Facebook EdgeRank

Facebook EdgeRank is an algorithm that determines what posts show up in users’ News Feeds. It aims to show users the content most likely to be relevant and interesting to them.

However, EdgeRank has implications for businesses that use Facebook to promote their pages and posts. Understanding how EdgeRank works can help you determine if optimizing for it is worthy of your efforts.

How Facebook EdgeRank Works

EdgeRank assigns a score to every post based on signals like:

• The type of connection between the user and the post’s creator
• The number of comments, likes and shares a post receives
• How recently a user has interacted with the post’s creator
• Whether the post contains photos, videos or links

The higher a post’s EdgeRank score, the more likely it is to appear in users’ News Feeds.

Facebook constantly refines EdgeRank based on users’ interactions. If a post receives little engagement, Facebook may show it to fewer people in the future.

EdgeRank primarily aims to show users content from close friends and family over brands and businesses. Posts from strong connections earn higher placement in feeds.

Why Facebook EdgeRank Matters for Businesses

For businesses that rely on their Facebook page to promote content:

• EdgeRank means organic reach is extremely limited. Only a small fraction of followers typically see any given post.
• Increasing EdgeRank scores requires constantly posting engaging content that garners lots of interaction from followers.
• Boosting and advertising posts is often necessary to reach a sizable portion of followers.
• Frequency of posting and follower growth impact how often Facebook ranks posts higher in feeds. The more activity, the better.
• EdgeRank penalizes businesses for posting too frequently, favoring a moderate cadence of high-quality posts instead.

Overall, EdgeRank makes it difficult for businesses to reliably distribute content organically to their full Facebook audience. Increased spending on boosting and advertising often becomes necessary.

Is it Worth Optimizing For?

While this algorithm optimization can help improve some organic distribution, it may not be worth intensive efforts for most businesses due to:

• Limited organic reach no matter how high a post’s EdgeRank score – typically below 10% of followers
• Diminishing returns from tactics like asking followers to like & share posts
• The inconsistency of Facebook’s algorithm that can impact results at any time
• Focusing too heavily on the algorithm can compromise post quality in favor of what performs best.

For most businesses, a better approach is to post high-value, engaging content consistently while using a mixed distribution strategy of boosting, ads and community growth alongside organic posting.

EdgeRank optimization can play a small supportive role, but extensive efforts generally provide marginal benefits relative to the resources required. Focus instead on creating valuable content that aligns with your business goals and audience needs.