Are you looking for more engagement on your Facebook profile or page? Most people are going to answer that question with an emphatic YES! But you can’t just sit back and hope that engagement comes to you.

With Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm that dictates what shows up in people’s news feed, you have to have a connection with a friend or “liker” in order for your content to even show up in their News Feed. So, what can you do to impact this affinity and raise the chance that your post will show up in others’ News Feeds? We’ve put together 5 tips that can assist you in raising your affinity:

1. Comment, Comment, Comment – Don’t just sit there while your friends’ posts fly by in the News Feed. Proactively comment on their posts and add value to the conversation. This will not only make your friends feel good, but will strengthen the affinity you have with that particular person. So next time you post something, there will be a higher chance that your post will show up in their News Feed. There’s also a higher chance that they’ll return the favor and comment on your post too.

2. Post as Your Personal Profile on Your Page – It’s amazing that many users are still unaware of this functionality. Yes, in addition to posting content as your business, any admin of a Facebook Page can also post content as themselves. For example, in this screenshot we see how I was able to leave a comment on a VerticalResponse post from my personal profile rather than making it appear that VerticalResponse was commenting on our own post. How meta!

Doing this provides a channel to bridge the gap between profiles and pages and enables you to expose your content to not only your business’s Facebook fans, but your personal profile’s friends as well. To enable this feature for your Facebook page, go into your admin settings and click on the “Your Settings” link on the upper left-hand side. You’ll have the ability to uncheck the top box next to “Posting Preferences.” This allows you to post as your profile or your page depending on how you’re currently logged into Facebook.

3. Take Advantage of the Message in a Bottle – You’ve probably used the new private messaging capability in Facebook and didn’t even think twice about the affinity impact it was having. Just like commenting, Facebook sees a message as a building block of establishing affinity between you and the person you’re messaging. Even though it happens behind closed doors, Facebook still notes it and holds it in high regard.

4. Reach Out and Tag Someone or Something – You may or may not be aware that as you write a post, you can tag a friend or a page into your post. Note that as a business page, you are only able to tag other businesses or fans who have commented in that specific thread. This is great when you’re referencing someone specific or want them to be aware of your specific post. Tagging other businesses is also a great way to do some cross-promotions and show up in the News Feeds of the other business’s fans. Now just a word of caution about this tip: don’t overuse it or you might run the risk of getting blocked or unfriended in a hurry.

5. Share a Piece of Content – That little share link below a post seems so unassuming, but once again, by clicking it you are increasing the affinity between you and the person or page that posted it. Plus, an added bonus is that you’re able to share some great additional content with your audience.

Utilizing these tips won’t show results overnight, but if you leverage them along with posting great content, you’ll start to see positive results in a very short order.

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