FACEBOOK'S 2018 UPDATE: A BIG CHANGE TO EDGERANK

As we well know, EdgeRank is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine which posts should appear in your news feed. It is what makes posts from someone you just chatted with on Messenger show up instead of a post from someone you don't interact with as often, or at least not as far as Facebook is concerned.

In the same way, the algorithm works for business pages and determines the "affinity level" someone has with a certain page to decide whether to show them its posts.

It turns out that in 2018 we are facing a big change in the algorithm; there is even talk that it marks the end of the era of organic reach on Facebook.

A few months ago, Facebook announced a pilot test in some countries (such as Serbia, Sri Lanka, and Bolivia) where it said that posts from business pages (or fan pages) would no longer appear in users' main news feed, but in a tab they called "Explore."

The ridiculous thing about this is that even if you were a fan of a page on Facebook, you would have to go to a separate tab to see its posts. Would you do that? Of course not!

After this scare, they announced that they would not put this change into practice; however, they announced the big change behind the EdgeRank algorithm. Some say the scare was on purpose, so that we would take comfort in the fact that the real change would not be as serious as that.

What Is the Big Change to EdgeRank?

Mark Zuckerberg has always discussed and reiterated his vision of Facebook as the social network where everyone wants to spend more time, but in a way that is worthwhile; he wants his users to always have a reason to log in every day. He believes that to achieve this, users must connect with the people who matter most to them, and that is where business pages on Facebook do not fit in.

That is why the big algorithm change greatly affects the organic reach of fan page posts.

What Is the Change?

Now the important thing is to go from publishing relevant content to publishing meaningful content. To achieve this, there are several factors that will determine whether your content is meaningful and, therefore, rewarded (or punished) with reach.

What Are the Factors?

• Comments: The more comments, the better, but they must make sense and must be between users. Until recently, Facebook rewarded posts that had many comments, but it did not take their quality into account. Now it will value the comments made on your posts and how they generate interaction among the users themselves, not with the brand. Forget about a single period as a comment counting as a valuable comment.
• Videos: It has already been said that video is the king of content; however, Facebook will take into account whether you upload it directly there, and even better if it is completely live. It will no longer reward a video coming from YouTube as much; you will have to upload it there for it to be considered valuable. Facebook Live videos even generate much more interaction, and that is why, if you create them, Facebook will reward you with more organic reach.
• Post less but with more quality: Facebook will penalize fan pages that post too many things a day, since what it wants is to show content from various sources in users' news feeds, especially if it comes from friends and family. You need to focus on posting less, but making it very high-quality content that engages users and generates comments.
• Generate (but don't ask for) likes, comments, shares, and reactions: Facebook places a lot of value on reactions and likes, as well as shares and comments, but you shouldn't ask for them. If you start asking for "Likes" if you prefer Coca-Cola or "Haha" if you prefer Pepsi, Facebook will penalize you, and heavily.

How Can You Benefit From the EdgeRank Change?

We have already mentioned the changes we are facing, but now it is time to see how to address this situation and try not to be hurt by low reach under the new EdgeRank.

• Get likes, shares, and comments without having to ask for them. Some content generates more engagement than other content, so you should try to increase the shares of your posts with these tips: mention influencers in your industry, since they might share it if they see it; post at the times your users are on Facebook; use short, powerful phrases; and use eye-catching images.
• Teach your users how to mark you as "See First." Create a post encouraging your users to mark you as "See First" if they like your posts. That way, they won't miss your posts.

• Create videos you can upload to Facebook. The videos Facebook will spread the most are the ones you do live, but if you don't have content for that, try uploading the videos you already have, or the ones you produce later, directly there.
• Add several images to your posts. If your post includes more than one image, Facebook will reward it, even above posts that include a link with a preview. Try it and you will see how your reach grows.
• Work on quality, a lot! Remember, you can't ask people to comment, share, etc., but when you publish high-quality content, people will inevitably comment on it.

Well, I hope you find our tips useful. What do you think of the changes to EdgeRank? How have they affected you? Have you managed to benefit? Tell us how you did it, leave us your comments below!