Ever get the feeling no one is listening to you on Facebook? Either you post and no one comments, or you comment and no one responds to it? It could be just be a problem with your timing and placement. Other than sending private messages or a chat, it's important to know how to engage your audience. 

How to Converse

As discussed in Facebook Etiquette, conversation using posts is not so wise. If you post to your friend's wall, then they answer on your wall, it's too easy to lose the conversation, and it annoys everyone else seeing only one side of the conversation at a time. 

Comments can better allow for two-way communication. It's all in one place, so you don't lose track of what's being said, and third parties can follow it too, assuming you don't need it to be private. 

Keep it Fresh

It's important to pay attention to times and dates. Most people check their newsfeed or their wall once every day or two. Even if they wait a week or a month to check it, they aren't likely to look at posts more than a day or two old. 

Say you want to start a conversation about a friend's post by adding a comment. Look at the time that has elapsed since the post. If it says anything earlier than 'yesterday' don't expect anyone to answer. If it says 'yesterday' or a number of hours ago (or less) then you can expect more people will see at least one post. However, unless it's still a fairly new post, you may not get many responses to your comment. That's because the post will get stale too soon, and people will stop checking it. 

Placement in Top News

Ever noticed that Facebook tends to show you only the "Top News" portion of the News Feed, so that you have to click on "Most Recent" to see the rest of your friends' posts? Top News is where Facebook "places" all the most popular posts, and that's what most people see right off the bat. That's where you want your posts to be. 

How do you get placed in Top News? It's based on popularity and relevance and NOT chronological order of the post itself. A post is popular if it has more 'likes' and comments. It's relevant if it is the first or most popular of posts of the same subject. 

If, for example, you post a story about a bear in your apple tree, and lots of people liked it and commented on it, then it will probably make "Top News" for most of your friends. If one of your friends is a Facebook cyber-nerd and has many more popular posts, then you might not show up on his Top News at all. Another friend, who's a forest ranger might have a half dozen popular posts about bears, so maybe it won't show up on his Top News either. If, on the other hand, your neighbor reposts your post about the bear, then your post is the one to show up first in Top News.