The Facebook algorithm | You’ve got to love it; you’ve got to understand how the Facebook Algorithm changes to successfully market your Business on the world’s largest social network.
Fact: The average organic Facebook Page post sees just 0.07% engagement. To bump that up for your brand, you’ve got to learn how to signal the Algorithm.
You want it to know that your content is valuable, authentic, and worth serving in your followers’ feeds.
Why Does Facebook Algorithm Change?
Algorithms are used on social media to sort content in a user’s feed. With so much content available, it’s a way for social networks to prioritize content they think a user will like based on several factors.
As a marketer, that may sound wonderful as it gets your content in front of the right people. But be warned, social media algorithms are by no means perfect.
The purpose of an algorithm is to filter out irrelevant content or content that’s not high quality. This puts your content at risk of being buried or hidden from feeds if it does not fit the criteria.
Plus, as Google introduces a new ranking signal into the mix – page experience – it’s vital that you brief yourself on core web vitals to ensure your content gets seen by bots and users.
As a fallible system, social networks regularly tweak their algorithms to improve user experience, which is the case with the Facebook algorithm.
The solution?
Ensure your content is high quality, relevant and appealing while keeping an eye on algorithm changes to see if you need to tweak your social media strategy.
How does Facebook Algorithm Work in 2023
The Facebook News Feed Algorithm was created so that the social media platform shows users more exciting content and keeps them on the platform longer. So naturally, the Algorithm values what users value, and that is:
- “Meaningful, informative stories”;
- “Accurate, authentic content”; and
- “Safe, respectful behaviour.”
The Facebook Algorithm learns from individual user behaviour, so everyone’s News Feed looks different. It goes through four steps to determine which pieces of content are most important to you and how they should arrange your News Feed.
It focuses mainly on 4 steps
Step 1: Taking inventory
All of the content available on the platform Facebook calls the “inventory”: posts from your friends, pages you like, groups you have joined, etc.
The Algorithm looks at all the content that could show up on your newsfeed, meaning posts created by your friends and family, ads, and posts from the pages you follow.
Step 2: Looking at signals
These are divided into two groups, passive and active, depending on the type of metrics. In short:
- Passive signals are those you can’t click, such as viewing time, posting time, etc.
- Active signals are actions that promote engagement, e.g. likes, shares, comments, and replies (the Algorithm attributes more weight to them).
The significant ranking signals that you should consider are:
- engagement
- relationships (who users interact with)
- content type
- and recency (internet connection, when the post was posted, what the current time is)
The Facebook Algorithm observes your behaviour and figures out what you like based on the signals you provide.
For example, if you want to shop in the afternoons and react to more branded posts during that time, Facebook will use that as an indicator to surface more branded posts.
The Algorithm knows your preferences aren’t set in stone, so it is continuously learning from your behaviour and looking out for signals that indicate your priorities have changed.
Step 3: Making predictions
Each signal is then used to make predictions. Let’s say you love posts from your gardening group, specifically how-to videos that show you how to trim your leaves or make compost. The Facebook News Feed Algorithm will use those signals to make predictions about how relevant the content is to you.
It will try to figure out how likely you are to comment on something, like something, read the caption, watch the video, or enjoy the story.
The Algorithm does that by analyzing your past behaviour (what content types and subjects you’ve interacted with) and conducting surveys with questions like, “How enjoyable did you find this post?”
Step 4: Scoring the content
After all that, the Algorithm gives each piece of content a score. Content with higher scores is shown at the top of your News Feed.
Why does the Facebook algorithm play such an important role in Business?
It’s probably one of the most critical (digital) factors you don’t have control over that decides if your content gets noticed and your social media strategy is successful.
If you ignore the Facebook algorithm, it might negatively impact the organic reach of your posts. As a result, they will perform poorly, and you will wonder what the cause is.
Checkout | How to Create a Facebook Page for Business? Promote Your Business with Facebook!