Friday Facts: Facebook tweaks algorithms again based on new information

Every time we turn around it seems like Facebook is changing the algorithms and we, as page owners, feel like we're getting shafted by the changes. However, this time it sounds like Facebook is tweaking the algorithms to our favor - whether or not it really has will take a few months for us to see, but it does sound promising.

Facebook has realized that just because people don't like, comment or share doesn't mean that an article isn't worthy to be in the news feed. It could simply mean that the person didn't feel like doing any of those things at that time, etc.

This article, over at The Guardian, explains it more in detail and what the changes could mean for page owners: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/15/facebook-tweaks-news-feed-algorithm-time-spent

Now we get to wait and see if this actually improves views or not.

Friday Facts: Facebook Promising to Clean Up News Feed with New Algorithm

There has been a lot of buzz this past week talking about Facebook is planning to clean up the news feed by reducing the like/comment/share baiting posts that we see frequently in our news feeds, but the question is, how will it affect legitimate pages who are just trying to increase the number of people who see what they post because Facebook's algorithms suck and shows your posts to less than 5% of your fanbase.

You can check out the official announcement here.

Facebook answers the question about how will affect pages with the following:

Will this affect my Page?
The vast majority of publishers on Facebook are not posting feed spam so they should not be negatively impacted by these changes, and, if anything, may see a very small increase in News Feed distribution.

A smaller set of publishers who are frequently and intentionally creating feed spam will see their distribution decrease over the next few months.  We’re making these changes to ensure that feed spam content does not drown out the content that people really want to see on Facebook from the friends and Pages they care about.

The Next Web gives their views on the changes here.

Facebook, however, doesn't address how it will filter out the spammy, like-baiting posts from people who are legitimately trying to increase their views by encouraging their followers to like, share or comment or are running contests with those specifications.

What are your thoughts?  Is this a good thing?  How will it change how you market to your fanbase if you're a person who tries to run contests with like/sharing/comment posts?

Friday Facts: The Hard Truth About How The Facebook News Feed Works Now

Once again, another article I'm linking to offsite that provides a lot of information about changes Facebook made in December 2013. If you're like me, you noticed the number of people viewing your posts drastically dropped after December, no matter how big or small your Facebook Page was.

Few people understand how the new algorithms work, and this article doesn't totally explain them either - but it does provide proof that Facebook wants you to spend money to market your brand, large or small.

Just to quote a small section of the article:

• Facebook's guiding principle is that the News Feed should be full of stuff Facebook users want to see.
• Facebook has changed its mind about brands. It has decided that users do not really want to see a News Feed full of updates from brands – Tide, Dove, Pampers, Nyquil, etc. 

Not sure about anyone else, but if I like a page or are friends with someone I -WANT- to see what they're posting, not have Facebook decide what my feed should be full of or not full of.  And you may have also noticed that you see far less from friends who you know post regularly and your feed is now a few select people instead of everyone you know.

If you're interested in learning more, I strongly suggest you read more here: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-facebook-news-feed-works-2014-2#ixzz2tJKpHMGP

Wednesday Words: Algorithms and Social Media

Every so often when you come across articles explaining why your page posts only reach a certain percentage of users who like your page, the term algorithms pops up and are left relatively unexplained.  And if you are like me, you remember learning about algorithms in school (vaguely), but you haven't had to use them in the 10 years since college, so you forget what they're used for.  And you wonder why algorithms would be used in social media.

While algorithms is a math term, it is also used in programming and where social media is concerned, algorithms is a program used to determine who sees what percentage of  posts you post to your various social media outlets.

Each social media tool has different ways to calculate how your users will see what percentage of your posts.  This is called an algorithm.  Facebook changes the name of theirs, the most recent one being Edge Rank and it determines not only how much you see from pages you like, but how much you see from friends based on how much you - and others - interact with your friends.

Most of these algorithms are based on user/friend engagement.  If you see a page liking it's own post, or a friend liking their posts, it's likely not because they're being narcissistic, it's because they've read about how the algorithms work and if they want more of their friends or likes to see the post, they like it.

What's worse, is once you have the algorithms figured out for each form of social media, they often change.

TLDR version: Algorithms are formulas used by engines in social media to determine who sees what on their walls.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media.  These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media.   You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.