edgerank - how facebook decides what does and doesn't appear in your news feed

© eGenie 2014www.eGenie.biz

EdgeRank

http://www.egenie.biz/


What is EdgeRank?

• EdgeRank is the algorithm used by Facebook to determine what appears in each individual newsfeed and where it appears in each newsfeed.

• The algorithm is made of three variables:Affinity (Ue)Weight (We)Time Decay (De)

• ∑UeWeDe



Affinity (Ue)

• The affinity score measure the relationship or connection between two users. The closer the relationship or connection, the higher the score.

• E.g. I am friends with my sister on Facebook, we have 70 mutual friends and I write on her wall regularly. We have a high affinity score so Facebook will include her in my newsfeed.



Weight (We)

• Posts are weighted differently:1. Photos/ videos2. Links3. Plain text updates

• Facebook changes the weight according to what they believe the user will find most engaging



Time decay (De)

• How old the post is!• Posts become ‘old news’ over time, the time

decay enables the newsfeed to remain up to date with recent news



Edgerank Is Dead?

• In mid 2013 Facebook announced that they would be introducing a completely new algorithm which now included as many as 100,000 different elements

• The new algorithm works by bumping stories you don’t see during a browsing session to the top of your newsfeed in your next browsing session

• This can be affected by the amount of engagement (likes, comments and shares) a post receives



EdgeRank is dead cont.

• Another change to the algorithm is the Last Actor

• This takes into account your last 50 interactions (likes, comments and shares)

• People who you have engaged with most recently are given more weight and Facebook will push their posts higher in the News Feed




• Post types – The News Feed algorithm also takes into account the type of post a user tends to interact with

• On June 23rd 2014 Facebook announced a change to the way videos are ranked. As well as taking into account likes, comments and shares, Facebook will now also consider whether someone has watched a video and for how long they watched it.

• Facebook said this will help them personalise the newsfeed and people who tend to watch more videos in the newsfeed could expect to see more video near the top of the newsfeed




• Device capabilities – The News Feed algorithm also takes into consideration the device being used, e.g. a user with a slow internet connection is likely to see more text updates



EdgeRank lives on

• Despite Facebook’s new algorithm being said to now consist of over 100,000 variables the original EdgeRank variables still remain very important in the new algorithm



Improving your Page’s rank

• Be precise – posts over 250 characters receive 60% less likes than those between 100 and 250 characters long

• Visuals –Photo albums receive 180% more engagementPhotos receive 120% more engagement Videos receive 100% more engagement



Improving your Page’s rank cont.

• Post regularly – 96% of fans won’t return to a page so regular posts are the only way of reaching them

• Time – Different audiences will use Facebook at different times, test different times of day to find when your audience are most active

• Segmenting – Facebook allows you to target who will see your updatesMale / FemaleRelationship status etc.



Improving your Page’s rank cont.

• Social Call To Action (CTA) – with the new algorithm taking into account the level of engagement with a post, it is important for people to be engaging with your posts

• People often won’t take action unless you tell them to e.g.“please share”“comment below”


edgerank - how facebook decides what does and doesn't appear in your news feed

Technology