The Facebook algorithm and what it means for marketers

MANILA, Philippines — It’s almost a year now since Facebook launched a new algorithm limiting organic reach. But there’s a flipside to the current Facebook algorithm that you may have not been reading about – literally. And this is the truth the Act On eBook The Rules of Facebook Engagement has been pointing out.

An active Facebook user has the potential to see an average of 1,500 stories from friends, people they follow, and pages they liked unless Facebook filters their feed. If they don’t, they [Facebook] risks flooding out the user’s wall with content that will take days to go through.

“The Newsfeed algorithm tries to provide the user with the most interesting experience possible, which means delivering the right content to the right people at the right time. Not only that, but the algorithm tries to order the stories by how relevant and interesting they would be for you.”

Fortunately (or unfortunately), depending on your perspective as a consumer or business entity, the book explains the reason why it’s getting more and more difficult to have a brand post show up in someone’s feed without paying.

“Before your brand posts hits my feed, the algorithm considers my relationship with your brand and whether or not your post would be something I would find interesting” Act On says.

According to Facebook, there are over 100,000 individual weights in this algorithm that determine what you see in your newsfeed. The odds are stacked against the brand; no wonder marketers struggle to find out how to engage with Facebook users.

The book names several factors that affect how each post is ranked. These are affinity, weight, time, decay, relationship setting, weighting post types, how a user hides or deletes spam, story bumping, click baiting, photos with links, and crazy cat videos.

The last needs to be qualified more. “Crazy cat videos are basically euphemism for anything that you post that has absolutely nothing to do with your product but tends to generate a lot of engagement.

How’s your Facebook advertising going?

If you’d like to learn more about creating effective Facebook ads and managing your online community, join the Social Media Marketing Specialist Track of the Certified Digital Marketer Program.

Reserve your slot for the Social Media Marketing Specialist Track at imadigitalmarketer.com or call 0928-506-5382.

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