Hi, you’ve likely been sent here by a post on a Facebook page. The administrator of that page has read this and is attempting to reach their audience better through your help. So read on, join the experiment and comment afterwards to let us know if it works.
What is Facebook’s EdgeRank?
Facebook introduced an algorithm called EdgeRank that determines which content to show in each persons news feed. The effects on a person to person level is that no longer will you see everything your friends post to Facebook in your news feed unless you look at their profile/timeline.
This EdgeRank algorithm also effects content posted from a Facebook page (formerly called a fan page). So when the administrator posts an announcement to the page Facebook’s EdgeRank determines who should see the content in their news feed.
What are the factors of EdgeRank?
Most sites point to three factors: User Interactions, Weight, and Time Decay. The basic factor of EdgeRank is a User Interaction which is an umbrella term including one of the following actions: message, viewing the timeline/page/profile, liking a piece of content, sharing a piece of content or commenting on anything from the page or user. So the more you interact with content from a friend or from a page the more likely content from that person or page will show up in your news feed.
Outside of your personal interactions, there are other factors of EdgeRank:
- Total Interactions, the more likes, shares, or comments a piece of content has the more likely it will show up in more news feeds
- Content Weight, videos and pictures have more EdgeRank than just plain text
- Time Decay, the longer a peice of content is out there the less likely it will show up in your news feed (news isn’t old right :)
- Your network, if a friend you interact with has interactions with a piece of content it will be more likely to show up in your news feed. Technically this is bundled under the “User Interactions” factor but is pulled out for our discussion today.
So we’ll boil EdgeRank all down to a simple statement: Content is more likely to show up in your news feed if you have previously interacted with the page, if the content has a lot of interactions on it, if it’s a photo or video, if it’s within the last hour, and if your friends have interacted with it.
How can we help?
The people behind the Facebook Page which sent you here is passionate about something and the fact that you came here you are passionate about helping them, for that we thank you. Since you clicked on the link to get here you probably already have a high EdgeRank between you and the Page which sent you here. But as we know the page has a larger audience which isn’t seeing their content. This is where the Network Effect may play a role.
What you can do to effect the EdgeRank factor of a piece of content:
- Interact with the content (like, comment, or share)
- Do your interaction soon after the content is posted (seconds count)
Lets get real, you have a life and aren’t on Facebook enough to see all the content this Page has posted, so how do you cut through all the clutter and get your interaction to be timely? We’re so glad you asked!
SMS and Facebook’s EdgeRank
Did you know you can subscribe to a Facebook Page’s updates (and a person’s updates) through sms? And when you get a text from Facebook it will contain the first 100 or so characters of the update. You can comment on it by replying via text/sms or you can reply with “like” (without the quotes) to Like it. Both of these actions will contribute as an personal interaction on that piece of content and will increase it’s EdgeRank for your network and for the page’s connections.
That’s it, that’s the secret way to help a page beat the EdgeRank algorithm. Simply subscribe via sms to the page and like or comment (via text message) to content. Your participation will increase the content’s EdgeRank and will serve to further the mission of the Facebook Page you are subscribed to. What follows is a step-by-step method of how to setup sms and subscribe to a page.
Setup SMS and Facebook
- Configure Mobile
Go to Account Settings, then click Mobile in the left sidebar (or go here)- Click Add a Phone
Choose your Country and Carrier and click Next
Text the letter F to 32665 (FBOOK)- Type in the confirmation code
- (clear the checkboxes if you want to)
- Click Next
- Verify that you have Notifications enabled: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=mobile§ion=notifications&t
- Subscribe to the page via SMS
- Visit the Facebook page which sent you here (or any Facebook page/user profile you want to subscribe to)
- In the left sidebar find the “Get Updates via SMS” Link and click it
Thats it, now when you receive a status update you can simply type like from your phone or a comment and send it back. Viola EdgeRank effected.
Thanks for your support!