If you speak to any search engine optimisation expert and mention the term ‘PageRank‘, they’ll easily be able to reel off a long and detailed history about the history of Google and the structure of the internet.  If you mention the term ‘EdgeRank’, they might shoot you a look of bewilderment and confusion, because when we discuss ‘EdgeRank’, we are entering the domain of the social media marketer.

People unfamiliar with the intricacies of the social media marketing, specifically Facebook marketing, might be unaware that Facebook has its own internal algorithm that it uses to determine what it shows us in our news feed.  It’s a similar concept to the way Google personalises our search results based on social media activity and previous search history.  In this blog I’d like to go into a bit more detail about ‘EdgeRank’ and how it might influence social media marketing.

What is EdgeRank?

‘EdgeRank’ is based on a relatively simple formula that looks like this:

I’ll try and make it easier to understand if, like me, algebra isn’t exactly your strong suit.  There are three components you need to grasp to fully appreciate this formula:

•    The ‘U’ in the equation is based on something called the ‘affinity score’ between the person who created the ‘edge’ and the viewing users.  There are several factors that affect an affinity score including how often you look at the persons profile, chat to them, send them direct messages, are tagged in photos with them, or are tagged in their status updates.  The more often you do the things I mentioned, the higher your affinity score will be, and the more likely you are to have an update or post appear in their news feed.

•    The ‘W’ in the equation represents the format of the ‘edge’, meaning whether it is a comment, a like, a wall post etc. because different types of ‘edge’ have different levels of relevancy.  It is more likely, for example, that a comment has more weight than a like, and therefore might be treated differently by the ‘EdgeRank’ algorithm.

•    The ‘D’ in the equation represents the time factor.  It is generally a rule of thumb that the older an Edge is, the less important it becomes.  There might be exceptions that could be recalculated by the ‘EdgeRank’ algorithm depending on how much social interaction an Edge attracts, but generally older Edge’s will drop down in a person’s news feed.

To determine an objects EdgeRank, these factors are multiplied for each Edge, and then added together.  The higher the score, the more likely an object is to appear in a viewer’s news feed.  Creating an object (updating a status, sharing a link, posting a new picture) is also considered an Edge by Facebook, which is why certain things appear in our News Feed before any social interaction has occurred.

So…

Why do I need to know about EdgeRank?

That last section of the blog might seem quite technical, but at its core is a simple message that is really at the heart of this blog post.  An object is more likely to appear in peoples news feed if people they know have been interacting with it or with the objects source.  This means, for businesses who are using Facebook as a marketing platform (particularly if they want full value), they need to be posting content that will get people interacting with it if they really want to increase their brand outreach across Facebook.

This is key, because the more news feeds that your content appears in on Facebook, the more likely people are to keep interacting with it, and this perpetuates the spread of the content and can dramatically improve brand visibility on Facebook.  This is why it is so important to consider the content you are sharing on your Facebook business page, and make sure it is valuable, original and engaging enough that users interact with it.

Now you know a bit about EdgeRank and how it is influencing what appears in other peoples News Feeds, do you think you might be changing your approach to Facebook Marketing or other forms of social media marketing?  We’d love some feedback.

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