Carol Lawrence shares her take away from a recent article on Buffer breaking down new Facebook changes and what the Facebook Algorithm likes and dislikes.
There have been a lot of Facebook changes, and as always it can be confusing for Facebook page owners to keep track and know what the best strategy is for increasing exposure, engagement and conversions.
Buffer has put out a really informative article on the algorithm changes and what’s working and what’s not. I don’t think what’s working is ever set in stone. Facebook changes so much you have to keep testing, post a variety of content and explore what your audience relates to. Post from the heart, keep it relevant for your niche and stay active!
Here are the highlights from Buffer’s awesome article. When you are done reading this article be sure to head over to Buffer to read the entire article. It covers much more. I share their tips with some added advice of my own in blue.
The algorithm loves …
- Posts with lots of comments – Agreed, posts with lot’s of activity get seen over and over again providing more chances for engagement. People seem to be more willing to comment on posts that are generating a conversation surrounding the post topic.
- Posts with lots of likes
- Post types that users seem to prefer more than others (e.g., photo, video, or status update)
- Posts that reference a trending topic
- Posts that receive a high volume of likes, comments, or shares in a short time
- Link posts
- Videos uploaded to Facebook that receive a large number of views or extended viewing duration – I’ve definitely noticed this. Videos seem to be really popular on my pages but especially videos directly uploaded to Facebook from a smartphone or camera.
- Posts that tag other pages within the text – This seems to be hit and miss. It helps sometimes and sometimes I don’t think it’s actually showing up on the tagged page.
- Posts that are liked or commented on by one’s friends
- Posts from pages that one interacts with often
- Post types that one interacts with often
- Posts from pages with complete profile information
- Posts from pages where the fan base overlaps with the fan base of other known high-quality pages
- Images and videos that have not previously appeared in the Open Graph
- Links that have not been posted before – Facebook is liking new fresh content.
Don’t do this: The algorithm does not like….
- Clickbait
- Frequently circulated content and repeated posts – Don’t use the same thing over and over but it is ok to share a very popular meme every few weeks. I recently watched a very expensive training event with Brendon Burchard and one of his key tips was to reshare the same quote/meme with his audience every few weeks. It’s one of his very own photos with a quote that’s very popular with his audience, so they love seeing it over and over. I think if your audience is large enough, their choices and activity are going to over ride the normal recommendations.
- Like-baiting – ( No more asking your fans to like, comment and share.) To increase engagement ask them open ended questions. Share trivia questions with multiple choice answers. Provide multiple chances for engagement. Some pages do great with fill in the blank questions or daily gratitudes. Think outside of the box. You’re an entrepreneur, we don’t have a box. 🙂
- Posts that include spammy links
- Text-only status updates from pages
- Posts that are frequently hidden or reported (a sign of low quality)
- Posts that contain the words “like, comment, or share”
- Posts that receive negative feedback categorizes as “meme content”
- Posts that are classified as memes by Facebook’s visual analysis of overlayed text on image – Time will tell on this one. I’m still seeing these get a lot of attention.
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Carol Lawrence is an author, social media manager and consultant for authors and busy business owners. She is the owner of Social Media Help 4 U and has trained with Kate Buck Jr., Sandi Krawkoski, Kelley Fidel and Frank Kern. Learn more about her services including social media management, consulting and social media assessments here.
She has studied the teachings of Fabienne Fredrickson, Amy Porterfield, Mari Smith, Ali Brown and many more.
