facebook news feed algorithm: facebook user awareness

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JAKUB RŮŽIČKA [email protected] cz.linkedin.com/in/littleROSE January 2014 FACEBOOK NEWS FEED ALGORITHM: FACEBOOK USERS’ AWARENESS PILOT TESTING (n=25) PRELIMINARY RESEARCH DESIGN & OUTPUT SAMPLES (very limited generalisation)

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Facebook News Feed Algorithm / Facebook User Awareness / Pilot Research Majority of Facebook users is not aware of the Facebook EdgeRank / News Feed Algorithm (excluding social media managers/specialists). Facebook users are rather aware of the influence of their their ‘affirmative‘ actions (liking, sharing, commenting befriending, following, subscribing) than the influence of their ‘private‘ interactions with other users (messages, chatting), their ‘private‘ actions (adjusting privacy settings, creating & editing friends lists, sorting Facebook posts) and/or of their ‘negative‘ actions (hiding, reporting & blocking something). Majority of Facebook users have used at least half of the features affecting their News Feed content shown but more than half of the Facebook users seem to be rather ‘passive‘ consumers of the News Feed content shown (not adjusting it in any way even though they seem to know about some ways of how to do it). In general, more than half of the users have never reported or blocked anything on Facebook. People rather subscribe to notifications from a page than from a person. Majority of Facebook users know about the interest and/or friend list feature but only about 1/3 of them actually use it. There are still some users (even among University students) who have never adjusted their privacy settings.

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Page 1: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

JAKUB RŮŽIČKA [email protected] cz.linkedin.com/in/littleROSE

January 2014

FACEBOOK NEWS FEED ALGORITHM:FACEBOOK USERS’ AWARENESS

PILOT TESTING

(n=25)

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH DESIGN & OUTPUT SAMPLES

(very limited generalisation)

Page 2: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Outline

research background

research objectives, questions &hypotheses

methodology &research sample

results conclusions &discussion

Page 3: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Outline

research background

research objectives, questions &hypotheses

methodology &research sample

results conclusions &discussion

Page 4: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research Background

Page 5: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

The Facebook News Feed algorithm (formerly known as ‘EdgeRank‘) decides whichnews/content streams are displayed on the main page of any user‘s Facebookaccount. Let’s start with some definitions by the Facebook Help Center [01]:

• News Feed - the center column of the Facebook home page - is aconstantly updating list of stories from people and Pages that youfollow on Facebook. News feed stories include status updates,photos, videos, links, app activity and likes.

What is News Feed?

• The News Feed algorithm uses several factors to determine topstories, including the number of comments, who posted the story,and what type of post it is (ex: photo, video, status update, etc.).

• If you feel you're missing stories you'd like to see or seeing stories inyour News Feed that you don't want to see, use the different NewsFeed controls to adjust your settings.

How does my News Feed

determine which content is most

interesting?

Page 6: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

The ‘News Feed‘ (formerly ‘EdgeRank‘) algorithm governs what is displayed - andhow high - on the News Feed (the center column on the main Facebook Page ofany user). The Facebook algorithm is based on three basic variables [02]:

• Affinity is a one-way relationship between a User and an Edge. It could be understood ashow close of a 'relationship' a Brand and a Fan may have. Affinity is built by repeatinteractions with a Brand's Edges. Actions such as Commenting, Liking, Sharing,Clicking, and even Messaging can influence a user's Affinity.

affinity

• Weight is a value system created by Facebook to increase/decrease the value of certainactions within Facebook. Commenting is more involved and therefore deemed morevaluable than a Like. In the weighting system, comments would have a higher value thana Like. In this system all Edges are assigned a value chosen by Facebook. As a generalrule, it's best to assume Edges that take the most time to accomplish tend to weighmore.

weight

• Time Decay refers to how long the Edge has been alive; the older it is the less valuable itis. Time Decay is the easiest of the variables to understand. Mathematically it isunderstood as 1/(Time Since Action).

• As an Edge ages, it loses value. This helps keep the News Feed fresh with interestingnew content, as opposed to lingering old content.

time decay

Page 7: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Facebook News Feed Algorithm Formula

What is EdgeRank?. Applum. http://www.whatisedgerank.com

Page 8: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

While much of what is shown in the Facebook News Feed depends on the(automatic) algorithm, users also do have some level of control of what they see intheir news feed [01] (while pointing out that many Facebook users might not beaware of these features and/or their effects on the NewsFeed content shown):

sorting stories(i.e. content shared on

Facebook)

filtering by friend lists (created by Facebook users)

switching between 'Top Stories' & 'Most Recent'

stories

managing updates fromfriends

(following, i.e. subscribing to receiving their content &

adjusting what stories you see from them)

managing updates from Facebook Pages

(subscribing to a page's notifications, checking its

'show in News Feed' button, adding the Page to a user-

created interest lists)

hiding or unhiding people, Pages or types of stories

reporting a story and/orreporting spam

allowing 3rd party applications using

Facebook Open Graphfeatures

adjusting user privacy settings

Page 9: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

While much of what is shown in the Facebook News Feed depends on the(automatic) algorithm, users also do have some level of control of what they see intheir news feed [01] (while pointing out that many Facebook users might not beaware of these features and/or their effects on the NewsFeed content shown):

relationship settings

('manually' adjustable by a user; 'learning'

Facebook about what we want to see)

hiding posts & spam reporting

(Facebook penalizes the content which is hided

and/or reported by users)

clicking on Facebook advertisements

viewing other timelines

(Facebook profiles)

device (we are employing while using

Facebook) & other technical

considerations

story bumping

(i.e., reinforcement of the affinity factor, while weakening the time

decay factor)

chronological by actor & last actor

(tracking 50 most recent interactions and giving more weight to them)

emphasis on visually engaging stories

(/content)

choice of different feeds

(diversity)

public popularity

(more weight to generally popular content)

check-ins & user-ratings of places

browsing, chatting, poking, attending

events etc. (i.e. , any interaction)

Page 10: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Content Personalization Theoretical Issue

& the reason why every social media marketer

makes an effort to increase the ‘engagement‘

metrics

Page 11: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Theoretical issue

The idea of ‘free Web 2.0 participation‘ is challenged by the work ofLawrence Lessing, who sees the (creators of) algorithms as thenew ‘gatekeepers‘ – ‘code is the new law‘. [03] ‘As the world isnow, code writers are increasingly lawmakers. They determinewhat the defaults of the Internet will be; whether privacy will beprotected; the degree to which anonymity will be allowed; theextent to which access will be guaranteed. They are the ones whoset its nature. Their decisions, now made in the interstices of howthe Net is coded, define what the Net is.’ [03] Similary, the negativeeffects of content personalization in online services is a subject ofParisers ‘The Filtre Bubble’ [04] 2011 book.

Page 12: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Literature

Page 13: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Literature

[01] How News Feed Works: Facebook Help Centre. FACEBOOK. [online]. Menlo Park, California, U.S., 2013 [Retrieved 2013-11-08]. https://www.facebook.com/help/327131014036297/

[02] What is EdgeRank? [online]. Chicago, Illinois, U.S.: Applum, 2013 [Retrieved 2013-11-08]. http://www.whatisedgerank.com/

[03] PARISER, Eli. The Filtre Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think. New York, USA: Penguin Group US, 2011, 304p. ISBN 1101515120; 9781101515129.

[04] LESSIG, Lawrence. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York, NY, USA: Basic Books, 1999, 297p. ISBN 04-650-3913-8; 978-0465039135.

Page 14: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Outline

research background

research objectives, questions &hypotheses

methodology &research sample

results conclusions &discussion

Page 15: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research Objectives

Page 16: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research Objectives

To examine Facebook users’:

awareness of the News Feed

content selection

awareness of how they can

affect it

actual behavior

(features affecting content personalisation

usage)

Page 17: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research Questions

Page 18: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research Questions

• Are Facebook users aware of how their Facebook News Feedcontent is selected?1)

• Are Facebook users aware of the different Facebook featuresaffecting their News Feed content shown?2)

• Do Facebook users use the different Facebook features affectingtheir News Feed content shown?3)

• Are Facebook users aware of the effects of using the differentFacebook features on their News Feed content shown?4)

Page 19: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research hypotheses

Page 20: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Hypotheses

Majority of Facebook users is not aware of the Facebook EdgeRank/NewsFeedalgorithm.

Majority of Facebook users is aware of at least half of the Facebook features affecting their News Feed content shown.

Majority of Facebook users have used at least half of the features affecting their News Feed content shown.

Majority of Facebook users does not use the features on a regular basis.

There are no significant differences between men & women.The older the user, the lower the overall awareness.The higher the education, the higher the overall awareness.There are no significant differences between different nationalities.

Page 21: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Outline

research background

research objectives, questions &hypotheses

methodology &research sample

results conclusions &discussion

Page 22: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Methodology

Page 23: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Target group

active Facebook users

(using Facebook at least once a week)

Page 24: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research instrument & sampling

An ONLINE SURVEY (questionnaire) was

conducted to collect the data.

Respondents were recruited using a non-probability sampling method, the

SNOWBALL SAMPLING (among ACTIVE

FACEBOOK USERS).

Page 25: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Questionnaire structure [average length = 10min]A typical ‘funnel structure’: starting with questions that are easy for the respondent to answer, following with more difficult ones & finishing with demographic and other classification questions:

research objective clarification

filtering question

active Facebook users only (loging-in at least once a

week)

respondent’s Facebook usage

frequency detection

questions about respondent’s

awareness of the different Facebook

features

questions about the frequency of

respondent‘s usage of the

different Facebook features

‘have you ever...?‘ usage

usage frequency

questions about respondent’s

awareness of the different Facebook features affecting their News Feed content shown

question about respondent‘s

awareness of the NewsFeed algorithm

demographic questions

gender age education nationality

social media manager /

specialist (or similar job) detection

acknowledgement

Page 26: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research Sample

n = 25

Page 27: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Research sample

62.5%

37.5%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Gender

female male

70%

30%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Age

20s 30s

Page 28: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Nationality

Page 29: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Education

4%

36%

36%

24%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Grammar school Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) High school (or equivalent)

Master's degree (or equivalent) Doctoral degree (or equivalent)

Page 30: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Facebook usage

4%4%

4%

16%

72%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

less than once a week

once a week4-6 times a

week

2-3 times a week

about once a day

many times every day

Page 31: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Facebook proficiency

(100% knowledge of all Facebook features)

Page 32: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Outline

research background

research objectives, questions &hypotheses

methodology &research sample

results conclusions &discussion

Page 33: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Results

Page 34: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Facebook News Feed Algorithm

Page 35: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Facebook News Feed Algorithm (/EdgeRank) familiarity

8%8%

38%

46%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

I have no idea

I rather don’t know what this is (but I think I have some idea)

I rather know (but I am not completely sure)

I know for sure

n=24Do you know what Facebook EdgeRank and/or Facebook News Feed Algorithm is?

Page 36: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Knowledge of which Facebook featuresaffect the algorithm

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

reporting someone’s Facebook profile (/timeline)

blocking someone’s Facebook profile (/timeline) – not being able to see or contact each other

poking someone on Facebook

reporting a post (/a spam) by a person or a page

sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on the Facebook home page by friends lists

liking, sharing and/or commenting a post by a person or by a page

creating and editing friend lists (e.g. ‘close friends’)

adjusting your personal user privacy settings

hiding/unhiding a post by a person or a page

sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on the Facebook home page by ‘Top Stories’ or ‘Most Recent’ stories

sending messages to someone on Facebook

adding a page to interest lists (checking ‘add to interest lists’)

following a post by a person or a page

liking, sharing and/or commenting a post by a person or by a page

showing a page’s posts in your news feed (checking ’show in news feed’)

showing someone’s posts in your news feed (checking ’show in news feed’)

subscribing to notifications from a page (checking ‘get notifications’)

subscribing to notifications from someone (checking ‘get notifications’)

chatting with someone on Facebook

adding a friend or ‘unfriending’ someone

following someone on Facebook

following a page on Facebook

liking (/becoming fan of) / unliking a page on Facebook

n=24Please, check all Facebook features that you believe, to some extent influence, which content (statuses, photos, videos, likes etc.) is displayed on your Facebook home page (called News Feed)

Page 37: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

How many people paid attention to all of the options

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

reporting someone’s Facebook …

blocking someone’s Facebook …

poking someone on Facebook

reporting a post (/a spam) by a…

sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on…

liking, sharing and/or commenting a…

creating and editing friend lists (e.g. …

adjusting your personal user privacy…

hiding/unhiding a post by a person…

sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on …

sending messages to someone on…

adding a page to interest lists …

following a post by a person or a page

liking, sharing and/or commenting a…

showing a page’s posts in your …

showing someone’s posts in your …

subscribing to notifications from a …

subscribing to notifications from …

chatting with someone on Facebook

adding a friend or ‘unfriending’ …

following someone on Facebook

following a page on Facebook

liking (/becoming fan of) / unliking a…

Chart Title

68%

32%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Filled the ‘trap question‘ correctly

n=24[please, check this option to make sure the questionnaire is displayed correctly (technical message)]

Page 38: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Knowledge & usage of different Facebook features

Page 39: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

How many people paid attention to all of the options in the batteries of questions (the ‘trap question‘ filled correctly)

75%

25%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Knowledge of the features

87.5%

12.5%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Usage of the features

n=24[please select 'I rather don't know' to make sure the questionnaire is displayed correctly (technical message)]

[please select 'I use it fequently' to make sure the questionnaire is displayed correctly (technical message)]

Page 40: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Adjusting privacy settingsknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

4.2%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

knowledge

usage

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [adjusting your personal user privacy settings]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [adjusting your personal user privacy settings]

Page 41: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Showing posts by ‘Top Stories’or ‘Most Recent’ storiesknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 29% 33%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on the Facebook home page by ‘Top Stories’ or ‘Most Recent’ stories]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on the Facebook home page by ‘Top Stories’ or ‘Most Recent’ stories]

Page 42: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

100% (or nearly 100%) familiarity

adding a friend or ‘unfriending’

someone

liking, sharing and/or commenting a post by a person

or by a page

sending messages to someone on

Facebook

chatting with someone on

Facebook

poking someone on Facebook

liking (/becoming fan of) / unliking a page on Facebook

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [...]

Page 43: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Knowledge of the current‘following‘ feature on Facebook

79%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Following a Page on Facebook

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

75%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Following someone on Facebook

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [...]

Page 44: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Following a single post by a person or a pageknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 29% 38%

21% 42%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [...]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [...]

Page 45: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Subscribing to notifications from someoneknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 25% 54%

29% 63%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [subscribing to notifications from someone (checking ‘get notifications’)]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [subscribing to notifications from someone (checking ‘get notifications’)]

Page 46: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Subscribing to notifications from a pageknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 29% 33%

29% 54%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [subscribing to notifications from a page (checking ‘get notifications’)]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [subscribing to notifications from a page (checking ‘get notifications’)]

Page 47: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Adding a page to interest listsknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 25% 46%

25% 54%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [adding a page to interest lists (checking ‘add to interest lists’)]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [adding a page to interest lists (checking ‘add to interest lists’)]

Page 48: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Creating & editing friends listsknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 29% 42%

25% 67%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [creating and editing friends lists (e.g. ‘close friends’)]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [creating and editing friends lists (e.g. ‘close friends’)]

Page 49: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Sorting posts by friends listsknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 50% 33%

25% 33%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on the Facebook home page by friends lists]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [sorting Facebook posts (/stories) on the Facebook home page by friends lists]

Page 50: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Showing someone‘s post in NewsFeedknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 25% 25%

25% 67%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [showing someone’s posts in your news feed (checking ’show in news feed’)]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [showing someone’s posts in your news feed (checking ’show in news feed’)]

Page 51: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Showing a page’s posts in your news feedknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 25% 25%

25% 67%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [showing a page’s posts in your news feed (checking ’show in news feed’)]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [showing a page’s posts in your news feed (checking ’show in news feed’)]

Page 52: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Hiding/unhiding a post by a person or a pageknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 21% 42%

17% 75%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [...]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [...]

Page 53: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Reporting a post by a person or a pageknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 54% 38%

21% 67%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [reporting a post (/a spam) by a person or a page]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [reporting a post (/a spam) by a person or a page]

Page 54: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Reporting someone‘s profile/timelineknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 63% 21%

42% 50%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [reporting someone’s Facebook profile (/timeline)]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [reporting someone’s Facebook profile (/timeline)]

Page 55: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Reporting a pageknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 58% 29%

38% 50%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [...]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [...]

Page 56: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Blocking someone‘s profile/timelineknowledge ► usage

don‘t know rather

don‘t knowrather know

know for sure

never used before

use rarelyuse

sometimesuse

frequently

knowledge

usage 54% 38%

33% 63%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

n=24Which of the following Facebook features do you know? [blocking someone’s Facebook profile (/timeline) – not being able to see or contact each other]How often do you use the following Facebook features? [blocking someone’s Facebook profile (/timeline) – not being able to see or contact each other]

Page 57: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Outline

research background

research objectives, questions &hypotheses

methodology &research sample

results conclusions &discussion

Page 58: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Conclusions

about regular Facebook users in their 20s,

University students

Page 59: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Conclusions

• seems to be true

• (excluding social media managers/specialists) nearly no regular Facebook user knows about it

Majority of Facebook users is not aware of the Facebook EdgeRank /NewsFeedalgorithm.

• doesn‘t seem to be true

• Facebook users are rather aware of the influence of their their ‘affirmative‘ actions (liking, sharing, commenting befriending, following, subscribing) than the influence of their ‘private‘ interactions with other users (messages, chatting), their ‘private‘ actions (adjusting privacy settings, creating & editing friends lists, sorting Facebook posts) and/or of their ‘negative‘ actions (hiding, reporting & blocking something)

Majority of Facebook users is aware of at least half of the Facebook features affecting their News Feed content shown.

Page 60: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Conclusions

• seems to be truebut (related to the next point)

• more than half of the Facebook users seem to be rather ‘passive‘ consumers of the News Feed content shown (not adjusting it in any way even though they seem to know about some ways of how to do it)

Majority of Facebook users have used at least half of the featuresaffecting their News Feed content shown.

• seems to be truemoreover

• in general, more than half of the users have never reported or blocked anything on Facebook

• people rather subscribe to notifications from a page than from a person

• majority of Facebook users know about the interest and/or friend list feature but only about 1/3 of them actually use it

• there are still some users (even among University students) who have never adjusted their privacy settings

Majority of Facebook users does not use the features on a regular basis.

Page 61: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Conclusions

• N/A due to a limited sample

There are no significant differences between men & women.

The older the user, the lower the overall awareness.

The higher the education, the higher the overall awareness.

There are no significant differences between different nationalities.

Page 62: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

What have we learned?

if we, University students in their 20s, really live in a filtre bubble

while being controlled by algorithms, they /we don‘t care

enough =)

increasing the engagement of your posts (i.e. any interaction with your posts) still seems to

be the best practice of increasing your overall

Facebook visibility since not many users will ‘filter you out‘

manually

Page 63: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Discussion

Page 64: Facebook News Feed Algorithm: Facebook User Awareness

Biases & limitations

• non-probability (snowball sampling), selection bias (self-selection) &English speaking people only - possibly higher education & younger (even though respondets were asked to re-send the questionnaire to various educational & age groups, it did not work)

coverage, sampling & non-response errors

• identification

• by ‘trap questions‘ – verifying whether respondents paid attention to all of the options in the batteries of questions

• prevention

• knowledge of which Facebook features affect the algorithm should be rather detected using several yes/no questions than one question with many checkboxes

matrix grids (/long batteries of questions) prone

to satisficing

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Suggested improvements

• merging some similar questions with insignificant variance# of questions in batteries

reduction

• devices used to access Facebook, browser X application, commercial content recognition, groups, applications, events etc.

adding questions related to Facebook News Feed

Algorithm

• combining or substituting (if possible) self-reported data with behavioral (/service usage) data

add tracking / data mining (using FQL & Graph API)

• socio-demographic differentiation by correlations, ANOVA, regression, cluster analysis (education, age, nationality, gender, service usage frequency etc.) and user typology according to the service usage patterns

suggested analysis(larger sample needed)

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JAKUB RŮŽIČKA [email protected] cz.linkedin.com/in/littleROSE

January 2014

FACEBOOK NEWS FEED ALGORITHM:FACEBOOK USERS’ AWARENESS

PILOT TESTING

(n=25)

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH DESIGN & OUTPUT SAMPLES

(very limited generalisation)