Facebook can be a very needy social network at times! If you want your Facebook posts to be seen and your employer brand to grow, you have to give it what it wants.

Easier said than done!

Thank goodness saying it is super, super easy, so actually doing it is just plain easy. This article will show you how to get Facebook on your side, but first let’s get on the same Page (pun intended!) about what exactly Facebook wants from you. Hint: it ain’t flowers…

What Facebook Wants

Image-Based Content

Facebook doesn’t want you to send a bouquet, but posting an image of a floral arrangement on your timeline is a completely different story!

Facebook has been pushing advertisers for years to incorporate more photos and video into their content strategy. The recent updates to FB’s link share ads and organic posts take these demands for visual content to the next level by upping the ideal image size for these posts to 1200 pixels x 627 pixels, and setting the minimum to 560 x 292.

Timeliness

Just as you don’t want to be the person still talking about the Britney-Madonna music awards kiss fiasco, once everyone else has moved on to the breaking news that is Miley Cyrus’ twerking abilities (or lack thereof!) I mean really, just writing that has stamped a date on this blog post. Facebook posts, much like today’s pop stars, become irrelevant with age. Old posts get pushed to the bottom of Facebook Newsfeed, never to be seen again.

Engagement

Facebook gives priority to content and Pages that are engaging, and they determine engagement by measuring interaction and popularity, or as Facebook refers to it, Affinity and Weight.

Weight is how popular your content is. The amount of shares, Likes, and comments that any given post you share receives (there are a few more nuances that affect the amount of Weight Facebook gives posts, but we’ll tackle that in the hows.)

Affinity is basically how much users interact with your Page. Facebook uses this information to gauge how interested a particular user is in the content you share, which determines how often your posts show up on their feed.

How to Make Facebook Happy

Post ALL the Pictures

This one is kind of a no brainer, but we still see so many employers and recruiters who do not include image-based content as a part of their Facebook recruiting strategy.

A really great way to include pictures, while staying professional and true to your employer brand, is by creating and sharing employee profiles. Use a large-scale image of an employee (you can just use your smartphone, or theirs — no excuses!) accompanied by a short blurb about who they are, what they do, or why they love working for your company. The picture will make Facebook happy, and employee profiles make your company more likable in general. Win-win!

Logitech Careers has some great examples of employee profiles on their Page.

Follow the Rules

Remember how I mentioned earlier that the process by which Facebook decides how much Weight to give the content you share was kind of complex? I hope you do, as it was only a couple hundred words ago! Facebook gives more Weight to posts that follow the rules. Both spoken, and unspoken.

You can find clearcut rules posted on the Facebook Blog. These usually focus on desired image size, amount of characters used, and specific language. It’s also a very good idea to follow InsideFacebook.com for frequent updates, as Facebook really, really loves to change up the rules!

As far as the unspoken rules of Facebook go, I’ll give you a short list:

• More Weight is given to content you upload yourself, i.e. not through third party apps like Youtube or Flickr. So, if you’re going to post a large image, do so directly through the Facebook interface in order to maximize its effectiveness.

• Images and video content get more Weight than links; links get more Weight than plain text.

• You get what you pay for. Promoted posts, ads, and sponsored stories get more, if not the most, Weight. This makes sense as that’s where Facebook makes its money.

Create Your Own Buzz

Boosting engagement can be a tricky thing, especially when you’re first starting out with Facebook Recruiting. We highly recommend using Facebook Ads to improve your reach, but there are a few more tactics you may want to use as well.

First off, get your employees, family, and friends on board (hi mom!). Ask them to share, Like, and comment on your posts as much as possible. If your employees are reluctant to engage with your Company Page, bribe them with pumpkin spice lattes, or smoothies!

Next, tag everyone and everything. Tagging people in posts boosts your popularity points, and alerts them and their friends, which will then hopefully lead to more Likes and shares. Don’t tag people in posts that have nothing to do with them, or they will get grumpy with you, but anytime you post images of staff functions, or employee profiles, then tag everyone involved. Another nice way to include more tags is to post content suggested to you by your staff, and tag them in a ‘thank you’ note. Everyone likes to be appreciated after all.

Be nice to Facebook and Facebook will be nice to you. What are you waiting for? Get out there and get your Facebook recruiting on!