So you’ve summoned your English proficiency, vocabularies and your creativity to upload the perfect post about your brand. Your wall shows ‘status updated’ and after a while you realize that the post has managed to attract only a meager response and this is totally not what you had wished for! Wonder why?
Welcome to Facebook’s EdgeRank:
Let me begin with trivial information – not all the updates and posts that you upload reach your community wall. The reason is that the website is non-linear. An average user has over hundreds of friends in his list and ‘Likes’ several brands and fan pages. If every single user in this person’s community updates an average of one post per day, imagine the condition of the user’s wall. A total mess right? So, to eliminate the user’s wall from the messiness, Facebook uses its own algorithm to determine the exposure level and appearance of an update or a post on the wall, which it calls the EdgeRank.
In simple words, it is a rating metric, where the system determines the rank in which the posts should get displayed on a person’s news feed. In order to execute this algorithm, the website combines three primary elements, which are:
Affinity or the tendency to attract:
This includes the frequency in which the follower or your fan involves in your brand page. The involvement may be a simple visit to your page, a like, a share or just a view of your older posts. So, if you could decipher, it all depends on how much you keep your fans engaged. If you have nothing to show or post, the frequency of visiting your page will cease. On the other hand, if you keep your page peppy and interactive, the more viewership your page will attract.
The Weight of your posts:
This determines the level of engagement on a particular page. To do this, the algorithm differentiates the weight each rating element (Shares, Likes, Comments, and Clicks) carries. The weight of shares is not the same as that of a like and vice versa. Each has a distinct value and determines the rank correspondingly.
The Time Interval:
This factor depends on how fresh your content actually is. Usually, the algorithm gives least preference to older content and prioritizes recent posts. So make sure your posts are recent, fresh and trending to find a place for yourself in your fan’s news feed.
Similarly, Facebook displays updates depending up on the type of your post as well. For instance, photos and videos attract the highest importance by the algorithm, followed by sharing of links and regular status updates.
Roundup and Tips
- Time your posts right
- Utilize the power of Pictures and Videos
- Avoid too much promotion
- Upload helpful and informative content
- Make it readable
- Reduce the usage of applications to schedule and post your updates
- Be regular
So there you go, you’ve just mastered the Facebook algorithm! Now perform a thorough research on them, find new strategies, implement them and gift yourself the exposure level you deserve.