This agency:2 article provides the top 5 tips for improving your Facebook EdgeRank, the unique algorithm which decides what posts appear when users log on to Facebook.

1. Top 5 Tips for improving your Facebook
EdgeRank
Ever wondered why your brand’s Facebook Page is not receiving as many Likes and comments as you
hoped for? It could well be that many of your Fans have not even seen your post due to Facebook’s
EdgeRank system. EdgeRank is Facebook’s unique algorithm which decides what posts appear in the
‘Top News’ stream, the default Page when you log on to Facebook.
Nobody outside Facebook completely understands the unique (and top secret) factors that enable a
post to be positioned at the top of the ‘Top News’ results page. It is, however, largely based on
three main factors: affinity, weight and timing. When these factors are combined they have the
ability to push content to the News Feed’s ‘Top News’ page.
EdgeRank, then, challenges brands to produce appealing and engaging content in order to ensure
they are seen above other brands. Here are our Top 5 tips on how to optimise your content so that it
will appear on the ‘Top News’ page:
1. Encourage audience engagement
EdgeRank is weighted so that activities that require higher levels of user engagement get a higher
score than those that don’t. So, instead of just aiming for Likes, brands need to get people to
comment on, and share, their content.
If brands want increased fan participation they need to provide something that people want to
engage with. With social media you are fighting for people’s hard earned attention - brands must
offer content that is worth their audience’s time. As with all social media it is about having relevant
conversations. You must ask questions and not just push out content and hope that people will
respond. It has been proven that posts which include a clear and simple call to action achieve higher
engagement levels.
So: make your posts fun, timely and engaging and ask your Fans to join in with you (for example,
through asking for user generated content, product feedback or running competitions). You’ll be
surprised how many will enthusiastically do so.
2. Personalise your brand on Facebook
It’s important to remember that, when it comes to EdgeRank, manual posts have more weight than
posts automated through apps. More than this, your Facebook Page needs to be human and

2. personalised. You must develop a relationship with your audience: be ready to thank them for their
replies and for sharing their opinions with you.
Each social platform demands a bespoke tone of voice and content strategy – this is vital when it
comes to engaging with your fans on Facebook. They can tell which posts are automated or those
that have been written for Twitter (e.g. featuring hashtags) and which have been personalised – and
for this reason auto posts do not produce as much engagement.
Efficiency and timesaving is important in the social sphere but when it leads to a decrease in
engagement it simply isn’t worth it. Show your fans you care enough to personalise each post and
respond to their queries and opinions.
3. Stand out with rich media
With so many brands on Facebook it can be easy for your brand messages to get lost in a sea of
content. Videos and photos are a way to ensure that your content stands out – plus, this type of rich
media always performs well on Facebook. People love rich media content – videos and photos are
much more immediate and, in many instances, more interesting than lengthy text updates which
means people are more likely to engage with them. This engagement means that your posts will
appear in the ‘Top News’ of your Fans’ News Feed.
Depending upon the brand, sometimes text based status updates aren’t engaging enough to push
your posts into the ‘Top News’ Feed. Videos and photos are more likely to grab people’s attention
and they also seem to be a favoured by the News Feed algorithm, carrying a high weight score that
will influence EdgeRank.
Use these videos to increase engagement. Don’t just push out this content, ask people what they
think and contextualise it with a question. Getting people to comment will then add a highly
weighted interaction score and build affinity with new users.
4. Timing is the key
Social media is all about timing, in all its senses. With the need for brands to publish content that
naturally creates discussions and that people will have an opinion about, making it timely is crucial.
The more time-relevant the post the more effective it will be in engaging people and drawing
responses from them. This could be seen recently in the UK with so many brands citing the Royal
Wedding in their posts.
Facebook is also a fantastic way to drive promotion of time-sensitive campaigns. If there is a deal
being run or you want to count down to the close of a competition, Facebook is an ideal platform to
successfully engage. As timing and relevancy is so central to the EdgeRank algorithm, posts that
contain content relating to this kind of promotion will have greater success in appearing in the News
Feed.
Timing in another way is also crucial. You need to understand the best times to post - analyse the
responses on your Page and leverage these insights to post at the best possible time. Knowing the
optimum frequency of these posts is also crucial. You don’t want to overwhelm your fans with too
many posts.

3. 5. Use the data
Brands need to take advantage of Facebook Insights in order to understand their audience and what
content they are interested in. Facebook provides a range of data that will highlight what works and
what doesn’t. Analyse the average number of comments and Likes for your posts and look out for
trends. These insights can be used to construct a messaging plan that will maximise engagement.
It is important to keep a constant eye on what is happening and tweak messages to make sure all
content is optimised. Use the insights provided to make the most of the topics that consistently do
well – and drop the ones that never perform. It sounds obvious but you’d be amazed by how many
big brands push out the same content that gets little or no engagement.