Facebook EdgeRank and How to Improve The Reach of Your Facebook Page

You know that Facebook business page that you’ve created – the one that you’ve spent hours creating interesting content for and have spent good money on Facebook Ads to build your following? Well earlier this year Facebook let slip that most users only see about 16% of updates from business pages like yours.

It’s a shocking statistic, isn’t it? The reason for this is Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm. This comes from Facebook’s desire to present you with the most relevant and valuable updates from your network and it isn’t something that marketers can afford to ignore.

So what is EdgeRank?

EdgeRank determines which posts you see and which ones you don’t from the value of your social objects — statuses, links, photos, videos.

Facebook views all of these inputs as “edges” and gives them a value based on the following factors:

1. Affinity score between viewing user and edge creator

2. Weight for this edge type (like, comment, tag, etc.)

3. Time decay is a factor based on how long ago the edge was created

What Does this Mean to You?

Affinity — How close are you to the user? Do they interact with you regularly on Facebook? If they do, that’s great! EdgeRank will probably show your content to that user more often. Unfortunately, affinity is only one way, so Liking everything your fans say will not improve your EdgeRank.

Weight — This relates to the level of engagement your Page has. Photos and videos usually create more engagement so Facebook may give more weight to these types of posts. It might be worth experimenting to find out if creating this type of content means it reaches more of your fans.

Time Decay — A great title, but all it really means is that the older your post is, the less chance it has of being in your fan’s home feed. What’s that saying about yesterday’s news being tomorrow’s fish & chip wrapper? This is why it’s important to post regularly on Facebook.

How Can You Optimize Facebook now you’re in the Know?

If you’re looking for engagement, remember to ask questions — instead  “Hope you had a great weekend” try “What did you do over the weekend?”

Facebook gives you the option of targeting your page updates demographically, so if it’s appropriate, segment your posts to increase relevance and foster engagement.

We’d love to hear how experimenting with your content affects the number of people who see your posts, so do leave a comment below, and don’t forget to comment regularly on our Facebook Page if you want to see our posts in your newsfeed!