Understanding social media algorithms

Imagine you’re dating three very different people

Twitter

Facebook

If we spend more time talking about social media internally than we do talking to our customers on social media, something’s wrong.

Gary Larson’s “Far Side.”
  1. Facebook does not rank what it shows you. It ranks who shows it to you. So if your complaint is: I see all these political posts. Or, I don’t care about sports. Or, I don’t like people’s posts about their babies and pets — Facebook doesn’t care. And, in fairness, there’s not much they can do about that, anyway. If you asked the average person who sees their Facebook posts they might respond “My friends.” But it’s more accurate to say “My friends whom I engage a lot on Facebook, and potentially their friends whom they engage a lot on Facebook. You might have noticed that you have friends on Facebook you never see even though you always passively enjoy what they post. At the same time you may have Facebook friends you see all the time who bug you so much that you leave critical comments on their posts and give them the little angry emoji often. This scenario is like the old Gary Larson “Far Side” cartoon on the human giving specific orders to a dog named Ginger, who only hears “BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH GINGER.” Facebook doesn’t understand your gripes at all. It only registers that you engage with one friend and not another. You can select up to 30 people or Pages to see first, at the top of your News Feed. Click the little down arrow at the top right of any Facebook page. Click News Feed preferences. Click Prioritize who to see first Select a person or Page to see first. Facebook explains more here. How to Geek has more on prioritizing friends here.
  2. Facebook wants you to stay on Facebook. Almost all brands, and many people with a pet project or website, want to drive traffic. Too bad. Facebook is like a Vegas casino with no clock on the wall, or a massive mall that provides for all your needs. NPR demonstrated just how insular Facebook can be with a 2014 April Fool’s Facebook post of a story titled “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?” The post generated 50,000 likes, shares, and comments — but very few people actually clicked on the link — which led to a page congratulating “genuine readers,” and disclosing that there was no actual article. So while it’s true that Facebook has recently surpassed Google in referral traffic, according to one study, it’s also important to realize that much of that traffic was to media outlets’ articles on lifestyle, entertainment, politics, and local news. Facebook has for years cut back on the reach of publishers. Brands fare even worse. So while most brands need to have the second digital storefront of a Facebook page, it’s just not realistic to expect it to drive traffic to the first digital storefront, the brand’s website.
  3. Facebook likes brands that act like people. Marketing blogs and advertising agencies bemoan the declining reach of organic posts on Facebook — and that is a legitimate beef backed up with lots of data and frank admissions by Facebook. But it’s important to keep in mind that marketers and advertising agencies benefit by propagating that news. They want you to think it’s hard to reach your customers, that you need professional guidance and insight, and that advertising is increasingly complex and expensive. The fact is: You don’t need to crack the code or be a Facebook guru or get rockstar metrics. In fact, if you find yourself or your company using terms like that, stop talking to each other and start talking to your customers on Facebook. I’ve tried to use a very simple formula in my decade working in social media. If we spend more time talking about social media internally than we do talking to our customers on social media, something’s wrong. If you get a genuine conversation going with your community, then it can be a good idea to promote posts on Facebook. But paying without making that genuine connection first is a mistake. Promoted posts might not work at all, and even if they do, what will happen when the money runs out?
Facebook’s referral traffic is high – but to established publishers’ top stories in certain categories.

LinkedIn

If your LinkedIn feed is boring, that’s on you.

Buster Keaton finds himself romantically pursued in “Seven Chances.”

--

--

Former WSJ reporter and syndicated columnist now writing crypto and cybersecurity. The Paris Review praised my Johnny Cash post.

Get the Medium app

A button that says 'Download on the App Store', and if clicked it will lead you to the iOS App store
A button that says 'Get it on, Google Play', and if clicked it will lead you to the Google Play store
Jeff Elder

Former WSJ reporter and syndicated columnist now writing crypto and cybersecurity. The Paris Review praised my Johnny Cash post.