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Facebook has a system of internal algorythms, called Edgerank, that determine which of your fans see your posts in their feed. They do this with your friends too. You may have noticed that once you comment or Like a friend’s post, you start seeing a few more posts from that friend. If you comment on or Like those posts, you start seeing more and more and more. They didn’t suddenly become more active at the same time you starting Liking and commenting on them. Facebook specifically serves you people that you take more action on. It makes sense to try to serve you things you find interesting as much as possible.

I’ve seen a lot of number bandied about on the Internet, but a common one is that, on average, only 16% of your fans are served your posts, based on the Edgerank system. (There is a Web site called pagelever.com that claims news figures reveal this be, on average, between 3-7.5%)

Therefore, one of the best things you can do to increase your Facebook presence and to get to as many people as possible is pretty simple:

1. Get more Likes and comments on your Facebook fanpage.
2. Give people a reason to click.

Otherwise, every time you make a post that fails to engage a fan in (the form of Likes or comments) the more Facebook, to borrow Scott Kurtz’s phrase, knocks your d*ck in the dirt. This is a major reason why you see major corporations putting up links asking you to Like them in exchange for a bargain or a coupon. It boosts their Facebook Edgerank to their fans — cheap marketing.

This is also a compelling reason to throw a few bucks advertising your Facebook page.

There’s a great breakdown of the different factors that affect Edgerank here. The gist of it is that not every user action is equal. The more engagement it takes to accomplish, the more it increases your Edgerank.

• The lowest form of engagement is the simple click to view your content. If someone views it, but doesn’t take further action, it isn’t particularly engaging.
• Next up is the simple Like
• Then comment
• The highest is sharing it on one’s own page or profile.

Different types of content have different affects as well.

• Acting on your status update is of the lowest importance
• then links,
• The highest importance belongs to photos/videos.

Pagelever.com has a number of basic strategies, including posting frequently and consistently (sound familiar?), the best times to post, and using direct (rather than third party) postings. I found several sites recommending that you post your site entries directly rather than via RSS. Edgerank prefers direct posting.

I’ll wrap-up here and just encourage you to do some simple Google searching, Use your tools to limit your search to the last year. There is an absolute load of information.