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. 

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:

Where does most of your social media audience first find your profiles? If your answer is online, then it's time for a rethink.

The biggest source of followers for tourist businesses (hotels, attractions, tour companies, bars, etc) is their existing customers.

Think about it: 

Your customers are most engaged when they can speak to you, eat your food and jump in your pool.

Exisiting customers are loyal and far more likely to return and share your content with their friends. 

Every customer who departs without leaving an email address or a social media follow is a lost return customer. There's so much noise online that you can't count on them making an effort once they are back at home. Grab them while you can!

So how do you get your customers' permission to stay in contact and make it easy for them to share your brand online?

We all know that our customers and target market are searching for information online every day.

We also know that we should be providing information rich, visual resources to help and engage them and drive them to our money pages.

But somehow few of us are doing it.

The biggest problem with content marketing is getting started

It may be August but there is never a bad time for some powerful statistics showing the importance of the internet and social media for the tourist industry: From the infographics here.

87% of travellers us the Internet for the majority of their holiday planning.

52% use social media for holiday inspiration.

52% of people going on holiday like a Facebook page related to their trip. 

76% post holiday photos on social networks.

59% post a status update about their holiday.

74% use social media while on holiday.

46% post hotel reviews.

Enjoy the holidays! ;-)

Thanks to Valerie Everett for the cool photo.