WHAT IS FACEBOOK ALGORITHM?

Let’s start by explaining what facebook algorithm is: Facebook algorithm controls and determines the Visibility Presence of Post/Articles displayed in a user’s News Feed.

What this mean is that, Whenever you post on facebook, facebook algorithm would determine if that post will be seen, or would go viral, depending on the relevance of the article.

this could be through facebook ad, and free contents. the name of the algorithm facebook uses was known as EdgeRank, however, as at 2011 facebook stopped using EdgeRank and started using machine learning algorithm in 2013.

 

FACEBOOK ALGORITHM BRIEF TIMELINE

Below are some of the Facebook Algorithm Changes.

 

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January 2018 Facebook Algorithm

Emphasizing more “meaningful” posts.

Changes to the algorithm will now start to show more posts from friends and family, especially ones that spark more conversations. This means that Facebook will slowly start to show less public content from pages and publishers. The biggest post form to take a hit? Short form videos with stock video that Facebook considers “passive”. You’ve probably seen these videos. Basically short videos with text overlayed telling you a news story. The goal is to come back to what Facebook started as. A social network for friends and family.

While there will be less content from pages and media if you’re page is sharing content that Facebook deems “meaningful” and “conversational” it will still get shown to your audience. If it’s a post that they deem isn’t meaningful or conversational it will be seen less.

Bottom Line: Gone are the days of posting to Facebook just to post. Your posts need serious thought now because if it isn’t something people are going to engage in, it won’t get shown at all.

2017  Algorithm Changes

December 2017

Harsher penalization’s for posts that are considered “engagement bait”.

Gone are those days of fishing for likes, shares or comments. This recent Facebook algorithm update looks to quell “engagement bait” tactics. They explain these posts as ones that are encouraging users with “artificially boosted engagement”. An example of post like this would be a posts that says “Share this post if you love our donuts!” They are also demoting posts even further for pages that continue to abuse this tactic on a routine basis. They’ve analyzed thousands of posts and say they are able to differentiate between spam posts and those of an emergency, say a post that is asking to share to spread the word about a missing child, or a charitable foundation.

Bottom Line: Gone are the days of encouraging you fans to like your post. You’ll just have to get those likes that old fashioned way. Organically.

August 2017

Web pages that load faster get priority in the news feed

That’s right. Now there is even more reason to get your website into shape. Just like Google does, the Facebook algorithm now gives speedy websites priority in the News Feed. This further solidifies the relationship between web design, SEO, and social as an all encompassing digital marketing effort. Each one plays a role and each one is vitally important. It’s also an effort from Facebook to get you to start using Facebook Instant Articles – which, credit to them, are extremely fast.

Bottom Line: If your website takes longer than a couple seconds to load Facebook is going to penalize you.

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A crack down on false news

Fake news is a huge problem not only on Facebook but on the internet in general. It’s a huge problem that needs remedied and Facebook is constantly implementing things to help combat it. First and foremost Facebook is blocking pages that share fake news from buying Ads. In the hopes that it will slow the spread of these stories. They are removed the ability to edit your links Meta information (title, description). This was being taken advantage of from pages that were changing these descriptors to things that had nothing to do with the actual story in the hopes that they would entice someone to click through.

Bottom Line: Eh, don’t share fake news 😉

Video clickbait

People started to get very clever (or so they thought) with click-bait. They would create an image that looked like it was a video so when a user would click on it they would be brought to a certain webpage instead of what they expected to be a video playing. These posts now get pushed way down the News Feed and if they are especially egregious – not even in the feed at all.

Bottom Line: Don’t try and trick Facebook or the user. Not only will your posts not get seen but it also ruins your credibility.

also read 6 ways to promote your small business on Facebook

May 2017

Click-bait Headlines

Click-bait headlines are now being penalized.

Example:

“When she opened up her McDonald’s bag she found THIS…”

“This special superfood can make you look 20 years younger. You HAVE to see this!”

This is all just part of the effort on Facebook’s part to try and make Facebook more of an informed community.

Bottom Line: Write copy that clearly informs a reader what they can expect to read about. You’ll find more quality readers as a result.

Low quality webpage experience

As with traditional Google AdWords, pages that have low quality experiences will be penalized for it. Specifically webpages that have little substantive content and websites that have a large number of “disruptive, shocking, or malicious ads.

Bottom Line: Make sure your website is giving users the best experience possible. Having an up-to-date site that is fast, has relevant content, and a user friendly experience is crucial for SEO and now crucial for social media.

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March 2017

Reactions weigh more than likes

Facebook reactions were released a little over a year ago and they have found out a lot of useful information about them. For example, they’ve found that when a person uses one of the other reactions besides a standard “Like” indicates that they are more interested in that post. So a “love”, “cry” etc means they are more invested in that post thus it will move up the News Feed as a result.

Bottom Line: Post things that evoke an emotional reaction to your fans. This results in a “reaction” over a “like” and will help more people see that post.

 

January 2017

Video prioritized based on completion rate

Not only are videos prioritized but they’ll be boosted even more based on the video completion percentage. Facebook feels that if more people are watching the full video, or most of a video, it means it must be quality. Which means they will show it to more people. This doesn’t mean post 10 second videos. In actuality longer videos that get watched more are the biggest benefactors of this prioritization.

Bottom Line: Post videos that people want to watch. Behind the scenes stuff, tutorials, interviews all work especially well.

Video prioritized over other types of post

Facebook is making a big push into video thus they are rewarding pages that post videos over other types of post. Videos also get recommended on other videos after completion which is an added avenue for your videos to get discovered.

Bottom Line: Post videos. They don’t need to be Hollywood Production quality. Couple minute videos help keep a fan engaged and give more personality to a page (along with being prioritized by the Facebook algorithm).

 

2016 Facebook Algorithm Changes

 

August 2016

Personally informative stories matter

People obviously enjoy stories that are more informative to them personally so Facebook is trying to predict which story you would enjoy the most based on your actions within Facebook. If the subject matter is based on a person’s interest, if it engages a broad audience, or if it contains news relevant to them they are more likely to see it in their feed.

Bottom Line: You need to be making an effort to share things you think your audience will enjoy if you want to maximize your reach.

 

The new Facebook algorithm works by ranking all available posts that can display on a user’s News Feed based on how likely that user will have a positive reaction. Facebook’s algorithm for ranking and displaying content on your News Feed is based on four factors: The Inventory of all posts available to display.

How to Beat Facebook Algorithm in 2023

So, let’s decide how Facebook algorithm works today that bring so many discussions around:

1. Create Engaging Content

How to create engaging content on Facebook:

• Add thought-provoking questions to the posts. Focus on the opportunity to spark discussions;
• Create contests and giveaways;
• Comparison posts usually result in active comments;
• Share contradictory facts;
• Create motivational videos;
• Ask your fans for help

It is time to start thinking outside the box, be creative and risky in content creation.

Facebook users see more posts from their family and friends. The new Facebook algorithm is aimed at making the social feed more engaging rather than just “exploring”.

What does it mean for business pages?

According to Facebook algorithm, posts with content from friends will have higher priority and overlay business content in the feed unless there are active discussions under such posts.

Here is what official Facebook rules say:
“With this update, we will also prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people. To do this, we will predict which posts you might want to interact with your friends about, and show these posts higher in the feed.”

It sounds not very promising for the marketing world and leads to the necessity to reconsider the Facebook brand’s promotion strategy.

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2. Organic Reach Decrease

The Facebook news feed shows even less public content including videos and different types of publishers’ posts.

It means that Facebook business pages suffer a considerable decrease in organic reach.

Mark Zuckerberg stressed, that this change concerns not only Facebook News Feed but all the products of the Facebook company. News Feed is just the beginning of the major changes in the social media marketing world.

As a result, posts with just a few or zero likes and re-posts will become invisible in the feed.

This is how the algorithm impacts organic reach:

• Less visibility of external links

For, example, if you use Facebook just to share your blog articles and inform fans about fresh content on your blog, don’t waste your time now. Your fans will hardly see your posts in the feed.

• Fewer videos views and no gifs

As far as you already know Facebook is now focused on engaging content. And videos refer to passive experience since users just watch it and switch to the next post.

As a result, users see less 1-minute videos and entertaining “funny” gifs in the feed.

Important! You won’t see organic reach decrease if you make LIVE videos.

• Post comments will value more than post likes

It means that posts with comments are prioritized against posts with likes only. Actively commented posts will have the reach and go higher in the feed.

• Long comments value more than short ones

Posts with long constructive comments are prioritized against the ones with short comments.

Posts should make people talk with each other rather than with your business. And that is the main message.

Probably business pages with content having thousands of shares won’t see much difference in organic reach.

But what to do if you are a small business who has just started doing the first steps in order to meet more customers?

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But even if you don’t have much success on Facebook, all any algorithm changes don’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t consider Facebook for your marketing activities.

Be more creative and careful about what you are planning to post. You should try to predict if your content is interesting to your fans and how they can react to it.

So, let’s go through the steps you should consider if you want to bypass the Facebook algorithm.

Stimulate meaningful interactions

• One of the most important steps is to focus on creating content that results in discussions. The more comments and replies to comments your post will have the higher rankings it will get in the feed.
• Also, you should stop scheduling your posts on Facebook. This is really important.
  The Facebook algorithm identifies the type of content you are posting. If your posts are just regularly scheduled links, Facebook will hardly show it to your fans. As a result, using Facebook for informing purposes only, your Google Analytics will never show you the expected traffic results.

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Solution: Control everything that happens under your posts. 

Imagine yourself as a party coordinator who is responsible for the general mood of the guests and is always there to answer any questions.

3. “Go Live” as often as you can

It is a boom time for Live videos. Use this opportunity to boost your business.

Live video effectiveness is growing because such content is engaging and attracts more attention.

Think about some ideas to talk with your Facebook fans about and start creating live translations as often as you can. Once a day will be just perfect!

Who knows, maybe soon Facebook will become the next BIG video streaming platform? If you are an active Instagram user you can use both platforms for streaming.

Here are some live streams ideas for your Facebook engaging content:

• Make streams from conferences and events;
• Go live to answer the most frequently asked questions from your clients;
• Share your success and failures;
• Present new product or service;
• Bring value educating your audience, tell something useful

4. Ask your Facebook fans to set “See First” for your page

Despite the changes with the news algorithm Facebook users still have a chance to set the priority for the content. If you can communicate this message to your Facebook fans, they will never miss a post from you.
There are three basic steps to set “See First” function for the content:

1. Find the page you would like to see first

 

2. Click on the “Following”

 

3. Click “See First”

 

That’s all!

These simple steps will make the posts from your Page to have a higher priority.

5. Consider paid advertising

New Facebook algorithm values engaging content and gives it even more reach in the promotion. It was proved that a similar advertising budget will give different results to the content with comments and likes and the one without any interaction.

When you get a post that causes organic interactions and goes viral try to promote it and you will see how it will boost your rankings.

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Final Verdict

 

Regardless of all the algorithm updates, Facebook gives great opportunities for boosting your business on this social media platform. Try to bypass Facebook algorithm by creating meaningful and valuable content for your audience.

Focus on being creative and analyze your target audience more. Learn what your clients like, and what their interests are and use this information to be unique and engaging. Start a conversation, always reply to any comments and talk to your audience.