Many brands have spent the past several years getting consumers to ‘like’ them on the world’s most popular social network, Facebook. And for a seemingly good reason: when it comes to location, location, location in social, you can’t beat Facebook, which may surpass the 1bn registered user mark this year.

But after a recent lavish event Facebook held for brands in New York, brands may be asking whether Facebook is working for them, or they’re working for Facebook.

As AdAge details, Facebook used the event to remind brands that only 16% of their Facebook fans actually see the content they post organically on the social network. That’s because, in an effort to protect the user experience, Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm filters out content that may not be relevant.

But in the run up to the social network’s IPO, Facebook is willing to give brands a greater ability to ensure that their marketing messages reach a much larger audience. For a price of course.

AdAge explains:

Facebook unveiled a tool, Reach Generator, that will let marketers buy all the reach they want. Priced according to the size of a brand’s fan base, the tool is designed to take a piece of content and amplify its reach by resurfacing it as an ad.

The pitch is that just 16% of fans currently see organic content posted by brands: Most of it is weeded out by Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, designed to enhance users’ experience by putting only the most relevant content in their news feeds. Using the paid ad tool could increase a brand’s exposure percentage to as high as 75%.

As PHD USA’s chief digital officer, Craig Atkinson, told AdAge, “Many [clients] have spent significant sums to generate these fan bases, and many of them thought of those people as though they’re an owned asset, almost like an email list … but now it looks like rented media.” Rented media indeed.

Brands really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, this has been Facebook’s modus operandi for some time. From the numerous privacy changes it has foisted upon its users to the promises it has made to developers and then broken,

Facebook rarely does favors for others. Now that it’s going public and needs to put the pedal to the metal in the drive for revenue, brands are being taken on a ride many of them didn’t see coming, or didn’t want to see coming.

More at: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9211-with-ipo-looming-facebook-reminds-brands-all-your-fans-belong-to-us?

“The average Post Lifetime for a Facebook Brand Page Update is 3 hours and 7 minutes”

This nugget is baed on considering that each individual Post has a “lifetime”. A Post is considered dead when the growth in engagement is less than 10% of the largest growth of engagement between hourly snapshots.

This data was sampled for EdgeRankChecker customers for the month of December, 2011 across 500+ Pages and over 30,000 individual Posts. The average Page size was approximately 140,000. Page size was not found to effect this.

More at: http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/facebook-marketing/how-long-does-a-facebook-post-live/

Not all Edges are equal

Now that we’ve ascertained the fundamentals behind what creates an edge, it’s time to look at the secret sauce pictured above. While no one other than Facebook insiders knows exactly how the algorithm functions, The Daily Beast undertook a study in 2010 to put the mechanism to the test, and discovered a number of valuable insights that we can use to guestimate how EdgeRank functions.

As the formula notes, Sigma, or EdgeRank, is composed of three primary components; Affinity, Weight, and Time.

Affinity

Think of Affinity as friendship bracelets. The more bracelets you give to a particular person, the more often you’ll likely see them; in the school hallway, at lunch; perhaps the two of you even walk home together. It’s the same story with Facebook’s Affinity score. The more often you like, view, comment, click on a friend’s object, the higher your Affinity score towards this person rises. Likewise for brands, the more often you check in with Red Bull, either via commenting, liking a photo or two, etc., the more Red Bull-centric your News Feed will become.

It should be noted that according to The Daily Beast’s research, Affinity score is a one-way street only. Affinity is from one user towards another, and not vice versa. Meaning, even an army of Acme Toilet Cleaner Facebook marketers can not command more attention on the platform simply by clicking incessantly on fans’ items in order to gain more exposure. A particularly noteworthy item for marketers: as it would appear Facebook also relies on ye old adage, Content is King.

Weight

When it comes to edges, Facebook places a great deal of importance on weight. Remember, to Facebook, eyeballs=revenue. The longer an end user engages or interacts with content, the better it is for Facebook. Thus, Facebook applies a Weight to each object to help determine the object’s overall, you guessed it, EdgeRank.

Again, while no clear-cut scientific data can support this claim, it would appear as though the hierarchy of Facebook EdgeRank importance is as follows:

1. Photo/Video
2. Links
3. Status updates

 

But it’s not just the posted content that factors into EdgeRank. Remember the Affinity score above? How many photos did you “Like” today? And how many images did you leave a comment on? And there we have it – the comments. Comments are the single most valuable factor in an object’s EdgeRank. The Facebook reasoning here is engagement. Meaning, it takes much more effort on the end users’ part to type out a comment than to click a “Like” button.

A side note: Ever notice how a politically charged image, or even status update can generate what seems like a never-ending forum of back and forths? If you or your brand has the perseverance and conviction, go ahead and throw out some thoughts on the upcoming presidential race, and watch the comments roll in. Having said that, political comments can, and often do, lead to polarization, so use at your own risk.

Time

No one likes to read yesterday’s news, and Facebook knows it. In order to remain up-to-the-minute relevant, Facebook wisely employs a “freshness” factor to all edged objects. It’s this “freshness” factor that helps determine what and when you see it.

For example, major world news events always bring a massive spike of activity to Facebook, readjusting a wide variety of Affinity and Weight scores. Events such as the death of Bin Laden make their way across Facebook’s systems, and receive a large number of comments, likes, interaction, etc., but that doesn’t mean that this news should still remain at the top of your News feed weeks later. Again, Facebook’s Time factor ensures that Top News really is Top, and not “last weeks.”