The goal of Facebook’s News Feed is to “deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important to them.” Over 700 million people use the News Feed daily, but very few actually understand the algorithm that is powering the content they see.
‘Story Bumping’ Pushes Organic Posts to the Top
On August 6th, Facebook announced that its new algorithm would push organic stories to the top of users’ News Feeds, considering the post is relevant to the consumer and if the user did not scroll down far enough to see it. This new algorithm change is called Story Bumping. Facebook’s new algorithm revamp will be valuable to online retailers because consumers will miss fewer posts and the content will be more targeted for the appropriate consumers.
- Early data shows that Story Bumping improves the users’ experience, which resulted in an 8% increase in likes, comments, and shares on stories from Pages.
- Previously, Facebook users would scroll down to see only 57% of their total newsfeed.
- With Story Bumping, users were exposed to 70% of the stories, including resurfaced missed stories.
How Does Facebook Determine Post Relevancy?
Facebook determines whether the post is relevant or not based upon certain factors:
- How often a user interacts with a friend, Page, or pubic figure
- The number of likes, shares, and comments a post receives from the public and the users’ friends in particular
- How much a user has interacted with this type of post in the past
- Whether the users are hiding or reporting a particular post
Making News Feed More Targeted
“Content production has exploded. The average person today has about 1500 stories they could see,” said Lars Backstrom, Facebook’s News Feed Engineering Manager.
With so much content on each Facebook user’s News Feed, this new algorithm does a better job of showing Facebook users the stories that they want to see. The more that a consumer interacts with a brand’s page, the more likely it will be that brand’s posts will appear in that consumer’s News Feed.
‘Last Actor’ Prioritizes Consistent Interactions
Last Actor is a signal that takes into account the last 50 interactions a user has on Facebook and prioritizes content based upon the most recent interactions. What this means for businesses is that one interaction is not enough to keep their stories at the top of the consumers’ News Feeds. Instead, businesses should aim to provide consistently relevant content to encourage users to interact on a regular basis.
Online retailers can leverage this new adaption by encouraging sustained engagement after a story has been posted on their brand’s Facebook page. Businesses can do this through effective community management. To optimize a post for the ultimate News Feed visibility, businesses need to find ways to increase the amount of discussion around the post.
Farewell, Edge Rank
We can all say farewell to the term “Edge Rank,” as Backstrom announced Tuesday that Facebook hasn’t used that term for over two and a half years. The new, much more complicated algorithm still factors in Weight, Affinity, and Time Decay, in addition to many other things. Facebook promised to be much more transparent by posting on their blog about new updates and algorithms.
How Facebook’s News Feed Updates Benefit Businesses
The great news about this update is it validates that Facebook’s strategy is in line with Online Retailers’. Facebook is implementing these changes to encourage more likes, comments, shares, and as much activity as possible from users so that it can offer up great statistics for advertisers and brands. Likewise, businesses are seeking more likes, comments, and shares in order to increase brand engagement and new potential customers.
While the new updates don’t necessarily change how online retailers should do business on Facebook, businesses should strive to create interesting, relevant content that produces consistent interactions. By producing more interactive and relevant content, businesses can gain more visibility on their potential customers’ News Feeds.
