Facebook Revealed Part 1: How’s Your EdgeRank?

If you’ve been following along with the social media news I’m sure you’ve noticed at least a few headlines describing new changes on Facebook. First there’s the new newsfeed, then the photo rules and now the upcoming inclusion of Hashtags. But what does all this mean for you and your business? Let’s find out! Follow us on our new series: Facebook Revealed as we explore how to make the most out of your Facebook posts, optimize your page and make the most of the recently released features.

Facebook Revealed: How Does Your EdgeRank?

EdgeRank is Facebook’s semi-secret formula that determines how often your posts are seen by your friends and likers (those who like you page, commonly referred to as fans). For quite some time Facebook has been combing through posts and serving them up to on average 30% of a pages fans, but as of last September things dramatically changed. Facebook rolled out an algorithm update that looked as though it reduced post reach (the number of fans who see each post) from 30% on average to as low as 5% depending on the page. Although there has been some debate as to how much the new update has changed a page’s EdgeRank one thing remains clear: brands can’t ignore its effect.

So how does this magical formula work? It takes a look at the pages Affinity (u), the relationship between the page and each individual fan based on how often the fan views and interacts with your posts as well as how well you engage your fans in general. It also assigns a Weight (w) for the edge type, meaning the interactions fans have with the particular post (comment, like, tag, share, etc.) as well as time Decay (d) how much time has passed since the last edge (engagement) was created.

What does that fancy formula mean? It means there are really four things that affect whether or not a fan will see your post.

1. Has the fan interacted with the page before? The more active someone is on your page the more likely they are to see your posts.
2. How are others reacting to this particular post? The more people that like and share it the more it will be seen, the more people ignore it or hide it or mark it as spam the less it will be seen.
3. How has the fan interacted with posts of the same type? If a fan commonly likes photos, then photos are more likely to show up on their newsfeed.
4. Complaints: This is the biggest change since September: If fans are hiding or marking your posts as spam, your EdgeRank will quickly plummet as it sends a strong message to Facebook that your content is of little or no value.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what EdgeRank is, lets discuss a few things you can do to help your page increase its reach and engagement rate.

• Pay attention to the content you are posting. If your posts have a low reach, chances are they’re also not doing well in terms of engagement (likes, shares and tags), so change up your content strategy to supply posts that your fans want to interact with. Always ask yourself before posting something, “Is this interesting, useful and engaging?” If not, don’t post it.
• Consider the type of posts. As of late status posts (those with text only) receive a higher reach, but be cautious as they also usually have a lower engagement, so it can be a quick win with a long term price if not done properly. If you are going to post text only updates, make sure it’s appealing and is something your audience is sure to like or interact with. Visuals such as photos tend fare better on engagement but once again, make sure it’s a truly engaging image or it won’t do much good.
• Post at key times. There are a variety of tools out there that can help you determine what times of days are best to post for your particular audience. Follow these guidelines as well as your own research to find out when you have the best likelihood of reaching your fans and having them engage with your post, higher engagement turns into higher reach which in turn leads to better EdgeRank.
• Make sure you’re not flooding the stream. Each time you post content you will affect your page’s EdgeRank, so it’s better to post great content less often, then frequently publishing content that is lacking luster. Weak content can cause your EdgeRank to suffer and may turn your fans away.
• Create calls to action. We’re not talking about making every post a sales pitch, but you can always write a post in a way that encourages people to find out more information or take a look at a the full article, clicks still count as engagement, they just don’t carry as much weight as shares and likes.
• Check your insights. As a page admin there is a vast amount of information available at your fingertips. Take a look at your page’s insights for trends in how posts perform based on timing, topics, post type, frequency and more.
• Watch your negative feedback. In the insights section you can export your data into an Excel or CSV (comma-separated values) file. If your posts aren’t doing so well to take a look at the post level data and pay attention to negative feedback, you may notice fans are hiding your content and thereby reducing your EdgeRank. If that’s the case consider changing not posting that type of content in the future, or maybe rewording those posts or the tone of voice in those posts to avoid future negative feedback.

Do you have any other tips or success stories? We’d love to hear from you.