Recently, Facebook introduced a “Let Me Explain” video series. The goal of such an initiative is to battle misinformation and educate users on the platform using videos. The first part of the series is about COVID-19 vaccination. The 2nd part talked about the platform’s community standards. As Facebook updates its news feed algorithm from time to time, the 3rd video on the series explains how the Facebook news feed works.
When Facebook was launched in 2004, people didn’t see news articles, photos, and videos that they see today. Users have to click on each profile to see any updates. In 2006, Facebook introduced the news feed. It connects Facebook users with family, friends, and the world all in one place. Your news feed is what you see the moment you log in to your Facebook profile. But everyone’s news feed is different. So, how does Facebook news feed work?
4 Factors Affecting News Feed Ranking
On any given day, there is a large amount of content that people can potentially see on their news feed. If you are a huge sports fan, chances are you might be interested in basketball highlights or European football. Facebook uses an algorithm that predicts what post a user will most likely be interested to see on his or her newsfeed. Four factors affect Facebook’s news feed ranking.
- Inventory is all the posts users can potentially see including posts from friends and groups or ads relevant to a user’s interests and online activities.
- Signals are categories on how the Facebook algorithm ranks news feeds like the author of a post, his/her relationship to the profile owner, and the format type – whether it is a link, photo, or video.
- Predictions are recommendations from Facebook AI on what post can be displayed on a user’s news feed. They based it on the frequency a user interacts with an account and whether the post is worth the user’s time.
- Scores were calculated based on the signals and predictions. The higher the score, the most likely it will display on a user’s news feed.
Facebook explains how its news feed works on 12 July 2021.
Implications for Marketers:
Facebook has already explained its news feed algorithm a couple of times. But the video explainer gives a clearer view of how the process works. For marketers, this can be a piece of given information. But it may still be worth checking to better understand Facebook’s news feed ranking.
