Did you know? Facebook have their own algorithm called EdgeRank which determines which posts, content and updates appeared in users' news feeds. So how does it work?EdgeRank assigns a score to each individual post and page based on three elements.
- Affinity
- Weight
- Recency
Basically, it looks at the engagement and interactions (affinity) that a user has with any update and increases or decreases the ‘weight’ (or relevance) that is applied to future content appearing in user feeds. For example, if someone has previously commented or ‘liked’ a post from a brand page, there will be a higher chance future content will appear in their news feed, vs another person who doesn’t interact at all. Time is also a factor; as the longer a post has been up, the less weight it carries – which makes it very important that updates must be time-sensitive when page fans will most likely be online. These three factors help ensure that fans see content that are most interesting and relevant to them based on their interactions. Here is a quick run down of each:
- Affinity This is how “friendly” you are with someone. For example if you comment on a Business Page’s photo, this will lead to them having a greater affinity to you, which in turn increases the likelihood of them appearing in your feed in the future and so on.
- Weight This is the basic formula that decides which updates will be more likely to appear in news feeds than others.
- Recency All updates should be time specific when your audience will be most likely to be using Facebook.
You might also think about updating when other people are less likely to be creating content, which also helps to reduce the need to compete for spots in the news feed.
