Appearing in Facebook news feeds is a challenging yet highly desirable goal of B2C products and services. Competition to appear more frequently and higher in Facebook news feeds is tougher than ever due to the explosion of social media posts and Facebook’s algorithm tweaks that reduce the importance of brands.
Disgruntled marketers complain that Facebook algorithm is designed to force them to advertise. Others say the company’s foremost priorities are to retain users and encourage people to remain on the platform longer. To meet those goals Facebook must deliver what people consider most relevant to them – and that’s exactly what Facebook’s newest algorithm seeks to do, at least according to Facebook.
Most consumer brands use marketing-type messages in the Facebook news feeds. Perhaps following a more news-oriented approach – adhering more to the actual name and intent of the feed – can ultimately be more effective. A PR-type approach that contains educational content may well gain more and better placements and more consumer response than obvious marketing messages. Entertaining or educational stories can secure superior relevance ratings from the Facebook algorithm as well as increased engagement from more people.
How to be Relevant?
How does Facebook determine what’s relevant? Marketers agree that the consumer’s previous interactions with the brand page are a deciding factor. But some say simply including certain “trigger words” in posts can boost organic reach.
Speaking at the recent F8 conference, Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s vice president of product for news feed, explained that recency is an important but not over-riding ranking factor. Older posts still rank high if deemed relevant to the connected individual. If his cousin announced her engagement but he didn’t view his news feed until days later, her post will still rank above more recent, more mundane posts, Mosseri explained.
Exactly how can algorithm determine relevance? “The only way this seems possible is through the use of trigger words, certain terms and phrases that the News Feed algorithm picks up on in order to rank a post higher,” postulates Andrew Hutchinson at Social Media Today.
Facebook is likely reluctant to admit they exist due to fear that marketers will over use them in attempts to game its algorithm.
More Facebook Advice for Brands
Mosseri also offered these tips for brands attempting to increase their organic reach.
Write descriptive headlines. Users prefer headlines that accurately summarize the content – not click-bait.
Avoid overly promotional content. Too much promotional content over time can cause viewers to lose interest in your brand over time.
Experiment. What works for one publisher may not work for others. Trying different formats can reveal what your audience prefers, be it videos, long-form posts or images.
Use publisher tools. Tools like Facebook Insights show how your content performs and gaugethe audience’s response. With Audience Optimization tools you can select the post’s topics to tell the algorithm who might be interested in the content.
Seek stronger connections. Users see more content from others they interact with more. “When you first sign up to Facebook, your News Feed is totally empty – it’s a blank slate,” Mosseri explains. “And then, slowly but surely over time, you friend the people you care about, you follow the publishers you’re interested in, and you build your own, personalized experience.”
A Billion Posts Analyzed
BuzzSumo analyzed over 1 billion posts from 30 million Facebook brand pages. The analysis reveals that:
The post formats that obtain the most engagement are questions and images.
Short-form text posts of less than 50 characters get more interaction than longer posts.
Videos that are directly embedded get over six times the engagement of embedded YouTube videos.
Posts without hashtags get more interaction than ones with hashtags.
Posts published between 10 p.m. and midnight get more engagement than other times. That’s because posts published then have less competition for attention.
Posts published on Sunday get more engagement on average, also due to less competition.
Posts that link to longer form articles over 1,000 words get the most engagement.
Posting images via Instagram appear to provide a 23% increase in engagement.
Bottom Line: These insights from a top Facebook executive and a BuzzSumo analysis can help marketers increase organic reach on the world’s largest social media platform. Perhaps most importantly, different types of content perform differently for different brands. Tracking posts and measuring reactions can reveal the strategy that works best for your brand. Including PR staff or consultants when planning and implementing your Facebook marketing strategy may help improve results.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
