Social Media is fast becoming an essential part of any digital marketing strategy, with a survey in late 2011 showing that 65% of all adults using the internet also use social networks. A quick look at the table below shows the impact social media is having on internet users.
Facebook is by far still the most used social networking platform, with Twitter & LinkedIn still falling far behind.
So naturally it makes sense to target Facebook users primarily. This however does not involve throwing up a post and watching the visitors flood in! There is a science behind it all.
More recently, you should have noticed that the post’s which are shown on your news feed are no longer ordered by the post time. You may find a post from 6 hours ago at the top of the feed, with a much more recent post underneath it. This is the Facebook algorithm hard at work, ranking your whole news feed in the order it deems you would like.
Facebook uses a complex algorithm in order to rank the posts in your news feed. The algorithm is called Edgerank. This is just a cool name dreamt up by the Facebook developers, it has meaning behind it.
Say for example you are looking through your news feed and click on a photo to enlarge it, and you then leave a comment. This interaction is known as an edge. Or you see a friend’s status and click the ‘like’ button. This is also an edge. Anything you do on Facebook to create or modify content is known as an edge, and it is logged.
Facebook logs the edges which you have made, takes learning’s from these and then decides which posts are most important to you as a user, based on your previous interactions.
These edges however still need to be ranked in terms of importance; otherwise there would be no way of determining which post should appear top of the news feed. Using 3 different elements Facebook then ranks each edge. Complicated enough?
Let’s have a look at the elements which are used:
Edge Weight
The edge weight element decides which interactions and media are the most important to you as a user. For example, it is well documented that videos, photos and links are more useful and given more weight than other posts.
The edge weight however is different for each and every user. Say for example each time you are on your account you are constantly looking through users photos and commenting. You will naturally acquire a much higher edge weight toward photos then you will for say a normal status. This is because Facebook has learnt that you enjoy looking at photos and interacting, more than you do on a normal status update.
Affinity
The affinity section of the Facebook algorithm is pretty much how it sounds. Do you have a strong link or relationship with some users which you do not have with others?
For example, if you speak to your best friend on Facebook every day, and constantly interact with eachother, Facebook builds an affinity between you both. Now that you have an affinity with this user, they are much more likely to appear near the top of your news feed each time they post.
So the more you interact with someone, the more Facebook takes note of this and the more weight it will put on the users posts in your news feed. This is a bit of a vicious circle however, as if someone is appearing at the top of the news feed constantly then you are more likely to interact with them.
Facebook stalkers need not be alarmed, this is strictly a one way algorithm. So if you spend all of your day looking at one of your friends photos, you are no more likely to appear higher on the persons news feed.
Recency
Again this is pretty self-explanatory. The newer a post is the more chance that you are going to want to read it. You would not want a user’s posts from 4 days ago to be appearing at the top of your news feed just because you have a strong affinity with them.
The Conclusion…
Next time you log into Facebook remember that a great deal of work has gone in to ordering that list, but ultimately it is your previous interactions which have determined the order in some way.
As with anything, the algorithm is not fool proof and you are still sure to see someone pop up at the top of the news feed from time to time that you have no link to at all.
If you are only using Facebook on a personal level then this post is nothing more than interesting at best. For businesses using social media, harnessing this knowledge when posting your content and updates is vital.
Ensure you are building up strong affinity with your audience. Ask them questions or post a controversial status from time to time which will get people talking. Ensuring you are interacting with the audience is key to ensuring what you are posting in the future is being seen.
As we know photos and videos are given more weight, plan a series of media posts which are highly interesting to the viewer. This will not only increase the chances of you appearing at the top end of the news feed, but will also increase the affinity further should they interact with you.
We know that recency plays a big part in the positioning of a post in the news feed. Time your posts to perfection. Use peak user times to share the content you want feedback or interaction on.
With this knowledge, your Facebook strategy should change and you can look to increase your visibility dramatically.
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