For companies implementing a social media marketing campaign as a part of their digital media marketing strategy it cannot be overlooked that Facebook has made some new algorithm changes. The changes specifically relate to the Facebook Newsfeed. There are potentially more or less 1500 posts on the Facebook Newsfeed to be seen at any given time when someone visits there. It is obviously impossible to go through all of these posts. What Facebook does here is pick up posts you would seem to be interested in (based on the previous data they already have on you) so that they can keep you engaged on Facebook.
So the million dollar question is what do they take into account when they select which posts to serve you in the News Feed? According to Lars Backstrom from Facebook, the criteria used are based on user interaction data and the popularity of a post among “friends”. For example, posts from your close friends or favorite pages (judged based on your last 50 interactions) are more likely to show up on your Newsfeed. Another example is that an old post appears above a new one if it gets many “likes” and comments. These algorithm updates are to provide users with better posts, and they actually work. During the course of implementing these changes, Facebook tested them and figured out that 70% of the stories on News Feed in the manipulated order are read, whereas only 57 % were read previously because users don’t go back that far. All this eventually leads to more interactions. The number of “likes”, comments and shares by people on their friends’ posts increased by 5%, and that of Facebook’s Page increased by 8%. All this just gives Facebook a bigger edge when compared to other social media channels such as Twitter where posts appear in chronological order. It appears that Facebook News Feed algorithm updates will continue to change until it becomes “perfect” for users.
What this means in terms of social media marketing is that your post on a Facebook News Feed now has more possibilities to reach your target demographics if it gets a lot of positive interaction i.e. likes, shares etc. The most important element is to keep offering fresh, relevant and uniquely interesting posts.
iRISEmedia is a digital media marketing agency specializing in internet marketing and social media marketing. We are located in Toronto, Ontario and service companies in Canada and globally.
