How brands can win on Facebook; Unpacking Edgerank 2019

Facebook is still at its peak among many digital marketing platforms. It is currently at the top of the list with the most active daily users compared to other social networks.

Recent statistics (September 2019) reflect that Facebook has over 2.41 billion monthly active users, and out of that amount 1.59 billion people on average log onto the platform daily.

As a result, marketers and digital practitioners are making a big win online through Facebook. With their sales numbers increasing rapidly or their brand becoming the talk of the town.

Nonetheless, some of them are still shooting in wind, having their marketing efforts ineffective on the platform or doomed to none judging from the poor posts engagement they receive.

It’s always a bit tricky, and in fact more ironic to obtain fewer eyeballs on your content while employing a user dominated platform such as Facebook.

But why is that? Why do some people win on Facebook while others lose?

Well, the answer lies in our content as well as Facebook’s algorithm Edgerank which we will discuss briefly below.

What is Edgerank?

Let’s trackback for a second.

Think of the reason why people go to Facebook in the first place. To connect, socialize, and find out what their peers or idols are doing, i.e. what they are reading, eating, listening to, wearing, or what they are up to.

Basically users vouch for value every time they log on the platform, and therefore it is in Facebook’s biggest interest to show users what’s valuable and relevant to them.

Edgerank algorithm serves that purpose, curating our newsfeed and showing us content that we likely to engage in.

Here is how it works; every interaction a person has with Facebook, from posting a status update or a photo, to liking sharing, or commenting is called an “edge”, and theoretically, every edge channels into the news stream.

It tracks all the engagement a user’s own content receives, as well as the engagement a user has with other people or brand’s content. It then filters that person’s news stream accordingly.

So every interaction, whether between friends or users and brands, strengthen their connection and the likelihood that Edgerank will push appropriate content from those friends and brands to the top of the user’s News Feed. That’s of course where you, the marketer wants to see your brand or business.

Quality content

Gary Vaynerchuck once said, “content is king, but context is God”. That simply means, good content wins, but also the platform where it's being shared matters.

Each platform has its own native language, for example; Instagram responds to pictures, Twitter supports microblogging, and Facebook is currently maximizing videos, particularly live videos.

That is why it’s always the best approach to produce quality content that people want to actually engage with.

Its true most marketers are driven by sales and traffic to their services, however, Facebook’s greatest priority is making the platform valuable to the consumer, not you the marketer.

In other words, Facebook understands that users are not there to be sold to, rather they seek value. Now value can be anything from; entertainment, information, inspiration, guidance, etc. and therefore it’s very advisable for marketers to tailor their content along those lines if they aim to boost their Edgerank numbers.  

With Edgerank marketers need to be aware that Facebook weighs likes, comments, and shares since these are the attributes determining the user’s interest in the content. This implies that the more engagement a post has, the more Facebook will show it to many users.

How to win?

Understanding Facebook’s native language is key for marketers if they intend to increase eyeballs on their content. That goes into understanding what the platform requires (its nuances) rather than pushing their content down to the user’s throat.

Marketers need to do proper research for their niches, find out what moves their prospects. From then, they'll have an idea of how they should create not just content but targeted content. That way, the'll upgrade their Edgerank numbers