How To Get An Edge On Facebook’s EdgeRank

Facebook continues to lead as the most popular of all the social media platforms currently available. Businesses can also use Facebook to market their brand using a Facebook page. This makes it easier for consumers to find and follow your specific business or brand. By having a business page you are able to share content regarding your products and services, thereby keeping your brand in the mind of your followers.

However, you need to bear in mind that it is not guaranteed that all of your content will be displayed. Facebook’s EdgeRank determines which of the content that you produce reaches Facebook users. In this article, we will show you how -to get an edge on Facebook’s EdgeRank.

What is EdgeRank?

EdgeRank is the algorithm used by Facebook to decide what content or articles are displayed on the News Feed of their users. Although the term is no longer used by Facebook, the EdgeRank News Feed ranking algorithm is still very much present and is continually being updated by Facebook.

When EdgeRank was first introduced by Facebook, it used three factors to determine what content should be displayed. These three factors applied a weighting to Facebook content. This weight determined where in a user’s News Feed the content would be displayed. The three factors used in the algorithm were called Affinity Score; Edge Weight; and Time Decay.

The Affinity Score was used to establish how strong the relationship is between the user and a brand. The more the user interacted with the brand in the form of sharing, liking, and commenting on the brands content, the higher the Affinity Score. Naturally, the higher the Affinity Score, the more likely future content from that brand was to reach the user’s News Feed.

The Edge Weight was calculated based on the user’s actions. Each action taken by the user on previous content created an edge. Each action had a differing weight value. In other words, content was deemed to be more important, or to have a higher Edge, based on the actions that a user had taken.

The Time Decay factor took into consideration the age of the content. The older the post or content, the lower it ranked in EdgeRank. Therefore, if a user had not logged on to Facebook for some time, older posts were less likely it to show up in their News Feed as newer posts were given priority.

Why EdgeRank Matters to Marketers

As the leading social media platform which has close to 1.5 billion users worldwide, Facebook is an integral part of many businesses’ social media marketing strategy. Therefore, EdgeRank is a vital consideration if you want the content for your business to be seen by your intended audience. The EdgeRank algorithm, and the continual updates means that your marketing must be more demographically focused, and the content of a high quality. If the content that you place on Facebook does not get liked shared, and commented on, then it is not likely to reach your intended audience. Additionally, it also means that you need to produce regular and relevant content to remain visible.

Tips on Optimizing Your Activity for More Visibility

The following are some tips to ensure that your Facebook marketing is optimized, remaining visible to your followers and any potential future followers and consumers.

• Consistency

As mentioned, the age of content has an effect on its visibility. Therefore, you need to post content regularly; preferably daily or every second day. Simply posting several high quality posts, and hoping that they will continue to produce results, is no longer an option.

• Quality

The quality of the content that you post must be up-to-date and relevant. Quality beats quantity every time when using any form of social media.

• Concise

There is so much content available on Facebook and the Internet in general, that the content that you provide should be both brief and concise as well as engaging. The longer the post, the more likely a user will ignore it and move on to a shorter one.

• Images and Video

Images and videos have been proven to continually gain more attention than plain text. The fact that users will need to click on them, will also help to increase the ranking of your posts.

• Generate User Engagement (likes, shares, comments, clicks)

Prompting your followers to interact with your page and share their own photos, comments or videos is a great way to generate engagement. You should look at testing different post types to see what resonates well with you audience.

• Study Insights

After at least thirty people have liked your Facebook page, you will start to receive Page Insights. Facebook’s Page Insights provide you with data on the performance of your page such as the demographics of your audience, and how your posts were discovered. Studying this data is vital for ensuring that your posts will generate high levels of engagement.

• Respond to Comments

Always respond to any comments that users have made on your posts. In doing so, you can encourage the post to become a discussion which will help to maintain the life and rating of the post.

• Time Posts Strategically

You should try to ensure that your posts are sent out when the majority of your target audience is online. Scheduling can help you to strategically time your posts, especially once you have found a time when your posts are the most effective. Often this can be over a weekend, when you may not be available. By using a scheduler, you can create posts in advance and post them at the most beneficial times by using a scheduler.

• Ask Questions

By posing a question in a post, you are opening up the possibility to engage with other Facebook users. A question will encourage your followers to both interact with you and with others commenting on your posts.

• Create Photo Albums

In the same way that images and video encourage users to click on your posts, so will any albums that you create. Albums are easy to create, and as long as the content is interesting, there is the likelihood of people wanting to see all of the content which results in more clicks.

• Advertise on Facebook

With a potential audience of almost 1.5 billion users, advertising on Facebook is something most business should consider. Facebook advertising allows you to select the demographics of the consumers that you want to reach. By using this feature, you can select by age, interest, location so that your ads are received by the relevant Facebook users. Your post is also more likely to be displayed than compared to posting organically

When planning your Facebook strategy, it is crucial to understand how the algorithm works. Using these tips will help you to stay on your audience’s radar, while making sure the time you devote to creating posts , doesn’t go to waste.

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