Since Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s algorithm will focus on “meaningful interactions” with friends and family more than content tied to pages and brands, it has become stricter than ever on organic reach. But even so, Facebook is still the largest social network in the world (or as we like to say at Digitizer – big brother). That’s why knowing how Facebook’s algorithm works is crucial for your Facebook marketing strategy.

Further in the text you will find out:

• What kind of content does Facebook prioritize on the News Feed
• How a new algorithm from 2018 is impacting brands on Facebook
• What is the meaning of “significant interactions”
• What Are These Tips To Increase Organic Reach On Facebook

How does Facebook’s algorithm work in 2018?

From 11 January 2018. Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook will change its algorithm in the News Feed to prioritize content related to friends, families and groups over others.

As we try to explore how and how it works, he said: “You’re going to see less content that’s about businesses, brands and media. And content that is public will hold itself to the same standard – it should encourage more meaningful interactions between people.”

Zuckerberg stated, “that the services provided by Facebook should not only be for entertainment but also for the benefit of their users” as a justification for the change, acknowledging that businesses, businesses and brands need to do much more than before to capture the attention of users or customers.

Many brands and companies have rightly reacted to such a statement with concern and fear. Although organic reach has been steadily declining for some time, Facebook’s “big brother” hasn’t publicly acknowledged it yet.

Thankfully, Facebook has come up with a few tricks on what brands need to do to reach more of their users on the platform.

This is a big deal because most social networks, including Facebook, have traditionally competed to increase the amount of time spent on their platforms. The longer users are on the platform, the better. This is one of the main measures of the popularity of a particular platform.

One of the ways Facebook measures quality is by popularizing certain actions that it views as “more meaningful” than others.

Facebook’s new algorithm prioritizes more active interactions through commenting and sharing, and the idea is that instead of passively scrolling through the News Feed and occasionally pausing to like a picture or article, users are inspired to engage in conversations.

These kinds of “meaningful” interactions contribute to the quality of time spent on the platform and (arguably) help Facebook return to its old roots when it was a network primarily used to connect with friends and family.

Below you can find out which interactions Facebook sees as “more significant”.

In his statement, Zuckerberg wrote: Sites that publish posts that people generally don’t respond to or interact with can expect the biggest “drop.”

This means that brands need to create quality content that will be aimed at initiating communication between users. That’s why you need to ask questions in posts and write about relevant topics at the right time, about which users will have an opinion.

The point is that users will then see those posts that their friends and family have commented on.

If a user takes a little extra time to leave a heart on the post instead of a like, it means that your content will get a small boost on the News Feed. It’s the same as in life, a kiss is something much more than “I like you”.

The same goes for the reactions on Facebook. He wants to see these reactions used.

The Facebook algorithm not only prioritizes comments, but also replies to comments. Zuckerberg believes that initiating communication is the most important thing in the new algorithm, which means that you need to post content that will inspire users to tag their friends and initiate communication.

If a user shares certain content on their wall, that’s great. But what’s even better is that he spends a little more time to send that content to a friend (or group of friends) via Facebook Messenger.

Of all the “meaningful interactions” listed here, this is perhaps the most significant, because what could be better: If a friend just shared some content on their wall, or sent it to a friend so that they could enjoy it or spend quality time (as Zuckerberg says)?

Although sharing a post is quite an active interaction, compared to others, Facebook has gone a step further. It’s simply not enough and your post that has been shared needs to elicit a “reaction” from users in order to have priority in the algorithm.

The above 5 factors are the most important, but that doesn’t mean that Facebook’s algorithm deals only with them. In the following you can find out which are the less important factors, but they are still worth mentioning.

• Average time spent on content.

This is exactly what you have read. The more time users spend on certain content, the better.

• Time of publication of content

Your content will certainly get more noticed if you publish it at a time when your users are at their highest on the platform.

• Type of post

Is your post a regular status, photo, link, video, live video or maybe a carousel or canvas.

• Completeness (orderliness) of the page

The more tabs/fields are filled in on a page, the better. This means that Facebook and your users are taking your appearance on Facebook seriously.

• How informative is a post

Facebook emphasized back in 2016 that the algorithm likes informative posts. But this informative is of an individual nature. For some, it can mean a published news, for some it can mean published interesting information, and for some it means a certain gossip. It’s unclear if that changed in the 2018 update.

There are probably a lot of small details that can contribute to your better visibility on the News Feed, but these are the most important ones we know of right now.