Social media has taken the marketing departments in travel companies for a (good) spin. Among all social channels, Facebook tops the list of traffic source websites. Facebook is a gold-egg-laying-duck for travel companies. But, are travel companies really reaping the benefit of Facebook? Not really. SMI reports that 52% of brand fan page followers drop off because they think the information/update from the brand is too boring. 95% of the questions posted in Facebook goes unanswered. Increasing number of travel companies are investing in social media to establish their brand, promote new offerings / products, generate revenue, generate traffic, serve and engage customers.

For a company to achieve all these, a good fan following is a must. But, a good fan following number doesn’t guarantee that the updates/posts by travel companies are seen by every fan. That’s the catch.

To put it simple – A travel company that has 50,000 fans posts an update in the fan page, but the update shows up only in 1500 fans newsfeed and it doesn’t show up in remaining 48,500 fans newsfeed.. This is real and this is happening. There is a complex algorithm that powers this logic, Facebook calls it “EdgeRank“.

Based on all above parameters, Facebook calculates a rank for every post in your fan page, and that’s called EdgeRank. This number determines who in your Facebook fan page can see the update, who cannot see. Facebook determines which content (post/update from travel brand) will be most interesting and appealing for whom in the fan base. A fan page admin doesn’t have any control on the number of fans the update reaches to. The simple rule is: Boost your EdgeRank, Facebook will ensure the content reach is high.