Facebook is constantly changing. This makes it impossible to create a universal guide on how to always have interesting content, a steady flow of fans, and be influential. However, it is worthwhile to know some basic things about Facebook – especially when it comes to Edgerank.
What is the Facebook Algorithm?
Edgerank is the name of Facebook’s algorithm. It is responsible for the way all posts on Facebook are displayed, and consists of three components: Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay.
Affinity
Affinity is a ratio that describes your relationship with the brand that publishes content. This means that when you like something published by a fanpage for the first time, their new posts won’t instantly show up in your news feed. However, when we like the posts of said fanpage several times, It’s more likely to be in the feed. Facebook also enables you to choose how posts from specific fanpages appear in your feed. To do this, you have to do the following:
- Go to the profile of a fanpage you like.
- There will be a button that says “Liked” with a thumbs up beside it. Click on it.
- Under the “In the news feed” section, you can choose between default and see first.
This will make your posts appear at the top of their feed. It is good to inform your fans about this option from time to time – If they select this option, you can be sure that they will see your content.
Weight
The second component is the Weight – the way in which Facebook’s algorithm measures how valuable your type of content or activity is. Basically, this means that a film uploaded on Facebook will be valued differently than, for example, a post shared by someone else. Facebook measures it in the following way:
- Native Photo / Video. Native Facebook videos are weighed better than any other video, from YouTube or Vimeo.
- Links. Links are influenced by the quality of the source. If the source has more links and visitors, it will be weighted higher.
- External Video (YouTube, Vimeo). Due to the fact that Facebook rewards uploading videos through Facebook directly, clips from YouTube have much lower reach.
- Text Posts. They have the largest organic reach, but potentially the smallest interactivity.
Post interactions are also considered when determining the weight. They are counted as follows:
- Sharing. Generates additional reach, according to Sotrender and it’s Interactivity Index is scored for 16 points.
- Commenting. 4 points Interactivity.
- Liking. 1 point Interactivity.
- Clicking. both, going from the link to the site to read the entire article, and opening images. This interaction is not scored, but it affects the reach and is considered by the algorithm.
Time Decay
The last component is Time Decay – it describes two important details:
- How long it’s been since our last interaction with the site.
- The period of time since the post was published.
In other words – The older the post, the lower it’s Edgerank. There is also evidence to suggest that the amount you interact with Facebook influence time decay.
Conclusion
Edgerank is complicated and hard to take advantage of. Only Facebook’s developers know how it truly works, and everybody else is just trying to guess. But based on the info available, you can still adjust your strategy to work better alongside Edgerank.
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