To understand how the Facebook algorithm works, you need to know what it calculates. The Facebook algorithm is one of the pillars of your page’s success.
The Facebook algorithm decides the “reach“, which is the number of people who will be able to see your post after you have published it. If the algorithm thinks that your post is not interesting, then it will not be displayed on your followers’ News Feed.
The Facebook algorithm is updated regularly, according to Facebook‘s decisions. You will sometimes see that the organic “reach” or the natural “reach of your posts” is constantly decreasing. So, it is imperative to understand how it works and then decide how to counter it.
How does the Facebook algorithm work?
Facebook considers that your followers must absolutely see quality content or content that makes them react/stay on the platform. So it has to sort out from the large number of posts, which ones are worth seeing.
We all would like to know in detail what the Facebook algorithm is, but it is kept secret of course. According to Wikipedia, it would even be called EdgeRank… Nevertheless, we can see several changes with hindsight.
What does the Facebook algorithm calculate?
The Facebook algorithm analyzes the following elements:
- The percentage of people who have interacted with your past posts
- The type of posts (Text, Photos, Videos, Links…)
- The content of your posts
- The other posts you are competing with
- The user’s device (Mobile, tablet, app..)
Some Statistics On Facebook’s Algorithm To Establish Your Average Targeting.
Here is an infographic made by Agorapulse on the statistics of pages with the highest reach.
If Facebook considers your Reach to be 5%, you can still reach 100% of your followers on a single post. But you need to understand these benchmark numbers.
How does the Facebook algorithm decide your Reach?
Let’s take the example of one of the 50,000+ (international) follower pages in the media space. The infographic above estimates that on average, 20% of followers will see my posts.
What is the reality?
On your page statistics, you have access to an indication of how many followers are connected to Facebook per day and per hour. Here is what it looks like:
We see that on Monday, my number of fans who are connected is on average 21,000 people at 6 am; with a peak of 28,000 people at 5 pm.
So less than half of my followers on average are supposed to see my posts 5 minutes after sending them.
We’re down to 45% of potential reach. You’re going to tell me, “They’ll see it when they log back in…” This is where the quality of your publications comes into play.
Indeed on these 21 000 people at 6H for example. Only a small part has just launched the site or the application to consult its news feed.
The post is therefore displayed in the first results on these people.
They are therefore the ones who will influence the future reach of the posts. If they don’t react (likes, comments, shares) Facebook will say that the post is not interesting so it is not worth showing it to everyone.
The 20% average reach figure is indeed an average. If your post is not clicked, liked, shared … Facebook will say that it is a useless post so will show it to very few people.
How to boost the Facebook algorithm and increase its reach?
I explained in this article “the techniques to increase your reach“ so go and have a look
Facebook keeps track of several crucial elements for your visibility.
- Your previous posts’ statistics
- The interest of each follower on your page.
If your last 10 posts reached 10% of your followers, Facebook will figure it’s better to publish your content to only 10% of your followers.
So try to do everything to increase your reach, it will serve for later when the most important content for you will be published.
Then, you will have followers who follow you with more interest than others. These “Super Fans” will then almost systematically have your posts in their news feed.
Facebook knows that they are interested in what you do, so it simplifies your link.
How to get around the Facebook algorithm with the type of content.
Photos and videos are the most published content today by Pages and for good reason, they are the content that statistically offers the most reach but is also highlighted by Facebook.
Facebook influences the type of content you will publish, if it is a photo, the reach will increase more easily. If it is a link, it will limit the increase of the reach even if there are reactions on this type of post.
Clearly, the help curve of Facebook on your posts to be visible to all is greater for photos and videos than for links.
So you have to be cunning…
To get around the Facebook algorithm, a very effective technique is to publish a photo, a text, or a video without a link so that the reach is at its maximum. Once you have a lot of reactions and interactions, you can modify the post to add the link in the publication.
Try this, it works every time!
Frequently Asked Questions about Facebook Algorithm.
How to hack the Facebook algorithm?
You can’t hack the algorithm or mislead it in order to be at the top of the News Feed every time. The one who could do it would win millions for having found a flaw in Facebook! The only way to avoid being completely affected by it is to respect the few rules I have presented and, above all, to remain regular.
Does Facebook’s algorithm favor those who pay for ads?
By advertising on Facebook, we will necessarily succeed in reaching our target more easily and gain qualified followers who will be interested in our posts. So by using Facebook Ads, we necessarily win at the exchange to improve the metrics related to our page for the calculation of the reach. However, it has not yet been proven that Facebook will systematically favor pages that use advertising.
Keep These Things in Mind to Improve Organic Reach. The Facebook Algorithm Can Help You Be Successful!
To be able to use Facebook in an optimal way, it is essential to understand it.
This is done through its algorithm. As for Google, we must know what will help our visibility and then optimize our ROI on Facebook.
I invite you to read this article to know the techniques to increase your visibility.
