The Rules of Threes: Understanding Facebook's Edgerank

EdgeRank

Madeline (Senkosky) Riley, Community Manager

www.edSocialMedia.com

@madelinesen // @edsocialmedia

1Monday, September 17, 12

2Monday, September 17, 12Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/telmo32/4646881661/4 different topics that have three arms to each topic

The Rules of Threes2Monday, September 17, 12

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/telmo32/4646881661/4 different topics that have three arms to each topic

April 2009 May 2010 July 2010 January 2011 July 2011 Today0

*million! Source: Facebook http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline

200, 400, 500, 600, 750, TODAY: 955 million monthly active users at the end of June 2012. Facebook saw over 300 million new accounts added in a little over a year.Go where our constituents are. 483 million daily active users as of December, for year over year growth of 39% and 48% respectively. Mobile is also now half the user base, with 425 million monthly actives.

How do you

consume?

4Monday, September 17, 12Remember this is where the majority of cons3tuents will see your info…. Most will never navigate back to your page’s wall….

5Monday, September 17, 12Once a user has clicked the “Like” buCon, the majority of the Facebook consump3on is done through the News Feed.

6Monday, September 17, 12Once a user has clicked the “Like” buCon, the majority of the Facebook consump3on is done through the News Feed.

They will rarely come back here…

7Monday, September 17, 12Page – official presence for public figures, ar3sts, bands, businesses, places, entertainment, causes, brands, or products to share informa3on and interact with fans on Facebook

But, really, the dirty little secret—across all forms of social media (and you’ll hear Peter Baron) say the same thing)—to keeping people plugged in and engaged is through content.

In the News Feed

9Monday, September 17, 12Remember this is where the majority of cons3tuents will see your info…. Most will never navigate back to your page’s wall….

Social media participation is growing. Schools are actively pushing to build their networks. There’s been this idea that just being in the space is enough, but is it really? How can you stand out about the crowd?

Racing to 2000 fans!

Social media participation is growing. Schools are actively pushing to build their networks. There’s been this idea that just being in the space is enough, but is it really? How can you stand out about the crowd?

11Monday, September 17, 12Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyhay/239756376/

Creating & sharing compelling content that speaks to these fundament needs. The object is to begin bringing prospective families into this stream. Provide fans and families substance—not necessarily formality, but substance- events, stories, narratives, happenings and achievement on campus. Show the ways students are growing and learning- real and substantive. Engage your fans by sharing the school experience.

Create, curate & share compelling content.

Creating & sharing compelling content that speaks to these fundament needs. The object is to begin bringing prospective families into this stream. Provide fans and families substance—not necessarily formality, but substance- events, stories, narratives, happenings and achievement on campus. Show the ways students are growing and learning- real and substantive. Engage your fans by sharing the school experience.

13Monday, September 17, 12Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/telmo32/4646881661/4 different topics that have three arms to each topic

The Rules of Threes13Monday, September 17, 12

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/telmo32/4646881661/4 different topics that have three arms to each topic

3EdgeRank

14Monday, September 17, 12The first Rule of 3 is Facebook Edgerank:“In short, this algorithm decides what is most important on Facebook for a specific user by taking into account which pages/profiles that user frequents, the popularity of it, and most importantly, how recent the post is.” It also considers the “weight” of the post, meaning what objects are correlated with the post.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30305/How-Timeline-Radically-Changes-Your-Facebook-Marketing-Strategy.aspx#ixzz1l37pDHfo

3 Affinity

EdgeRank

3 AffinityWeight

EdgeRank

3 AffinityWeightTime Decay

EdgeRank

http://www.6smarketing.com/facebook-edgerank-algorithm/

15Monday, September 17, 12Affinity is dependent on a user's relationship with an object in the news feed. For example, if you don’t interact with a page very frequently or you rarely click on links on an old high school classmate’s profile, their news updates will appear in your newsfeed less frequently than someone you might interact with everyday, such as your sister or best friend.

This actually impacts the return of your page in the search, too.Do you frequently interact with the person or page? Have your friends been interacting with the person or page’s status?

Affinity

Affinity is the user’s relationship with the items creator.

Affinity

>>The more a person comments, likes, or interacts with your posts, then the more likely your update will show up in their News Feed.

Affinity

>>The more a person comments, likes, or interacts with your posts, then the more likely your update will show up in their News Feed.

>>The more a person’s friends comment, like or interact with your posts, then the more likely your update will show up in that person’s News Feed.

So how do you increase your affinity?

Use Facebook as Page to change the viewpoint of your posts.

Use Facebook as your page

Use the @symbol to tag and link to other pages. Pages can’t tag other people. Pages can only tag other pages. However, depending on your page’s settings, your fans can tag themselves in the photo, which extends its reach. As your sharing these images, your creating a path for new fans to follow. Showcases how your school operates.

Tag pages in your posts

Create an album as you navigate as your page.

Create an album

only photos posted by the admin display in top baroption to hide photosability to unhide photos as well: Select the "Edit Page" button from the top-right of your Page, and then select the "Profile Picture" tab. From there, you can select the "Unhide All" button that appears next to "Row of photos at top of profile."

Keep it simple: Ask for a response

Great concept: How about: Fill in the blank: My favorite place on campus is... My favorite teacher is... The best thing I learned at X is...

Ask for a one-word answer

Great concept: How about: Fill in the blank: My favorite place on campus is... My favorite teacher is... The best thing I learned at X is...

Consider your choices here. Typically only three options show up before the “Read more” link. Also, take a look at the answers and question. Without clicking through to the question page, your fans can only quickly read parts of the text.

Use Facebook Questions

Once a person comments on your status, you, as a page, can respond directly to that person to notify them that you are talking about them.

Interact directly with fans

What will be shared, watched and “engaged” with more?

So what kind of content has more weight?

Weight is determined by the type of object, such as a photo/video/link/etc.If a fan views a video (especially a video uploaded directly to Facebook, then the object will receive a bigger weight than if the post is simply a link.

Weight

Weight combines what type of object and what type of interactions it’s receiving.

Weight

>>Videos, photos, and links are generally considered to have the highest weight.

Weight

>>Videos, photos, and links are generally considered to have the highest weight.

>>General text updates (with no videos, photos or links) carry the lowest weight.

The first Rule of 3 is Facebook EdgeRank:“In short, this algorithm decides what is most important on Facebook for a specific user by taking into account which pages/profiles that user frequents, the popularity of it, and most importantly, how recent the post is.” It also considers the “weight” of the post, meaning what objects are correlated with the post.

3 Videos

29Monday, September 17, 12The first Rule of 3 is Facebook EdgeRank:“In short, this algorithm decides what is most important on Facebook for a specific user by taking into account which pages/profiles that user frequents, the popularity of it, and most importantly, how recent the post is.” It also considers the “weight” of the post, meaning what objects are correlated with the post.

3 VideosPhotos

3 VideosPhotosLinks

The Fessenden School: added the location, maybe could’ve asked a question? Given a clear CTA?

Upload to Facebook itself

Share the fun

Subtle hits at the mission

Mention the honorable

Because really what you’re trying to do in all of this is generate something shareable; something notable; something “that matters.”

Comments carry a heavier weight than Likes, but Likes are stronger than re-shares.

3 Comment

35Monday, September 17, 12Because really what you’re trying to do in all of this is generate something shareable; something notable; something “that matters.”

3 CommentLike

3 CommentLikeShare

Clear calls to action!

Ask for feedback

Clear calls to action!

Give them something shareable

Share a status

Give them something shareable

Publish=publicCustomize=specify demographicCustomize your caption for the re-post

Share a status

Publish=publicCustomize=specify demographicCustomize your caption for the re-post

Modify the title Change the caption

Modify the title by clicking on itChange the caption by clicking on it. NO EDIT buttons

Modify the title Change the caption

Share a status

Modify the title by clicking on itChange the caption by clicking on it. NO EDIT buttons

Type of Content

40Monday, September 17, 12Type of Content: Is it a video, photo or link? Did you upload a video directly to Facebook? Did you share a photo album in Facebook’s Photos? Did you re-share someone else’s link? Type of interactions: Do you comment, like or re-share that person or page’s update? Comments tend to hold

Type of Interaction

Type of Content

Type of Interaction

Type of Content

Relationship to the object

41Monday, September 17, 12The last variable is Time Decay, as an object gets older, the lower the value.

>>Facebook is now concerned with the relevancy of status updates in relaHon to the amount of Hme that has passed: For example, if someone goes back and comments on an old photo, the weight of that comment is less valuable than a photo that you just posted.

Facebook updates are more frequent and your message is also being pushed down in the news feed a lot quicker, which means you need to post more frequently.

Time Decay

The last variable is Time Decay, which considers: as an object gets older, the lower value the post carries.

Time Decay

>>Facebook is concerned with the relevancy of status updates in relation to the amount of time that has passed.

Time Decay

>>Facebook is concerned with the relevancy of status updates in relation to the amount of time that has passed.

>>Fresh & frequent content are heavy players in whether your message is being seen.

Posting frequency

http://blog.involver.com/2011/10/25/facebook-edgerank-and-graphrank-explained/

Source: hLp://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/24507/Shelf-‐Life-‐of-‐Social-‐Media-‐Links-‐Only-‐3-‐Hours-‐Data.aspx#ixzz1hx0QmpE5

By calculaHng what bitly is calling the link's 'half life' (the Hme it takes a link to receive half the clicks it will ever receive a^er it’s reached its peak), bitly evaluated the persistence of 1,000 popular bitly links, and found some strikingly similar results.

The mean half life of a link on Facebook is 3.2 hours.

The mean half life of a link on TwiLer is 2.8 hours.

The mean half life of a link via ‘direct’ sources such as email or instant messaging clients is 3.4 hours.

The mean half life of a link on YouTube is 7.4 hours.

Posting frequency

3 Times per day

42Monday, September 17, 12Source: hLp://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/24507/Shelf-‐Life-‐of-‐Social-‐Media-‐Links-‐Only-‐3-‐Hours-‐Data.aspx#ixzz1hx0QmpE5

Posting frequency

3 Times per dayHours of “half-life”

Posting frequency

3 Times per dayHours of “half-life”

Different times of day

For the love of HubSpot. Bit.ly

Best time to post

For the love of HubSpot. Bit.ly

By calculating what bit.ly is calling the link's 'half life' (the time it takes a link to receive half the clicks it will ever receive after it’s reached its peak),

bit.ly evaluated the persistence of 1,000 popular bit.ly links, and found some strikingly similar results.

http://www.convergeconsulting.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/How-Facebooks-Changes-Affect-You-higher-education-marketing.pdf

Schedule out posts to make the best use of time

Third party applications are finding it more difficult to play nicely with Facebook. Less optimized, lower edgerank scores

Avoid 3rd-party applications

3rd-party applications

Scheduling Posts

Tools of the trade

Can we take few notes from HigherEd? Sources: Inigral & Mashablehttp://mashable.com/2012/09/10/10-schools-that-tweet-and-like-more-than-you/

So what can the admissions office do?

5) From Rick Newberry’s blog, where he talks about Word of Mouth Marketing in Schools, among many other great topics, including social media.Be remarkable source: HubSpot.

Summary?

Summary? Show your schools story

EdgeRank

Madeline (Senkosky) Riley, Community Manager

www.edSocialMedia.com

@madelinesen // @edsocialmedia

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