discuss a buzzing social media topic. For our first Social Sunday, we're going to talk about the Facebook formula - I mean Edgerank, no scratch that, I mean algorithm. Regardless of what you call it, it is the mathematical equation that Facebook is utilizing to determine what users see in their newsfeeds and that page owners, well, hate. Let's start with a history lesson - because history can tell us a lot about the future.When Facebook first started tinkering with what we saw on newsfeeds, they called their algorithm (a word I have to look-up to spell correctly - every single time...sigh) Edgerank. Now, it seems that Facebook (hereafter FB) stopped using Edgerank to refer to this formula a while ago -but I like it and can spell it, so I'm going to keep using it until they finally rename this nonsense they have created.
The original Edgerank formula was a simple one. It had three variables - U, W and D. U stood for affinity and it measured how much you interacted with a page or person's posts. The more you interacted the more likely you were to see content from that person/page. It didn't impact that's person's newsfeed - just yours. W stood for weight. Not all posts are created equal in FB's view. Photos get a bigger boost followed by links and lastly text only posts. Now, a post with a lower original weight because of the type of content could rise in the ranks if it got more engagement (likes, shares and comments) than another post. Lastly, D stood for time decay, a measure of how old the post was. Time decay benefits when someone likes your older post and bumps them back up in the newsfeed (when you see a story from several hours ago up high in your newsfeed - this is why).Now FB has moved on from this simple formula to one that has many variables and weights all in the name of putting stuff in your newsfeed that FB believes you want to see. Quality content that is engaging and timely is still getting bumped, but they have decreased the liklihood of page posts appearing organically in fans' newsfeeds. They are pushing for pages to pay to get in front of fans eyes. And speaking of paying - spsonsored stories, will be a thing of the past come this April.
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| Link-share example - and a Rick Roll all in one... |
FB recently told us that starting Tuesday page posts that tags another brand or celebrity in their post have a chance to show up in the newsfeeds of fans of the brand/celebrity that is tagged regardless of whether they are fans of who created the post. This could have a great impact on post impressions but has a great potential to be abused much in the way links were abused by companies to move up in organice search (pagerank) on Google, but we'll have to wait and see how it works out - in our newsfeeds.
Last by not least - lets talk about the magic number of the newfeeds -fifty. Have a fight with your cousin - and a week or so later, you realize you aren't seeing any of her content anymore? How are you suppose to FB stalker her, if it isn't showing up on your feed? You go by her page - check out her content, but still she doesn't show up. Suddenly, she comes over and apologize, and you're all good again. You go back to her page, like the photos of her and her dog and comment on the really scrumptious cake she just made (while also wondering why she didn't bring you a piece when she apologized...). Poof! She is back in your feed again. Why? The magic 50. The last fifty people or pages that you interact with -(like, share, comment) have a greater chance of being on your feed with their next content. For companies, this means you need to encourage your brand advocates to engage with your posts and for individuals, it means to make sure you comment on your Aunt's posts so she doesn't call your mother and ask why you never respond to her....
That's all for this Social Sunday, but coming up in the near future we'll talk about how to increase engagement on FB!
Thank you, that explains so much! I have to manually go to pages of some of my long-time friends (who don't exactly post a lot).
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