How the Facebook Algorithm Works

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How the Facebook Algorithm Works

In the past year, Facebook has been greatly reducing the number of people who can see your brand’s posts. The reason for this is because Facebook wants you to pay for ads. This can be extremely frustrating for businesses. It may take a little bit more work now, but it is possible to advertise to your followers without paying. Here are a few different kinds of post types to consider when sharing content.

Posts with Links
Link posts are pretty simple. A list post typically includes a link somewhere in the post. When you’re business shares a link, it is more than likely that the link goes to one of your business’ blogs or something on your website. These kinds of posts are seen the least by your Facebook followers. This is because Facebook does not like these kinds of posts because it drives people to a different platform.

Posts with Images
You can do a lot of things with images. On Facebook, you can add text or just upload an image by itself. Facebook won’t penalize you for posts containing photos because they keep your audience on the platform. Through an image post, you can create some really strong posts for your audience.

Posts with Video
Facebook really likes videos. With the popularity of smartphones and video editing apps, videos are very easy to capture and produce. Videos, like pictures, do not drive people away from Facebook. Facebook users can watch a ton of videos of the platform. After watching one video, Facebook starts to play other videos. This video autoplay can continue through more than five videos.

Posts with text
The beginning, middle, and end of social media is text. Posts that are completely in text are very rare nowadays, especially amongst businesses. Facebook actually likes them because of their rarity.

Now that we have gone over a few of the types of posts, let’s go over some of the ways to get around some of Facebook’s paywalls.

One of the really cool and easy ways to include a link in a post without Facebook catching it is including the link in the comments. It is still recommended to include a video or picture to catch viewer’s attention, but the important thing here is that Facebook will not limit your audience. On the post, write something like, “link is in the comments” so that your followers know it’s there!

Start thinking about going video heavy. Facebook and people in general like videos. Videos shot for Facebook don’t have to look like a movie. You can shoot them from your phone and use a simple video editing app to make it look good!

Facebook Instant Articles are a great way to build your brand on Facebook. This is a great route to take if you do not have a website or if you are not worried about traffic to your website. Facebook likes these articles because it keeps users glued to Facebook, so Facebook Instant Articles is a great way to go!

Hopefully, this helps your understanding of how Facebook’s algorithm works. Now go out there and create great content for your followers!