How to Take Advantage of Facebook's New Algorithm

Facebook's Edgerank is evolving: There are now over 100,000 criteria that factor into what a fan sees on their Newsfeed on a daily basis. Details on such factors are hard to come by, but there is new insight on what goes into Facebook's latest algorithm/ranking system based off of a survey of current users.

To summarize, Facebook is making it easier to determine what content is higher quality -- and what is not. Now, digital marketers will need to keep an extra close eye on content that is trustworthy, pertinent and useful for the fan in order to stay at the top of a Newsfeed.

Here's how you can make sure your content stands out:

1. Create Quality Posts: Facebook is an incredibly intertwined community and therefore, the content pushed out to fans should help keep it feeling that way. As a result, the copy that goes along with a photo or link should be engaging and keep your audience wanting more. Does your company answer the following questions (as asked by Facebook)? Would you share it with friends or recommend it to others? Would you call this a low quality post or meme? Would you complain about seeing this content in your News Feed?
2. Concentrate on True Engagement: Before, asking fans to "Like" a post or "Share" a link typically got fans to engage. However, Facebook has now implemented rules around such requests of fans which may come with negative metric results. Therefore, be extra mindful of the content that you are posting, as it should organically get fans to engage -- and come back for more in the future.
3. Offer Various Types of Posts: If you didn't know, many Facebook Pages relied on image-heavy post to obtain great engagement in the past and thus, received more eyes on their content. Today, Facebook has made many changes to how other types of content is being seen. For example, they recently updated how links are displayed in the Newsfeed (FB increased the size of the image in the links), hence why marketers need to rethink the type of content that they are typically using. If your company only pushes images, you may be negatively effected by not reaching the majority of your fans who may prefer text-only or posts with links.

Lastly, there have been additional edits to Edgerank that may also effect if and how your content is being seen by fans on Facebook. Story Bumping, for instance, moves past posts to the top of a fan's Newsfeed if they did not see it before. Such stories are chosen based on who posted the content and the connection between said company/person and the fan at hand. For now, we've only seen it being used between fans, but this is evidence of the direction that Facebook is currently headed. As we've noted, Facebook is now providing fans with the posts that they find most useful or entertaining, versus a random Newsfeed of information.

Takeaway: Although we're thrilled that Facebook is making the necessary changes to make sure the content a fan sees is relevant and valuable, this makes it more difficult (but not impossible) for a marketer or company to be successful on this popular platform. Take the above tips into consideration and the Newsfeed will take notice!

-- Samantha & Mike

Facebook Releases New User Data

We had recently done a piece on how Facebook is getting ready to sell video advertisements on their platform. In order to create some hype among advertisers, Facebook released some recent user data for the U.S. and UK. Get ready for this:

More than 128 million people in the U.S. visit Facebook at least once a day. That's a third of the population! Also, in the UK, about 24 million people visit the social media website everyday.

Of course these numbers are pretty staggering on their own, but another important thing to take away from this announcement, is that this is one of the first times Facebook has released regional data. This is significant to TV advertisers, who rely heavily on those breakdowns. Facebook is trying to show all the advertisers out there just how many people they can reach on a daily basis.

At $66.3 billion estimated to go towards TV ads this year, or 39% of all advertising spent in the U.S., there is some serious money to be made by Facebook. Although these daily user number are no doubt impressive, advertising analysts would like to see more granularity before they can really put a value on Facebook's reach. For the first time ever, researchers say the average time spent on digital media will surpass TV viewing this year.

We can all see where  TV advertising is going and it is no surprise that Facebook is on the forefront. Sure there will be some backlash from user over having video ads in their newsfeed, but after seeing the potential revenues for Facebook in this new field, we expect to see them take TV advertising head-on.

-Mike & Samantha

Teens No Longer Interested in Facebook

Leave it to a 13 year-old to tell us how things really are. In this article, I'm 13 and None of My Friends Use Facebook, on Mashable.com, Ruby Karp explains how teens now see Facebook. It is no secret that Facebook has been losing part of its youngest demographic. They have been making up for these loses with additions from the older generations, but as we all know, without the youth on-board, Facebook's future is not looking so bright. We are really impressed how Ruby was able to explain Facebook's problems in such simple terms. For example:

Part of the reason Facebook is losing my generation's attention is the fact that there are other networks now. When I was 10, I wasn’t old enough to have a Facebook. But a magical thing called Instagram had just come out ... and our parents had no idea there was an age limit. Rapidly, all my friends got Instagrams.

We think this is an often overlooked fact. People seem to forget that when Facebook came out, the teens of today were not allowed to have accounts. Of course, when a teen is told they can't have something, it makes them want it even more. However, now that this group is old enough to have a Facebook account, they have already moved on to the latest and coolest platform, as Ruby explains:

Now, when we are old enough to get Facebook, we don’t want it. By the time we could have Facebooks, we were already obsessed with Instagram. Facebook was just this thing all our parents seemed to have.

Facebook is now so popular with the parents, and even grandparents, of today that kids don't want to be involved. Besides the obvious fact that what parents do is never "cool", teens are afraid of the Big Brother effect Facebook can have. With people constantly sharing and over-sharing every aspect of their lives on Facebook, it is only a matter of time before a teen's parent or grandparent sees something they shouldn't have. Ruby perfectly sums that up by saying:

All of our parents and parents' friends have Facebooks. It’s not just the fact that I occasionally get wall posts like, “Hello sweetie pie!” But my friends post photos that get me in trouble with those parents. 

Imagine your own teenage years if your parents could see your every move online, pretty scary thought huh? No matter what they are doing, innocent or not, no teenager wants their parents in on every aspect of their lives, and if not having a Facebook account can help keep that secrecy, the choice is obvious.

The final topic that Ruby brings up is Facebook's ever-changing interface:

Look at something like Twitter, where it’s four buttons — people like the "simple" design better. In the end, Facebook has been trying too hard. Teens hate it when people try too hard; it pushes them away. It’s like if my mom told me not to do something — I immediately need to do it. When she forces something on me, I really don’t want to do it. 

We all get annoyed when Facebook updates their platform and overhauls the user interface. Just like Ruby said, we like simple and we like familiar.  Every time Facebook makes you relearn how to use their platform, it turns people off and forces them to other, more simple, platforms.

Will Facebook figure out a way to win back the teens? We think they probably will. You don't get to where Facebook is without being able to adapt and solve problems. It will be very interesting to see how they do it, and what tactics they will use. Social media is built on trends, and nowhere is trending more important than with teenagers.

-Mike & Samantha

Better Facebook Posts in 10 Easy Steps

One of the most common mistakes businesses make on Facebook, is underestimating they strategy needed for a successful post. In order to achieve a truly engaging post, a business needs to do a certain amount of research and understand the best practices involved for each post. The infographic below, created by Shortstack, highlights 10 simple, but effective, ways you can improve your Facebook status updates.

-Mike & Samantha

Facebook to Launch Video Ads

Facebook users will have a whole new reason to complain any day now as the social media giant plans to roll out video ads on your Newsfeed. As if your Newsfeed isn't already cluttered enough with various ads and promotions, Facebook's new video ads will be 15-second commercials that automatically play as soon as the site is loaded. Thankfully the ads will be muted as a default, but we are not so confident this convenient feature will last for long.

According to Bloomberg, Facebook is planning to charge between $1 million and $2.5 million for each 15-second ad, per day! Prices like that put these Facebook ads on the same level as the most notoriously expensive advertisements in the world, Super Bowl commercials. With the average 30-second commercial costing $4 million during the 2013 Super Bowl, Facebook's pricing seems to be right on track. Is your Newsfeed as valuable to marketers as the Super Bowl? According to Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandburg, with Facebook getting 3 times the viewership of the Super Bowl, EVERY DAY, it most certainly is. Now are you and your friends going to gather around your Newsfeed in anticipation for clever ads like on Super Bowl Sunday? We would think not. However, with the sheer numbers advantage alone, Facebook has a lot to offer its future advertising clients. 

Like any change on Facebook, there is sure to be complaints from its users. We think these video ads will create a larger backlash than normal, primarily depending on how annoying and intrusive Facebook allows these ads to be. However, like all the other changes Facebook has gone through over the years, give it a little bit of time, and most users will eventually accept it as normal.

Is this the right move for Facebook? With growing discontent among its users, we think it is dangerous for Facebook to continually hurt the user experience it has prided itself on since day one. However, on the other hand, we can see how saying no to the profit Facebook will see off these ads would be hard for any capitalistic company. Only time will tell if the monetary gains outweigh the potential loss in users due to this advertising decision.

-Mike & Samantha

What is EdgeRank?

You may have never heard of EdgeRank before, but chances are you interact with it every day. EdgeRank is the algorithm used by Facebook to determine what shows up on your News Feed and when. With 2,835,000,000 minutes spent on Facebook News Feed PER DAY, it is quite important for brands to understand how to get in front of their fans. Considering 96% of users never return to a brand's page after the initial visit, taking advantage of the News Feed is crucial. The infographic below shows how EdgeRank works and how important it really is.  

-Mike

Going Social After the Boston Bombings

As a woman who was born and raised in the great city of Boston, there are no words that can accurately summarize my emotions after hearing and seeing yesterday's bombings at the Boston Marathon. The images and first person accounts that were shared will forever remain in my heart – a horrific incident that hit way too close to home.

But, it's tragic events like these that I find interesting within my own social space. Personally, I saw friends tweeting #prayforboston within the first few minutes after the story broke and as expected, my Facebook wall was slammed with posts expressing extreme sadness and anger toward those responsible. But professionally speaking, how does an event like 9/11, the Newtown shooting or the Boston bombings effect larger brands on social platforms?

For once, they make brands go silent.

Although there is some debate around what a major brand should do on social during/after a large tragedy, a brand’s reasoning for going quiet is done with both good intentions and a bit of selfishness. On one side, we recognize the loss and sadness associated with the life-changing event. Our content simply wouldn’t make sense to share, nor would it resonate with fans, especially during a time when the nation is grieving. On the other hand, some brands believe in posting consistency with a main goal of beating Facebook’s EdgeRank and showing up higher than competitors within newsfeeds -- but, no one really wants to be the one brand actively posting in a newsfeed filled with content surrounding a tragedy. For those brands that saw this as an opportunity – or accidentally had posts pre-scheduled to go live during this time frame – many were met with a negative backlash from fans and non-fans alike for being insensitive.

From a community manager of a few large brands, it’s often the safest decision to cease all social engagement until a 24 hour period of bereavement has been allowed. Unless you have a meaningful and direct connection to the tragedy, this means no posting, no tweeting, no Instagraming and more. Yes, a brand’s messaging will be not top of mind for fans for a day or two, but this overall respect for the emotions of fans will resonate louder than a product-centric post.

Although you may not see every brand following this recommendation, see if you notice those that do. Then, respect them a bit more for giving fans their space during this terrible time.

What do you think is the appropriate move for brands after a national tragedy?

xx Samantha