By Tim Fasano
The Facebook news feed can be a mysterious beast. Delivering messages to your followers’ (and their friends’) newsfeeds every day can be a great way to make sure that you stay top of mind, but of the 1,500 possible stories generated for each user each day, only about 20% end up reaching that user.
How can you make sure your posts don’t end up in Facebook limbo? With more businesses using Facebook, the Internet giant has taken steps to be transparent about how the newsfeed is compiled. Their algorithm is called EdgeRank, and it draws from a wealth of data to create the best possible feed. Here’s what Facebook has revealed about how EdgeRank works, as reported by our friends at HubSpot.
There are three main creative choices driving Facebook’s adjustments to their newsfeed algorithm. Those are the choices to 1) favor visually engaging stories, 2) create consistency between mobile and desktop experiences, and 3) offer a choice between different feeds, i.e. a feed from your friends, a feed from close friends, a feed from groups you follow, etc.
Due to this overall strategy, there are three main determinants of what ends up in a given user’s newsfeed:
1. Affinity – How closely you’re tied to the content creator – have your close friends liked the business? Have your close friends reposted/shared the piece? Have you shared/Liked/tagged their content? A good example of this is the “last actor” effect – Facebook will show you more posts from the last 50 people (or businesses) you interacted with (Liked, posted, shared, etc). Facebook will also use affinity by type in choosing what to add to the feed – if a user tends to Like and share more photo posts than text or article posts, their newsfeed will contain more photo posts moving forward.
2. Weight – This is determined by how many users have taken action on the post – how many Likes, how many comments, how many tags, how many shares.
3. Time Decay – The newsfeed is a living record, so over time, stories will move down the feed or disappear altogether. Yesterday’s news is now ancient history!
Takeaways? There are a number of ways you can make this system work for you.
Publish visual content. More users interact with photo posts, to the tune of 53% more Likes. If you post this Like-able content and get traction, you’ll make the newsfeed cut more often.
Get users to check in with your business. Check-ins on Facebook are now featured more prominently on the newsfeed, which means if a fan of yours checks in, their friends are more likely to find out about it. You can do this by checking into your own business and adding a snappy comment (“It’s a great day for X!”) or offering specials for those who check in on Facebook.
Target your content to your fans – and keep it compelling. It’s impractical to see whatever everyone Likes all of the time, but if you notice users consistently commenting on your content and sharing it, find out what else those users like and tailor your content accordingly. It’s worth it to keep them engaged – they’re a volunteer marketing team for you and are doing a much better job recruiting fans for you than you could!
To read the original breakdown, visit HubSpot.
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