A new word has just cropped up in the lexicon of digital marketing and that word is Edge Rank. Have you ever wondered just how Facebook decides what is “Top News” and what’s not? For brands and people alike this can be frustrating because it buries some friends and stories while elevating others. Is my BFF no longer my BFF because Facebook doesn’t consider it “Top News”? or if I am a brand how do I get more impressions over time?

The answer is in Facebook’s ever evolving Edge Rank algorithm which I am sure like Google’s search algorithm will continue to be a work in progress. The algorithm can be expressed as the following from the great social media infographic from Moontoast:

For those of you who don’t remember summations, the formula basically breaks down into three parts:

• Affinity – The more you interact with a friend, like a brand’s post or comment, click through to a link or watch a video v. another brand or friend the affinity of that friend or brand is raised or lowered. This might make your BFF no longer your best friend forever, but your best friend this month until you start commenting or liking someone else’s stuff more.
• Weight – The more a piece of content has people like it, share it or comment on it the more likely it will become part of the Top News
• Time – The older something gets, the less likely it will be in Top News. For example while last week’s earthquake was a very much posted event, it’s already yesterday’s news.

So this is all well and good but what does it mean? Like search results from Google , these results are extremely targeted to reach people based on their past histories, but they do rely on some things you can control:

• Use the weight factor to your advantage. Ask people to like your content, or ask for comments by posing a question. This will grow your affinity.
• Time is not on your side. You need to post often to appear in the News Feed. Once a day is usually sufficient. Twice a day if you are big and try not to do more than three times because then it’s just annoying and you may start to lose fans.
• You must have an audience to throw your weight around. If you don’t have more than a couple of hundred fans, you will need to advertise both on your website and as a Facebook Ad. With no audience, if you ask for a comment on your post, all you will hear is crickets.

The last thing to remember is the algorithm is always being updated by what you and your fans do. It’s not set in stone. If you hit a rough patch in terms of fan engagement you can still get back to the top. Great content produced day after day will create stickier fans and more appearances in Top News.