Cerebra

Give your Facebook updates the Edge.

Most of you have heard of this new buzzword Edgerank by now. For those of you that haven’t, well, it’s about time you caught up.

At first I thought it was just another term to add to the arsenal that us folks in digital would be able to throw around in a pitch or status meeting. Like a new “viral” to get existing or potential clients a little aroused. Looking deeper at research though, there seems to be some substance and unlike the “V” word, it doesn’t happen by complete chance.

You’ve heard of that saying, “If it isn’t on the first page of a Google search, it doesn’t exist” right? The same is true for Facebook. According to the world’s most popular social network, 95% of users only view ‘Top News’ posts, which is why it’s so important to be there - think of Edgerank like another form of SEO.

Very few people are privy to the exact details of this algorithm. However, people on the outside have broken it down into the following formula and believe it to be pretty close to the truth.

Edgerank = Affinity x Weight x Time

Affinity: This translates to how often a fan engages with your post. The more often a fan engages with the Page (such as views, Likes, comments, click-throughs or shares) the higher the affinity between your Page and that fan. We’ve all seen it work, go Facebook stalk somebody and all of a sudden their dinner updates are all up in your newsfeed.

Likewise, the friends of our engaged fans that have a high affinity with each other will see the page’s updates pop up every time that interaction takes place. This is where Friends of fans (potential reach) comes into play.

Weight: This is determined by engagements. The more unique engagements from different users, the higher the weight score. This means that 20 comments from 20 different users is better than 20 comments from 2 fans. Also, the kind of update plays a role, for example, a plain text update scores lower than an update containing links or rich media. This is because click-throughs to pictures, videos or your website are more credible engagements than a mere ‘Like’ in Facebook’s eyes. Facebook rewards updates with higher yielding engagements.

Time: Well this one is easy. The more recent your update, the higher your score. Each update has a shelf life. People in the industry believe that this is approximately 3 hours but it really does vary between pages / brands. If you don’t update your page for a week, your Edgerank will decrease dramatically.

According to this formula, your Edgerank would vary from update to update and this influences your page’s average ranking. I could be mistaken, but I guestimate that this average is measured over the last 28 days.

There are a few hints and tips on how you can get your Edgerank up. We can’t tell you everything we know for obvious reasons, but here are five of them:
1. Ask questions instead of making statements. Never forget, you need responses and questions need answers.
2. Relate to recent ‘real-life’ events. People are talking about the news, so get involved.
3. Strong calls to action. Ask fans for likes, comments, or shares (you’re allowed to)
4. Rich media is gold.
5. Fill in the blanks are your best friend.

Remember, your fans can and will ‘like’ other pages. If you want your updates to get seen, you have to fight for the right. See you on the battlefield.