I’ve read are sparse on good information.

Gary breaks down each platform, including less-marketed platforms like Tumblr and Pinterest, explains how each platform operates from a marketer’s perspective, and then provides best practices with real-world campaign examples, which are fantastic. I think everyone would agree that Facebook is the biggest, most complex of all social media platforms on which to build a marketing campaign, both from market size and technical complexity standpoints.

Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm is what controls how business wall posts appear on everyone’s walls. I knew EdgeRank existed, but I never understood how important it was to get followers to interact with wall posts – otherwise they will never be seen by your audience. I assumed, as many of you probably do as well, that if I create a wall post, every follower will see that post on their wall, but they won’t. If your followers don’t interact with your page, leaving “likes”, “comments”, and “shares”, the post will only appear on a small percentage of walls, leaving your marketing message unseen.

If your business leverages any social media platform for marketing, or if your business should start using social media, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a great place to start. It’s a quick read and gets right to the “here is how to do it” methods. If you want to know WHY you should be using social media, you’ll need to read Gary’s other marketing books.