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How The Facebook Algorithm Works in 2023
What is The Facebook Algorithm?
Each social network has their own algorithms, rules, and factors that determine how content is displayed to each user. Since Facebook launched back in 2004, the social network has undergone a variety of updates, and changes. One of the main ones being the Facebook algorithm.
EdgeRank, the name of Facebook’s algorithm, is a collection of math operations with many different variables. It determines which stories will be shown in each user’s newsfeed depending on the content that they are interested in.
What does this mean? Through this algorithm, Facebook decides which publications will appear in each of your followers’ newsfeeds.
“Personalized Ranking”
The network takes user behaviors, interactions, engagements, and other signals to build each users unique feed. This is called “personalized ranking” and is how the network continues to curate personalized feeds for each user, based on their interests.
Each action, click, scroll through, is carefully calculated and processed within the algorithm, and predicts which content you will enjoy most. These are called “signals” which help run the algorithm, and give each post an overall ranking score.
Facebook also asks users for feedback, and provides options to have more control of what content they see. All of these processes work together to give each user the best experience.
The Facebook Algorithm in 2023
As we know, there are two main feed sections on Facebook, the main feed, and the Reels feed. Each of these sections have their own algorithms which determine how content is organized and appears for each user.
Overall, there are three main ranking signals that are the most important for the algorithm. These include:
- Which user posted the content: You are more likely to see content from those people and pages you follow or have engaged with before.
- The content type: Whichever content types you interact with the most, these will appear more in your feed.
- Post engagement and interactions: Facebook will shows posts that have high engagement, including those from friends or mutual friends.
Since Facebook wants users to be able to influence what they see, there are also a few options available to tell the algorithm what content you want to see. These options include:
- Feed preferences: These options allow you to select what you want to prioritize in your feed, and what to drop from your feed. Some of the choices include prioritizing posts from Friends, Blocking users from seeing your content, and seeing the newest posts in the Feeds tab. You can find these inside Settings and privacy, under Feed Preferences.
- In-feed options: When scrolling through the app, you can click on a post to view more options. You may see an option to “Show more” or “Show less” on posts you see, an option to hide the post, snooze a user, and hide ads.
Facebook Feed Algorithm 2023:
You are probably wondering which factors are included in Facebook’s algorithm. There are a few different ranking factors that determine content in users feed, which include these four processes in order.
✅ Inventory
The network takes “inventory” of your activity including posts shared by “Friends”, content from the Pages you follow, and content from the Groups you have joined.
✅ Signals
Next, Facebook takes the above posts, and considers different “signals” to make predictions of what content you will find interesting. These can be direct signals such as liking or sharing a post, or a prediction based on your past actions on Facebook. The network considers thousands of different signals,
✅ Predictions
Predictions are a main part of all algorithmic processes, because this is how the network can test with different content to further know what interests you the most. These “predictions” tell how likely you are to engage with a post, how your friends will interact with content you share, etc.
✅ Ranking posts by score
The last process in the Facebook algorithm feed ranking is giving an overall score to content. After the system has taken all of the above information, it awards a score to find relevant content and discover new users and content on the app.
Can You “Beat” The Algorithm?
One of the most commonly asked questions about the Facebook algorithm, and social media algorithms in general, is, “Can you beat the algorithm?” The answer is no, and you shouldn’t try to beat it because the reality is you never will.
Although we can see some of the factors that determine content ranking, the Facebook algorithm is much more complex. Thousands of numbers and equations are processed every second and there is no way to keep up with it all.
However, you can optimize your content slightly to boost your chances of appearing in at the top of feeds. Here’s a few tips to work with the algorithm:
Engage With Your Audience
As we saw in the ranking factors, engagement is an important signal. Staying engaged with your audience can help generate further trust and rapport. You can also create content that asks your audience questions, provokes an interesting conversation.
To stay organized with your messages, you can use Metricool to manage all your social media messages and comments in one place. You can mark messages as unresolved, unread, and all, to never miss a message. Learn more about it here:
Create Quality Content
If you want users to come back to your account, you need to keep them engaged. This means you need to conduct research about your ideal clients and what content they enjoy, what struggles they are having, and what solutions they are looking for.
This includes optimizing your content from the most basic information such as clear and accurate headlines, to more advanced actions such as including trending keywords and hashtags to reach your audience.
Post When Followers Are Active
Reaching your audience at the right time can be difficult. When is the best time to post? Well, thanks to both Meta Business Suite and other tools like Metricool, you can find your personalized best time to post. This analyzes when your followers are active, and gives you percentages and recommendations on when to post.
Learn how to schedule your content and find your best personalized times to post:
Want to know more about Facebook Marketing?
Now you know how the Facebook algorithm works in 2023, so you can take this back to your strategy and plan your content with confidence.