Confused? Frustrated?
Facebook for businesses has become both effective at reaching an audience and more complex to fully understand and use. Of course there are so many eyes on it, it is hard to resist trying to ride this pervasive medium as an advertising vehicle.
Now with a huge IPO a year behind them, the Facebook team has a lot riding on creating revenue. Look for continuing changes that will enhance and yet complicate marketing on this medium. The following is the big change that happened in their first year of focusing on revenue.
Facebook for businesses has become both effective at reaching an audience and more complex to fully understand and use. Of course there are so many eyes on it, it is hard to resist trying to ride this pervasive medium as an advertising vehicle.
Now with a huge IPO a year behind them, the Facebook team has a lot riding on creating revenue. Look for continuing changes that will enhance and yet complicate marketing on this medium. The following is the big change that happened in their first year of focusing on revenue.
In early summer of 2012, quietly Facebook modified the Newsfeed algorithm. This change was a huge deal and many business people who had been building a following of fans for years on FB are still trying to deal with the full impact.
Essentially, “post reach” was turned down. This means for example, that if you had 600 fans and previously reached maybe 300 each time you posted something in your status update, now a reduced number would actually see it... maybe only 100 may see it.
What was changed for this to happen? Did Facebook arbitrarily turn posts “off”?
Actually what was instituted was something being called “Facebook Edgerank”.
What is Facebook Edgerank?
As noted on SEO.com,
As noted on SEO.com,
"Facebook’s “EdgeRank” algorithm determines how its users see content in the news feed, and the social network estimates only 16-percent of a page’s fans will actually see their updates."
This new algorithm, was presented by Facebook as an effort to make Newsfeeds more relevant to users. That's the good thing.
The challenge now is for marketers to understand how it works and how to continue to take advantage of this historically inexpensive medium to reach their followers and potential followers.
The algorithm is made of three components - Affinity, Weight and Time Decay. SEO.com explains them as...
1. Affinity -This score is based on how often (if at all) a user checks your fan page. It also takes into account the time spent on your fan page looking through photos and/or newsfeed posts.
2. Interaction – This score is based on user engagement, and increases when a user likes, comments or shares your posts. A comment or share requires a higher level of engagement and thus will increase EdgeRank score, for that post and future posts more than a simple, “like.”
3. Timeliness – This score is based on when the update is published and how quickly it receives interaction. The more interaction that an update receives in a short period of time the better chance it has of showing up in other users’ newsfeeds and “sticking,” for a longer period of time.
Using these three ingredients for Facebook success is a challenge but finding the right balance of these parts will make marketing on this medium whole and successful.
Facebook will continue to offer new paid and "non-paid" options to post to your followers. Although it is getting more complex, the FB channel is still one of the most pervasive and effective options for internet marketers their followers and potential followers and one to understand.
Need Facebook marketing help? Connect with us.
Need Facebook marketing help? Connect with us.