Did you know that Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank that determines and calculates what you see in your main news feed? Is it really important that you understand this algorithm and know how it works? If you are into social media marketing — you should.
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I’m sure you must have noticed that you don’t see all the updates from your friends on your news feed and this is because of EdgeRank. This algorithm calculates who sees what on their timeline. If you want to make sure more people and friends see your updates, then it’s very important that you understand how it works. EdgeRank affects the reach of your updates on Facebook.
This algorithm that Facebook uses was put in to place to enhance the overall user experience. All the interactions on Facebook are classified as an “edge”. If you share a valuable link, share a photo, upload a video or just post a status update, it creates a new “edge” on Facebook. These are building blocks and social signals that calculate the prioritization of all the data on Facebook. It’s all about making sure that users only see the useful and relevant information in their news feed.
To explain EdgeRank for the non tech savvy; the more engagement your updates get, the greater your “score” and EdgeRank. The greater your EdgeRank, the more likely your updates will appear in the news feed of your followers and friends. Did you know that there are ways to improve your overall EdgeRank on this social networking behemoth? Find a couple of tips below that can help you with this.
Be active on Facebook
It’s simple. Be active and engage regularly with your friends and followers on Facebook. Share links, photos, and videos. Interaction starts when a user takes an action on anything you have posted. Not only can you share links and photos from your own blog and website, you can also post relevant and valuable content from other sources that you have curated. It’s all about being social on this channel.
Know what is happening
Content that is shared and updated on Facebook changes quite fast. Once you have made an update on your news feed, your post can go from the top of the overall news feed to the bottom depending on the amount of updates made by your friends. Many users are more than likely to interact and share content that is found at the top of the news feed. If an update gets irrelevant feedback, you can post a new update and turn your friends’ attention in a new direction.
Get your friends to help you
Even if you are new to this giant social network, ask your friends to help you get the ball rolling by sharing your updates and liking the content that you share. One good way of doing this is if you start your status update with a question that will interest others. This is an easy way to get the interaction going.
In a follow-up post next week, I will explain how Facebook EdgeRank gets calculated with affinity, recency, and edge weight.
