How many likes does your Facebook page have?

Tens, hundreds, thousands? The total number doesn't matter!

Just 1% of the average brand's Facebook Fans interact with the page regularly. Most people hit like and never come back. 

The only number that is important for a Facebook page is the number of fans who love it.

Love it enough to comment on posts, share content and contribute their own. 

Here's a quick way to work out how many of your fans love you.  

Facebook's Edgerank is dead! The social network's post ranking system has been replaced with a more complex ranking system with hundreds of contributing factors. 

The new ranking system still takes affinity, weight and time decay into account but now also measures other factors such as post type and each user's previous history. 

Two new developments stand out:

• Post bumping: If your old posts continue to get engagement from fans Facebook will give them a second chance by showing them to fresh people: This is part of Facebook's drive to escape its walled garden. 
  
  
• Last Actor: The last 50 interactions a person makes on Facebook are the most important. This means that if you get your fans interacting with your page they see more of your stuff. Think community rather than advert!!

Here's What Canary Island tourist businesses need to do to succeeed in a post Edgerank Facebook

Don't panic: Despite the change Facebook success still depends on the same factors: Engaging, visual content and short, informal texts.

Identify your hotspots: Which posts have the most impact on your audience? Rinse and repeat!

Post Often: Three to five posts per day.

Talk to individuals:  "You" rather than "You guys". 

Ask questions: Because people answer them and that's engagement and the beginnings of community.

Vary Your Post Type: Post links, text, photos and videos. If you only post links or text posts people who interact mostly with photos or videos won't see them. 

Don't Re-post the same links: Facebook won't show your fans the same link over and over again: Create different landing pages on your website.

Use Hashtags: Hashtags allow people to find your content within Facebook. Use specific (#myhotelorbusiness) and generic (#summer) hashtags. 

Think Visual: Tourism is aspiration: Show your fans what they are missing: Locations, experieces, moments, fun.

Need to get your Facebook page going but don't have the content: Click here for thousands of photos of Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands priced for social media and web use. 

50% of people see you latest Facebook post within 30 minutes and 75% see it within two hours, according to the latest Wisemetrics research.

The lifetime of Facebook posts is getting shorter and engagement levels on pages that only post once per day is collapsing.

At Canary Content we recommend five posts per day and an absolute minimum of three (don't forget the weekends).

Five posts maximises your engagement and boosts your long term page ranking. It means that you reach a higher proportion of your followers every day.

It's easier than it sounds:

Say hello, say good morning, ask simple questions, share photos, share news, say good evening! 

Be a person rather than a corporate broadcast robot: It's about you fans not about your business. 

Need photos? Click here to visit our new photo website with thousands of affordable, quality photos of Gran Canaria. 

Gran Canaria's resort hotels are 100% full this August, according to La Provincia newspaper. With Egypt unstable and (whisper it) economic conditions improving and we can expect more of the same this winter

In fact, winter 2013/14 is a historic opportunity for the Canary Islands: Millennials are choosing their first holiday destinations, Egypt-fans are looking for new haunts and confidence is slowly returning to our target markets.

We need to stay in touch with all these new customers and turn them from first-time visitors into loyal fans: Get those Facebook likes and email addresses! 

You've got the clients, we've got the photos: It's time to stop talking about fidelización and start fidelizando!

Start here: Photos Gran Canaria

The Expedia 2013 Flip Flop Report about beachgoer behaviour is out and full of useful info. For instance: 

54% of beach goers are worried about theft but only 16% worry about sharks

The two most important criteria for choosing a beach holiday destination: Total cost (70%) and weather predictability (51%)

91% of Germans list swimming as their top beach activity

The two most important factors that influence destination choice: Personal recommendations/word of mouth (55%) and traveller reviews (42%)

91% of French beach goers think speedos are acceptable. In Norway it's 34%

Read the full report here or check out the infographic on our social media and tourism Pinterest board

This is only a short post but it's full of good stuff: 

How do you get someone to interact with you in the real world? It's simple: You ask them a question!

• People like answering questions when they know the answers. 
• People also like talking about themselves. 

We've just scrolled through our pages feed on Facebook. Of the 50 most recent posts by other Gran Canaria and Canary Islands pages, only two included a photo. However, 38 of them included links. 

This is a huge missed opportunity: Photo posts that include a link generate far more clicks than text and link posts. 84% more according to this source. 

The most successful way to share a link on Facebook is to post a photo with a short relevant text and the link.

• Use a call to action such as "Click here" or "View website" to focus attention on the link.
• Post the naked link rather than a shortened form

Photos are the best way to generate engagement on Facebook as they grab attention and have the highest interaction rate. Click here for a source of quality Gran Canaria images for social media and web use. 

This photo was the most successful post on our Gran Canaria Facebook page last month. We shared it with the text "Like if you love Amadores Beach :-D"

It received 495 likes, 90 shares and 25 comments, and achieved a total reach over over 13,000.

Here's why:

According to this infographic you can expect twenty additional website visits per new Facebook fan. 

How much is that worth to your business? And what's the best way to attract new fans to your page?

In Gran Canaria we sell happiness and sunshine. Success on Facebook depends on showing our fans what they are missing: 

Photos have an instant impact

Photos engage people emotionally

Here's some figures (see source here):

Tourists and travellers take full advantage of the power of social media and the internet to research their destination options. Are Canary Islands marketers doing enough to inform and inspire them online?

Here's some power stats that the Canary islands cannot afford to ignore: