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FacebookThe

Edgerank

Uncovering the formula of the Facebook News Feed

CHRISTEL QUEKSOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST

Twitter: @ladyxtel

What is the Facebook Edgerank?

According to o!cial statistics released by

Facebook, the average Facebook user has 130

friends. The News Feed is the first page that users

will see upon logging into the site. Thus, it is

important to optimise the objects -status updates,

photos, videos, links- which users will find more

relevant to their interests, and encourage greater

interactivity and time spent on Facebook.

Facebook has ensured that the News Feed only

displays a set of updates generated from certain

friends or pages. Furthermore, these News Feed

updates only seem to be generated from the same

circle each day.

Diagram 1: A Facebook “Edge” of Created

Content

The algorithm which display the relevant

content from users and pages is called Edgerank.

To explain it, here are some initial

definitions.

Any content which is generated on your

News Feed is called an Object. An Object can be a

status update, an external link shared by your

friend or a Page, a photo, and so on. Whenever a

user interacts with an Object with comments, likes,

and tags, an “Edge” is created. The Rank of the

“Edge”, i.e. the Edgerank, is thus determined by

the` interaction frequency that a user has with a

friend’s Object.

This interaction frequency comprises of

three components - an a!nity score between a

viewing user and the edge creator, the weight

given to a particular edge, and the time decay

factor based on how long ago was the edge

created. The a!nity score between the user and

the creator of the object will naturally be higher if

the user interacts with the creator’s profile often.

This includes checking the creator’s profile, leaving

comments and likes, and sending Facebook

messages. There is a measured “weight” of each

Edge- for example, a comment carries more

weight compared to a Like. Lastly, the older an

Edge is, the less important this Edge will become.

In short, an Object from a friend or a page

is more likely to show up on your News Feed if a

user has been interacting with them often recently.

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Furthermore, “popular” objects which many of

your friends have been interacting with recently

will also show up on your News Feed.

Strategic Observations about Edgerank

From this insight, a strategic observation is

that Edgerank clearly indicates the importance of

bringing Facebook users to a friend’s profile or

page regular ly to increase vis ibi l i ty and

consequently, the a!nity score. Moreover, as

Facebook favours interactivity, it is important to

engage and encourage conversations on objects to

increase visibility on the News Feed. This

highlights to Facebook that your Object is

important when there are multiple interactions

with it.

Another strategic observation is that

“stalking” a particular profile or page does improve

the a!nity score in Edgerank. The more your

profile gets visited, the higher the Edgerank

performance of your profile, which subsequently

increases the propensity of your a!nity score and

ensure that your updates hit the “Top News”

stories in the Facebook News Feed.

Furthermore, to increase exposure to

Facebook users, the weight of the Edge needs to

be taken into serious consideration. Media such as

Photos and Videos are preferred to Links, and

Links are preferred to Status Updates. Comments

trump over Likes as well, and all these will

significantly increase the weight of an Edge.

Furthermore, times and dates matter to

Facebook. The most recent updates will get more

“prime time” on a News Feed compared to

updates that happened in the past.

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Maximising Edgerank for Brands

(i) Quality of Fans

While some brands view the numbers of

“fans” that their brand’s fan page gets as of an

absolute importance, a more precise indicator

would be the quality of fan interactions that a

Brand’s fan page has on Facebook. There are sites

which o"er “Fan-buying” services for Facebook

Fan Pages, but it is more important to attract

quality fans ; rather than just the mere quantity of

them. To ensure a continued quality of fans and a

strong fan base even if the fan page was to

disappear one day is to ensure that the Page will

continue to deliver upon the fan’s expectations of

the Brand on the page, and to continually engage

with them. In a way, the Edgerank is built upon a

certain “Word-of-Mouth” component - with more

organic likes and comments on Objects, the

objects would have a higher propensity to appear

on top of the News Feed, and subsequently

attracting more quality fans to participate and

engage with the brand in a multiplier e"ect.

(ii) Quality of Content

No matter the original objective of

establishing a brand’s presence on Facebook,

every brand would want to ensure that their

updates would receive maximum exposure and

coverage. To do that, the said brand needs to stay

on top of the News Feed and have a constantly

high Edgerank with their fans. A Brand’s strategy

on Facebook is to consider every single fan

interaction as an opportunity to get insights from

their potential customers and learning more about

them. Thus, to achieve a high Edgerank and after

taking the formula into consideration, the goal is to

post content, polls, and questions that would

constantly engage with the fans connected to the

brand. With a greater variety and engagement

with fans, fans would leave more “likes” and

comments on your brand’s Objects and thus, your

brand’s fan page will get increased visibility and

exposure on the News Feed. There would be a

multiplier e"ect as the News Feed will be more

likely to show a popular Object which has been

commented upon multiple times by mutual friends.

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(iii) Timing

It is also clear that timing plays a crucial

role in determining the maximum exposure for

your Brand’s object on the News Feed. There

should be a clear content strategy with a regular

schedule which allows the brand to post content,

such as status updates and photos, at least once or

twice a day. Posting back-to-back updates too

often will definitely hinder the ability to get certain

content noticed by your fans, and the distribution

of fans to post ratio will be uneven.

Conclusion for Brands

To ful ly understand and maximise

Edgerank, brands must return to the objectives for

establishing a presence on Facebook. One of the

key ideas is to encourage fans to build a buzz

around the brand’s page, share it with their peers,

enhance the value of the brand’s presence on

Facebook, and pushing it to be a talking point on

top of the News Feeds. The presence of Edgerank

is thus a clear indication that the power in making

or breaking a brand’s popularity and success on

Facebook lies in the hands of the consumers, and

not solely the brand itself.

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Appendix

Diagram 2: Amplifying the Edgerank

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