Most business owners that are using Facebook focus on what they are going to say in their updates, but they don’t put much thought into when to post them. Timing your Facebook posts can affect the number of fans who actually read and respond to your well-planned posts. Knowing when and how often to post your updates on Facebook can help you reach the most people.

So, how frequently should you be adding updates to Facebook? Here, you will find out everything you need to know about timing your Facebook posts so that you get the most benefit from them.

Add a new post when the last one stops appearing in your fans’ News Feeds.

While updating your posts every hour may keep you in your fans’ field of vision for the entire day, having your posts appear two or three times in their News Feed could make you a nuisance. When that happens, fans can quickly become annoyed with you and choose to unsubscribe so that they can escape your post overload. The goal is to have one post in their News Feed at a time.

Know when your post drops off of your fans’ News Feeds.

Posts can have a shelf life that varies from a few hours to several days. You can keep track of each post’s performance in real-time. Posts will drop off of each News Feed at a different time. How long they remain on there is determined by EdgeRank, Facebook’s algorithm, which calculates how interested the fan is going to be in that particular post. As your update starts to drop out of News Feeds, you will see a decrease in the number of impressions, likes, clicks and comments. When you see that these things have come to a stop, add a new update.

Measure your impressions, comments, and likes.

On Facebook, you can view charts that measure how many impressions, likes and comments each post receives. Comments are time-stamped, which makes it easy to see when and how often your fans are viewing your post. Since “Likes” are not time-stamped, you will have to record the number of Likes at regular intervals, such as once every hour.

Write down all of the impressions, comments and likes that each post receives and add the information to a graph of your own. This will help you visualize the lifespan of each post. You will see when the number of comments, likes and impressions starts to plane out, telling you when the post has likely dropped off of fans’ News Feeds. When you calculate the lifespan of at least 10-15 posts, you will get a fairly accurate estimate of how long each post stays in a News Feed.

Use that information to plan the timing for each new post.

The average lifetime for a post changes. While some posts can last an entire day, others may drop out of sight after only five hours. If you see that your posts are remaining in fans’ News feeds for eighteen to twenty hours, then you can be content with posting only once a day. When your posts are falling off after only ten hours or less, be sure to add a new update when you see a drop in impressions, comments and likes.

This information can also help you determine what types of posts are generating the most interaction with your fans and last the longest in a News Feed. For example, if you post pictures or videos, you may see that those posts last longer than a blurb post.

Do you keep track of the life of your Facebook posts? What types of posts make the most impression with your fans? Share with us!

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LinkedIn Groups are probably the least utilized weapon in any business arsenal. When used effectively, they can be a fantastic resource for new opportunities and increasing your brand’s profile. However, as with any weapon used in business, you must have a well-planned strategy. You want to interact within LinkedIn groups so that your business will be getting the most from the networking opportunities it offers.

The first thing you want to do is start joining Groups. On LinkedIn, the maximum number of Groups you can join is 50, so that should be your target number. Of course, interacting with so many Groups on a regular basis isn’t likely. The purpose of joining so many is to increase the size of your LinkedIn network. This is very helpful when using the “Advanced Search” option when you’re looking for people with whom you’d like to do business.

Once you have a sizable number of Groups, choose about 3-5 of the groups which best meet your target demographic and are well-populated, and focus on actively participating in each of them. Be aware, though, that trying to be seen in groups which have thousands of members can be very difficult since so many others are trying to grab everyone’s attention too.

After you’ve selected which groups to focus on, try to be active at least twice a week. Post thought-provoking questions and start discussions that are relevant to that particular group. Make sure that your title will grab readers’ attention. Browse through other members’ postings and see which topics generated the most comments and interest.

Try to always be involved in the most popular discussions, even if it’s not directly related to your business. You could add an interesting point of view and earn some recognition from other members. The more popular discussions usually start from the top of the page, so if you’ve posted to them others will be more likely to see them. You also have the option of sharing your discussions by forwarding them to any contacts you want to engage with.

When you have a pretty good idea about what topics generate the most discussion among Group members, you can start to post your own discussions that relate to previous ones. You want to chime in with issues that are important to other Group members. Even if you feel that you have a valid point to make, if it doesn’t fit with the content of the Group you’re in, you could be ignored by other members.

Finally, if you want to stay uppermost in other members’ thoughts, especially the ones whose interest you are actively seeking, stay current with any responses to discussions that you are participating in. You want to show the others that you are committed to the topic, so don’t leave too long of a gap before responding.

LinkedIn Groups are a great source for finding captive audiences and interacting with fellow members, no matter how many degrees of separation there are between you. Stay at it and work on finding what works best for you. Find where you are seeing the most results and change your approach as it becomes necessary. Start implementing a plan this week, do a search of the Groups available on LinkedIn and start joining!

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