Give Your Business a Boost - Understanding Facebook Algorithms

You have shared your business with your friends and family - who make up your warm market - and you are looking to expand your network. This is probably one of the biggest reasons that you have decided to join an online vendor show. So, how do you ensure that your business is seen? In order to maximize your vendor show experience, you need to understand Facebook algorithms and how they can either help or hurt your online business. 

What is a Facebook algorithm and why should I care?

Simply put, Facebook algorithms are Facebook’s way of deciding what posts show up on the top of someone’s newsfeed. You may have noticed that it is not as simple as the content that was posted most recently is what shows up at the top. Facebook has a system in place that it uses to make predictions on what it thinks you will be most interested in seeing and what you are most likely to engage with. Ever notice how if you search certain topics on Facebook that more of that type of content pops up in your newsfeed? That is Facebook’s handy algorithms at work. 

As someone utilizing network marketing to promote your business, Facebook algorithms are either going to be your best friend or your worst enemy. When your content is created correctly, Facebook can be an amazing tool that can help you share and grow your business. On the flip side, there are tons of rules and restrictions that Facebook has in place that work against you and getting your content seen by as many people as possible. 

While we will be talking specifically about boosting Facebook algorithms and viewership within an online vendor show, the information can easily be applied to hosting online parties, sharing on your Facebook page (whether it be your personal or business page), or posting in your VIP group. 

You want your posts to be seen and engaged with. To ensure this happens, you need to understand the three most important factors that are going to work together to get your posts bumped to the top of the newsfeed. 

Get Friendly 

Who posted the content matters. Posts created by or commented on by friends are always going to be valued over a stranger’s posts. The more you interact with someone, the more likely their posts will show up at the top of your newsfeed. By interacting with someone, you are telling Facebook you want to hear from them. Facebook is also going to take what it knows about you and people connected to you to show you posts from people who are most similar to you. Facebook wants to show you things it thinks you would be most interested in. This means if you have similar friends, post about or engage with similar topics, or are in similar groups your posts are more likely to get pushed to the top of someone’s newsfeed. 

The takeaway from this? It is important to focus on making some new friends in your vendor show! Send friend invites and connect with your fellow vendors and make friends with guests who comment on your posts. You want to see things that your friends post more than posts from a complete stranger, right? Facebook certainly thinks so. 

Finally, Facebook values person-to-person interaction over person-to-business page interaction. This is especially important to remember if you are posting as your business page. When posting your content through your business page it is always a good idea to respond and comment as your personal profile to boost your algorithm. 

Content Matters 

Facebook prioritizes content it believes is accurate, informative, authentic and meaningful. It is important to create your posts with these four values in mind. While this might seem broad in definition, there are a couple of commonly used red flags that are likely to get your posts bumped lower in a newsfeed. 

Don’t Try to Sell Things

Wait a second - isn’t selling my products the whole reason I am participating in this vendor show? While you want to be promoting your business, when creating a post you always want to value product information over promotion. Why? Facebook doesn’t actually want you to sell your products on their network, so to deter you it will push down any posts it sees as promoting readers to make a purchase. Posting about an amazing price or a deal may seem like a great idea, but it’s actually one of the quickest ways to get your content hidden. Instead, focus on informative posts. You can always share information on pricing in a private message when someone appears interested. If you really want to share a price or a promotion, it’s always better to do it in a graphic instead of through text. 

Another quick and easy trigger that tells Facebook you are promoting a purchase is pasting your business link at the end of each of your posts. Instead, pick one or two posts to share your link in, or direct readers to where or how they can easily find your business link. 

Repetition is NOT Key

You probably have a favourite or top-selling product that you want to make sure guests know about. It might be tempting to share the same post multiple times throughout the week - but the more often you share the same content, the less likely it becomes that it’s going to be seen. If you are sharing the same product multiple times, make sure to change up the wording and graphics so that it is not flagged as repeated content. This same rule applies for teams that share content. Always make sure that you are editing the posts to make them your own. It is also a good idea to have a couple of templates so that if you have multiple parties going on at the same time, you are avoiding repeating the same posts over and over in different groups. This also keeps information fresh and interesting for both you and your guests. 

Interaction is Everything

Interaction is determined by the comments your post receives, reactions to your post, and the amount of time someone spends looking at your post before scrolling down. These three things will be considered when deciding if your post is valuable enough to be pushed to the top of a newsfeed. 

Commenting is Key

It is important to remember here that it is not always the quantity of comments that you are looking for. Quality definitely matters. You want the comments section of your post to read like a conversation. This means a back and forth between members. Remember that Facebook values content that it believes is authentic, which means your post needs to generate REAL engagement. Posts that have good interaction and are seen as starting a conversation between group members are going to appear at the top of a newsfeed. 

Take an Extra Moment to React

These are the little emojis that happens when someone presses the like button on your post. Strangely enough, though, a bunch of those little thumbs-ups are not going to do anything to boost your post’s algorithm. Again, Facebook values meaningful engagement, which means you need people to REACT to your post. Any other emoji EXCEPT for the dreaded thumbs-up emoji will boost your algorithm and push your post up on a newsfeed. 

Invest Some Time

We all know that not everyone is going to engage with your post by commenting or reacting, which might leave you worried that your posts are not going to be seen. The good news is that the time a guest spends looking at your post before scrolling down is also taken into consideration with Facebook algorithms. This means that creating engaging posts that people read all the way through, will help your business get seen, even if guests don’t appear to be commenting or reacting to it. 

What is an easy way to make sure people look at your post longer? Post a video! Videos, whether they are premade and shared or done live, are a great way to boost your algorithm. Of course, just like a post that you want someone to read all the way through, you want to make sure that your video is engaging enough to make guests watch it all the way through. Algorithm scores for Facebook videos are based on time watched and completion rate. A video that is watched all the way through is going to get the biggest boost. Boosts are also given to videos watched for longer than 1 minute and longer than 3 minutes. Facebook Lives also get extra boosts for viewers at the time the video was posted and comments during the live - which is why a live will always be slightly better than a scheduled or premade video. Members of the group also get an extra notification when a member goes live, which helps direct members into the group. 

Yay! You made it to the End!

While it may seem like each week Facebook comes up with a new rule or restriction that makes it more difficult for network marketers to post about their business, the fact remains that Facebook is still the number one platform used by marketers and consumers. We need to be constantly adapting and working with the system. By keeping in mind how Facebook algorithms work and what is prioritized as valuable, you can create meaningful and worthwhile content that will be seen and help your business grow. 

Written By: 

Jennifer Gillap