It’s not exactly cool to like your own Facebook status nor to give yourself a high-five in public but for those hating on them self-likers on Facebook, there might actually be a reason why they’re doing it – they want to increase their Facebook EdgeRank Score!
For those who said “Facebook whuuut?”, today is your lucky day – you won’t have to Google it because today’s blog post is all about this EdgeRank thing!
I won’t go into the boring formula (which I’ve learned from Myles Vives btw) but instead just talk about the importance of this Edgerank Score and what factors affect it.
EdgeRank Score is basically the reason why your posts are seen (or not) by your Facebook friends or if you have a fan page, fans. The higher your EdgeRank score, the more likely it is that your posts will show up on other people’s newsfeeds.
I know there’s a recent update where you’re now able to sort your Facebook stories either by Highlighted stories (this is where you’ll be showing up if you have a high EdgeRank score) or by Most Recent, but this really doesn’t change a lot of things because I know a lot of people who haven’t changed this setting, or know that it even exists.
So what affects this Facebook algorithm?
1. Affinity
I like George Clooney, and if I were friends with him on Facebook I’d probably like most (not all because I plan on not being too creepy) of his posts, poke him and write comments on all his status messages and photos. Maybe I’ll even tag him in my pictures or notes or comments to my friends. I’m doing this, of course, so he’ll notice me.
BUT, with Facebook’s affinity score, just because I’m doing all these creepy things on George’s Facebook account, doesn’t mean my posts will show up on his newsfeed. All of his posts, tags, or whatever else he does on Facebook though, I’ll see. Oh the heartbreak.
See, on Facebook, we all get affinity scores from our friends while they get affinity scores from us. Think of it as a grading system and the test is interacting on Facebook. I’m giving George Clooney a high affinity score of course because I keep liking and commenting on all his shee. Unfortunately, he’s ignoring me which means he’s giving me a really really low score which is why whatever I post on Facebook won’t show up on his newsfeed.
And since there are probably a lot of people like me trying to stalk him on Facebook, he will definitely show up on their newsfeeds and possibly on other people too even though they didn’t interact with him. This is what makes him popular on Facebook.
That person you’ve been stalking on Facebook? He’ll keep showing up on your newsfeed.
To increase your affinity score, whether for a Facebook fan page or for your own account, you need to make sure that people interact with you. That they write on your wall, comment on your statuses, send you private messages, etc.
2. Weight
Your Facebook posts are basically objects that has its own weight. With Facebook, if it’s a video, a picture or a link, it adds more “weight.”
According to the Facebook experts, photos, videos, and links weigh more than your typical status message with Facebook app updates having the least weight.
3. Time or Age
This is the easiest. Newer posts will score higher. The older your post is, the less relevant it is and the less interaction it will get. Bam. So keep posting! For brands, I’ve seen it work better if you post every other day with once every day as your limit.
For personal profiles, I find that they show up more if they post a lot and that’s not fun if you’re being flooded by rants or lookbook pictures of themselves. The good news is, if you don’t like what you’re seeing, you know you can always de-clutter and unsubscribe.
There you have it kids! Affinity Score + Weight + Time = EdgeRank Score!
As for the friend liking her own post to increase her EdgeRank score, she helped add some weight to her post, plus her affinity score from herself just increased!
If you want to read more on this, head on over to http://edgerankchecker.com.