What is the Facebook algorithm?

Posted by Ellen Massey on 14 Jun 2021 10:00 am

MOM Whats new Ellen June 2021 blog image

Have you ever been scrolling through your newsfeed and the posts seem strangely personalised? Or maybe you’ve wondered why sometimes posts show up in a completely different order to the time they’re posted? Well, it’s not as random as you may think. The visibility of your posts on Facebook or the way posts appear in your newsfeed is completely dependent on something called an algorithm.

The Facebook algorithm is incredibly complicated, and something that many have failed to decipher. The way the algorithm works exactly is unknown to most of us, but we do know its objective and some ways to help it work in your favour. The algorithm controls how many people may see your posts and how frequently this will happen. It collects all the possible content that could be shown on an individual’s feed, from friends and family, liked pages, sponsored content etc, and uses a range of calculations to rank its relevancy to that individual. As mentioned, the relevancy of a post on an individual’s feed is based on thousands of calculations but a few notable ones shared by Facebook can help us increase your visibility.

1. Relationship:

If a user has a relationship with your page, we would refer to them as part of your online community or following. What does having a relationship with your consumers on social media look like? Well, having a user engage in your content either by liking, reacting, commenting, messaging or posting will strengthen your relationship in the eyes of the algorithm and therefore increase your relevancy ranking for that user. This is why it is important to reply to comments and messages in a timely matter and invite people to like your page so you can strengthen those all-important online relationships and have them see more of your content.

2. Content type:

Preferred content types is something that is constantly changing and subjective to the individual user. Review what types of posts your community seems to engage with the most and do more of that! Try to think as a consumer rather than a business and think "what would I like to see?" We know that people tend to engage and gravitate towards more authentic and relatable organic content such as personalised videos, stories and posts. 

3. Popularity:

If lots of people engage with your post either by commenting, reacting or liking, the algorithm will recognise your content as something that is favoured and increase its relevancy on other people’s feeds. This is also why it is important to engage with your audience and their interactions on your posts in a timely manner to create/strengthen that relationship and increase its popularity ranking.

4. Recency:

We've mentioned that posts don’t display in your feed chronologically, but the time that you post is still a contributing factor in your audience seeing your content. If your posts are timed for when your followers are more active online, it's likely to show at the top of their news feed. This is why it is important to review your posting insights and see what times your target audience is most active and post accordingly.

In this constantly changing world of algorithms, newsfeeds and social media platforms, we understand it can all be overwhelming. That’s why the team at MOM are constantly keeping on top of the latest trends, updates and changes so we can look after your online presence while you take care of things on site. Contact us for more information on how we can help you build your online community.

 

Sources: adespresso and hootsuite

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