SEO for Facebook? Not what you think - EdgeRank is the New SEO

to contact me directly please e-mail: meganduncanson@yahoo.com

As someone who devotes a good deal of my marketing energy and resources into my Facebook page, I recently noticed a drop in the number of "Likes" and "Comments" I would receive on posts, links and pictures that used to get a much better response. So, as any good online marketeer would do, I started to dig around and came up with the interesting Facebook algorithm EdgeRank that isn't widely known or discussed.

EdgeRank determines what is and isn't shown in your friends, and your, news feed. You would think that just by being friends or following a business page you would automatically see all of their posts in your feed, which is why you are friends or followers to begin with, right? Well...not according to Facebook, it's no longer enough to just "like" or befriend someone, now you must be actively involved and participate in posts and statuses in order for other peoples/pages updates to show up in your news feed. EdgeRank is mostly influenced by engagement (shares, comments, likes, clicks). High engagement drives high EdgeRank, which then would drive high impressions, creating an even larger audience.

A quick summary of what exactly EdgeRank is, as it's currently known, is an algorithm based on three main factors - "Affinity", "Weight" and "Time Decay"

• AFFINITY: “Affinity” refers to the user’s relationship with the item’s creator. For example, if you have an old acquaintance whose Facebook profile you haven’t visited in two years, they would have a very low affinity ranking. If you have a significant other whose profile you visit every day, they would have a very high affinity ranking. This is good for Facebook EdgeRank.
• WEIGHT: “Weight” combines what the item is and how it’s being interacted with. As for the “what,” videos, photos, and links are generally considered to have the highest weight. In other words, if a fan views a video on your page, this will score far more points in Facebook EdgeRank than if they simply visit your page.
• TIME DECAY: “Time decay” refers to how recent the item is. Old news drops out of the news feed, so newer items are more likely to appear on a feed than older items. Understanding this, to increase your Facebook EdgeRank, post your links, comments, and photos at times when your users are most likely to be logged in to Facebook. (excerpts from Involver)
  

I came across two well-written and easy to decipher articles on what is known about Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm and what we can do to see more of our friends and pages we follow status and updates. Check them out if you would like a more in-depth understanding of EdgeRank:
"The Ultimate Guide to the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm"
"EdgeRank - Facebook EdgeRank"

Another recent change that is a much quicker fix to see more posts and updates is to go to your home page and click on the "sort" drop down tab just above the first update in your feed. Select "recent stories first". This will give you more updates than the "highlighted stories" - these are from friends or pages that you have recently liked or commented. But, this still won't show you all of the updates from friends and pages, especially if you haven't been commenting or liking someone's update on their page in recent days, EdgeRank is still in effect.

The good news for anyone who follows my MADART Facebook Page, I will be doing more giveaways - YaY!! I always mean too and get swamped with so many other things, so EdgeRank may be just the kick in the butt I need to be more consistent with offering contests and giveaways and creating more interest for my page :D I've only ever done them with prints, and on special occasions original paintings, but I would like to also start offering contests with some of the products that my art can be found on. I will have to get some products from my licensing partners to offer, so look for some of these contests coming soon!

Bottom Line is if you want to keep up to date on ALL things MADART be sure to "like" or "comment" on anything that interests you :D And I will be sure to create more interactive content so that YOU can be more involved in MADART!! And of course this applies to any other pages and friends who's updates you've been missing out on. Now you know there's a perfectly good reason why you haven't been in touch lately on Facebook with certain friends and pages, hopefully we can help make others aware of EdgeRank and create the experience on Facebook that WE want, and that WE want to offer to our page followers.