Starting with this blog post today, Facebook has pledged to be more open about updates to its News Feed feature, responding to complaints from users about being less than forthcoming.
One of the first things we get some insight into is how posts in News Feed are ranked. It’s not just chronological order. Here’s what they said:
The News Feed algorithm responds to signals from you, including, for example:
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How often you interact with the friend, Page, or public figure (like an actor or journalist) who posted
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The number of likes, shares and comments a post receives from the world at large and from your friends in particular
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How much you have interacted with this type of post in the past
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Whether or not you and other people across Facebook are hiding or reporting a given post
In addition, Facebook announced a tweak to its current News Feed algorithm. Now posts that might disappear at the bottom of the scroll will reappear at the top, if they’ve received a lot of comments or likes. In this way, News Feed can capitalize on more engagement for a popular post and makes sure you don’t miss it.
This is good news for marketers who get some great hits on an updated post but have to keep refreshing it to make sure it gets to the top at different times. Now, if they get it right once, Facebook will keep putting popular posts on top so that everyone gets a chance to see it.
