Ever Wondered How Facebook Ranks Your Posts?

As we all know, Facebook is a powerful marketing tool and a great means of communication - if utilised properly your brand page can act as a portal to reach and interact with new and existing customers. But whilst many will go to a brand or company’s Facebook page and click the Like button, research shows that just a fraction of these people actively return after this initial engagement. Therefore, the most important aspect of Facebook is the news feed: that never-ending page you may sometimes find yourself aimlessly scrolling down. To the surprise of many, the news feed is not a chronologically-ordered list of all your Facebook associate’s posts and activities; rather, Facebook uses an algorithm to create a user-tailored ordering: EdgeRank.

What Is EdgeRank?

EdgeRank consists of three variables that determine what and where posts appear on a user’s news feed: Affinity, Time-decay and Weight.

Affinity scores the amount of interaction between two users which is interpreted as a measure of relationship-closeness. A person or brand deemed as close to a user i.e. the more frequent a user likes and comments on your activities, the higher they will appear on your news feed.

Time-decay measures the age of a post. The older a post is, the less value it carries on the news feed - it’s no longer news. How often someone logs into their Facebook account also has significance here. For example, posts that are a few days old may still appear on the news feed if the user only logs in once a week.

Different types of posts carry different weight. The higher the weight the higher the score or rank of a post. Photos and videos carry the most weight, followed by links and text updates carry the least.

How To increase Your Facebook EdgeRank

1. Post Quality Content:
   This will attract likes, comments, shares and clicks, increasing engagement rates and thus Affinity. Make sure you post material that is relevant to your business, whilst also interesting to your audience.
2. Use Visuals:
   When possible use picture or video posts. Not only do they carry more weight, they also attract more likes and comments.
3. Encourage Employees, Family and Personal Friends to Engage:
   This could potentially expose your post to more people via the live feed at the top right of the homepage, plus it encourages other people to join in and engage with a post. Popular posts are also more likely to appear on news feeds.
4. Ask Questions:
   Posing questions to your audience encourages interaction and debate, raising the Affinity score of a post.
5. Post Regularly:
   Ensuring content quality isn’t affected, posting regularly exposes and ‘gets you out there’ more, increasing your chances of engaging users.
6. Test Times:
   Get to know what time of day produces higher engagement rates so future activities are posted at optimal times.
7. Create Photo Albums:
   In comparison to other types of posts, photo albums stand out more on the news feed and direct people to click through into them, providing more opportunities for interaction. Additionally, some believe that clicks into photo albums increases EdgeRank.
8. Respond:
   If your post generates comments and you fail to respond, this will probably discourage people from engaging in your future posts.
9. Utilise Insights:
   Always check Insights. From the metrics it provides you can clearly gauge which posts are successful and why. Best of all it’s a free tool!

Remember, always keep EdgeRank in mind when posting on Facebook, because ultimately it determines the reach of your content. Happy posting!