Get Noticed on Facebook: What Gets Shared (Like Crazy) on Facebook

Being successful in social media, on Facebook in particular, has a lot to do with understanding human nature. Nowhere is that more apparent than with the success of certain types of photo status updates.

Thanks to EdgeRank, not all Facebook status updates are created equal. The more your latest update gets comments, likes and shares, the more your friends will see it. So if you want to get noticed on Facebook, pay attention to what captures the imagination, hearts and minds of your friends.

This is where your understanding of human nature (and of course, your particular audience) comes in. Every audience has its unique nuisances, but in general, what appeals to people can be summed up in the following categories:

Shocking – Anything that appeals to the morbid curiosity and good old fashioned rubbernecking is sure to garner attention. This photo was posted to Facebook with the caption: “One word to describe this: ___________” and the result was an explosion of comments and shares. The reason? It’s so unbelievable (many of my Facebook friends actually took the time to Google the product to confirm it actually exists).

Touching – Stories that touch our hearts and bring tears to our eyes always get comments. This is why it’s important to get a little personal and share a bit of your life with your Facebook friends. The top of the touching moments list is wedding and baby photos. Who can resist celebrating life’s sweetest moments?

Random Funny – Stuff that is so random and so unexpectedly funny that you stop what you are doing to laugh out loud (for real) gets shared like crazy. This example was posted by a friend and within hours had been reshared from my profile 171 times (and that doesn’t even count all the reshares from the originating source).

Inspiring – Words of wisdom that make people really stop and think do well in all three categories: likes, comments and shares. Use your inspirational status update photos to start conversations with your Facebook friends. If you can’t think of something clever and inspirational to say, borrow a famous quote and create your own inspiring photo.

Truth-Telling Funny – Calling a spade a spade ALWAYS gets shared and reshared because it’s exactly what everyone was thinking, but no one had the courage to say FIRST (but now that you said it and broke the proverbial ice, it’s easy for them to share). This example speaks to our strange addiction to Facebook and was shared 254 times.

Yummy – Photos of delicious food appeals to our basic human need to eat yummy things (and let’s face it – who isn’t a foodie these days?). Foodie photos still outperform links to recipes with photos even though both contain the same image so consider experimenting with posting the photo and adding the link in the comments.

Use these basic categories to refine your list of what works for your audience. Pay attention to what type of interaction you get from your successful posts. Is it just likes or likes AND comments? Aim for the Facebook EdgeRank trio of likes, comments and shares and your post will stay on top of the news feed longer!