A common belief about Facebook is that when you post a status update to your page, it will appear on your fan’s own pages for everyone else to see. Wrong. The truth is, unless you are managing your company Facebook page correctly, your posts might not be seen by anyone at all!

Similar to Google, Facebook operates a ranking system. It rates pages on how active they are and how interested others are in what is being said.

In other words, if you are not getting involved with your Facebook community you are invisible to them.

To be visible you must be active. You must be posting regularly (once or twice a day is about right for a business page). Your posts must be interesting – you don’t want to bore them away!  – and they shouldn’t be all about you and your product or service. Nobody is interested in being pitched to all the time!

Posts should be appealing , relevant and real. You want to create interest, maintain it and, ultimately, cause interaction.

The more likes, comments or views a link gets (if your status update includes a link) increases your rating. As far as Facebook are concerned, you are clearly of interest to your fans and you need to be heard.

Being on Facebook is becoming more and more important for business. But if you’re not going to be visible, there’s no point.  Joining up is easy but keeping on top of it takes time and effort.  If you haven’t got the time or aren’t prepared to put the effort in, don’t get involved. Better still employ a company to do it for you.