What is Facebook’s EdgeRank?

Facebook is an integral social media marketing strategy as we have previously discussed in the article on how social media and strategic content are changing marketing for small businesses; however, merely creating a Facebook fan page and posting updates sporadically isn’t enough to make a dent in your social media strategy.  In order to make a difference, understanding Facebook’s EdgeRank is key, so when it comes to your Facebook posts, know that there is a time and place for everything.

So what is EdgeRank then? EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm (Affinity x Weight x Time Decay = EdgeRank) to compute a quality score for every status update with the ultimate goal of assigning a rank to user activity.  Within the formula, the variables are broken down by: affinity score, weight, and time decay.  Affinity score is increased when users click the “like” button, comment on a status, or click on a picture within your page.   Weight is defined as the type of post prioritized by Facebook with the greatest ranked being the use of the “Question” function, videos, photos, and links with the least ranked being status updates.  Time decay is defined as how recently an action was taken.

By multiplying these three variables, an EdgeRank is established to determine the priority of your post.  The lower the score, the lower the exposure a post may receive.  The higher the score, the higher exposure it could potentially receive, including a spot in the “Top News” section. Note that the default setting for posts on your Facebook stream, is “Top News” instead of “Most Recent”, which makes getting a high EdgeRank score even more important. Knowing how to improve this quality score will ensure that time spent creating posts will result in the most effective outcome.

Below are some tips to improve your EdgeRank score:

• Use the most heavily ranked content types, especially the Question function.
• Test out a mix of status updates but aim for ones that will elicit engagement from people. Over time you will learn what kind of updates are most successful, i.e. generates a response.
• Request user interaction by asking questions that are interesting and relevant to your business.  Throw in giveaways as incentives to responding.
• Don’t know what to post?  Get interactive on other pages and/or re-post the content if appropriate.
• Use the free EdgeRank Checker tool to analyze your status updates and interactions to figure out optimum posting days and times.

EdgeRank is important since Facebook favors posts with high interaction and assumes that people are spending more time on that page.  As a person spends more time on a page, the more revenue there could be for Facebook through advertising impressions and clicks.   With Facebook’s strategy in mind, you can use the tips above and the tools available to create posts that are highly ranked and will put you above the competition. For customers that do not have the resources to stay on top of social media themselves, CyberSense can assist with social media strategy development and implementation.  We offer complete blog management services as well.