Gain the edge for your brand on Facebook

Joel Davis, agency:2

Thu, 19-05-2011 05:37

In March 2011 Facebook users spent a total of approximately 91.4 billion minutes on the site, triple its nearest competitor, YouTube (around 30 billion minutes). An average of 1 million new UK users sign up to the site each month with 50% of UK users logging in every day.

These are huge numbers. That means as a brand it’s crucial that your news stories and content appear on your fans’ News Feeds every time you post.

Yet this is not always the case. It’s all to do with Facebook EdgeRank.

What is Facebook EdgeRank?
When you log on to Facebook you’re provided with two streams. With the ‘Most Recent’ stream  the majority of the content is shown in chronological order. The other option, and the one which is the default stream when people log on, is ‘Top News’, and that’s shaped by Facebook’s EdgeRank.

EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm that decides which objects (Facebook defines everything published as ‘objects’) appear in this ‘Top News’ stream. Because this is the default stream, it’s crucial brands optimise their content to make sure that their posts are shown here.

A number of factors are believed to contribute to an EdgeRank score. It is based on three factors:

Affinity – the relationship between the creator (your Facebook Page) and user (your Fans). Each time a user visits your Fan Page and performs an action - clicks the ‘Like’ button, comments or looks at a picture - the affinity score you have with that user is increased.

Weight – each type of interaction on a Facebook page is weighted differently. So a comment is ‘worth more’ than a Like when it comes to EdgeRank.

This is because activities that require higher levels of user engagement get a higher score than those that don’t – and by encouraging this interaction you are more likely to have your content shown in a user’s News Feed.

It’s also important to remember that manual posts have more weight than app driven posts.

Relevancy – Social media is all about timeliness. That means the age of the post is vitally important: newer posts are much more likely to appear in News Feeds than older ones.

Remember, this all differs from user to user – every object is scored based on the individual Facebook user and what content they interact with. However, when these factors are optimised it means that an ‘object’ – be it a post, video or photo – will consistently appear in the Top News of people who Like your Page.

Get the Edge
Facebook’s News Feed gives you the opportunity to communicate with a highly receptive audience. To take advantage of this opportunity you need to interact with your fans.

By providing fresh and appealing content you can maximise levels of engagement, which in turn means your posts will appear in their News Feed. It’s a virtuous cycle.

By combining affinity, weight and relevancy you will optimise your content and ensure your brand gains the edge on Facebook.

Joel Davis is the founder and Director of the UK’s first social media agency, agency:2. From its founding in 2007, Joel oversaw the agency’s growth to its emergence as a truly global business, leading brands like SAS, Barclays, Dow Jones, Disney and Microsoft into the social media arena with a range of highly successful campaigns. agency:2 is a founding member of the DMA’s Social Media Council.