Facebook’s EdgeRank: What is it and How Does it Work?

Although there is confusion on whether EdgeRank is dead or not, the important thing to remember is that the principles behind EdgeRank are alive and well, and affecting your Facebook page, whether you like it or not.

What is PageRank?

EdgeRank is Facebook’s Algorithm that determines what posts appear, and where they appear, on Facebook users Newsfeed. Basically, it is a way to get the most interesting posts out, while keeping the boring ones under wraps. Moral of the story: If you are not having many people see your posts, try to spice them up a little and engage your audience more.

The Components of EdgeRank

When it comes to EdgeRank, the first things we need to know is what an Edge is. To keep it simple, an Edge is basically any action that occurs on Facebook. I.e. comments, status updates, likes, share, etc. There are many more that can happen, these are just the most common.

Now that we know what an Edge is, it is time to dig into the components of EdgeRank. EdgeRank is made up of three variables: Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay. Each of these plays a major part in EdgeRank, and can greatly affect the outcome of your EdgeRank. The following are definitions of each component:

Affinity

Affinity is a one way relationship with a user and an Edge. It basically describes how close of a relationship a brand and the users have. You can influence the Affinity by commenting, sharing, liking, clicking and messaging.

Weight

Weight is used to determine how valuable a particular action is. For example, commenting on a post requires much more involvement than simply “liking” a post, so commenting is given a greater weight. The more comments you have, the higher your EdgeRank will be. Granted, the more like you have the greater it will be as well, but some actions have a greater influence.

Time Decay

Time Decay is how long an Edge has been active, or alive. The longer it has been active, the less valuable it is, and vice versa.  It is understood as 1/( time since action occurred). For example, the longer a post has been active, the less value is placed on it. This helps to keep fresh and interesting content streaming though Facebook feeds, while filtering out the old, not-so-relevant content.

So What?

Now that we have discussed what EdgeRank is, we ask ourselves the question, “So what?” “Why does this pertain to me?” The truth is that it pertains to everyone. EdgeRank determines how many people do and don’t see what you are posting. How does this affect you? If you are spending money on Facebook ads and have a low EdgeRank, you are not making the most of your marketing dollars.

EdgeRank is a great tool that Facebook has provided. When looking at our personal Facebook accounts, we all hate having random, non-relevant posts come through our feed. That, in essence, is what EdgeRank is trying to prevent. Is there a way to beat the system? Yeah! It’s called good, thought out, meaningful posts that will drive your audience to interact with your page. Remember, your Facebook page is one of the many faces of your business. The better your Facebook page is, the better engagement you will get.