The Facebook Algorithm 2023: How to get your content seen

The Facebook algorithm is a hot topic not only for social media marketers, but also for journalists, the public, and even world leaders.

Love it or hate it, the simple truth is that you need to work with it if you want your Facebook marketing efforts to succeed. Here we’ll explain everything you need to know about the algorithm Facebook uses to rank content and feed its 2.93 billion users.

What is the Facebook algorithm?

The Facebook algorithm is a set of rules that rank content on the platform. It determines what people see each time they check Facebook and in what order that content is displayed. Facebook calls this “personalized ranking”.

Essentially, the Facebook algorithm evaluates every post, ad, story, and video. It rates content and then arranges it in descending order, rather than chronological order, of each individual user’s interests. This process happens every time the user refreshes their feed.

Facebook says the social network uses algorithms to “organize all the content you can see in [feed, search, marketplace, groups and views] in order to show you what we think you might be most interested in At the moment”. top of each surface.

How does the Facebook algorithm work?

Meta has a whole team of people working on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Part of their job is to improve the algorithms that connect Facebook users to the content they value most.

Over the years, algorithm ranking signals have been added and removed, and their importance adjusted.

As of 2023, Facebook’s algorithm determines what content is most relevant to a particular user based on three main ranking signals:

1. Who posted it: You’re more likely to see content from sources you interact with, including friends and businesses.
2. Content Type: If you interact with videos the most, you will see more videos. If you interact with photos, you will see more photos. You get the idea.
3. Publication interaction. The algorithm will prioritize posts with high engagement, especially from people you interact with a lot.

Each post is ranked based on these top signals to determine where it appears in your feed.

Facebook also provides users with options to help them train the algorithm and customize their feed:

• Favorites: You can select up to 30 people and pages to add to Favorites. Posts from these accounts will appear higher in the feed. To access Favorites, click on your profile picture, then click Settings & Privacy, then Feed Settings, then Favorites. You can use the other options in this section to snooze, unfollow, or reconnect with other Facebook users. You can also choose to view only content from your favorites.
• Options in the feed: Click on any message and you’ll see a set of options including hide the message, snooze the user, and add or remove the user from favorites. All this provides the algorithm with information about what content you want to see more (or less). For advertising, the equivalent option is “Hide Ads”. Facebook will then give you a set of options to tell you why you want to hide ads. This will help Facebook understand which advertisers you want to hear from and which ones to avoid.

Facebook will remove content that violates its Community Standards. They also reduce the distribution of “content that people find objectionable,”such as “misinformation, sensational health claims, or clickbait.”

Finally, there are a few specific words to avoid when working with Facebook algorithms:

• Threatening or aggressive language
• Offensive language, especially sexist, homophobic, racist, ableist, etc.
• Words associated with harmful stereotypes
• insults
• Any other language that violates the Community Standards

2023 Facebook Submission Algorithm

The Facebook News Feed algorithm primarily (but not exclusively) contains relevant content from people, brands, and groups that you are already connected to. Facebook explains that this algorithm uses four steps to determine the order of the content you see on your feed:

1. Inventory: All content available from the people, pages, and groups you’re connected to, as well as relevant ads and featured content based on your Facebook activity.
2. Signals: These are the ranking signals discussed above.
3. Forecasts. The algorithm analyzes ranking factor data to make user-defined predictions about what content will be most valuable to you.
4. Relevance: Each piece of content gets a relevance score, and the highest-scoring posts are closer to the top of your feed.

2023 Facebook Drum Algorithm

Since Facebook Reels is a relatively new format compared to the feed, less information is available about the Facebook Reels algorithm. However, we do know some important best practices to help make your reels more discoverable (i.e. get a higher ranking on the algorithm).

The main principle is to create quality content. What exactly does this mean? Here are specific recommendations straight from the source:

• Be interesting and attractive
• start trend
• Use built-in tools like text, filters and other effects.
• Stick vertical video
• Add Music
• Experiment with different approaches
• Use good lighting and camera work to create a visually pleasing video.

And here’s what to avoid:

• Blurry or low resolution video
• Watermarked videos from other apps (like TikTok)
• Video with a border around it
• Horizontal video

8 Tips for Working with the Facebook Algorithm

1. Understand what your audience wants to see

Facebook indicates that it prioritizes content that is “meaningful and informative.”So what does this mean?

• Meaningful: Stories that the user will want to talk about with friends and family or spend time reading (based on past behavior), as well as videos they want to watch. Overall engagement also matters.
• Informative: What content someone finds “new, interesting, and informative”is up to the user.

Understanding what will be meaningful and informative for your particular audience means you need to understand their unique interests and behaviors. This means you need to do some audience research.

2. Create accurate and authentic content

Facebook says, “People on Facebook value accurate, authentic content.”They also indicate that post types that people “think authentic”will rank higher in the algorithm. In the meantime, they are working to downgrade posts that people find “misleading, sensationalist, and spammy.”

A few tips for signaling to the algorithm that your content is accurate and authentic:

• Write clear headlines. Make sure your title clearly describes what users will find in your post. You can certainly get creative, but don’t use clickbait or misleading titles.
• Be truthful: Simply put, speak the truth. Don’t sensationalize, exaggerate, or outright lie.

On the other hand, here are some things to avoid:

• Content that interferes with the safety of the community, such as violence, self-harm, or the use of regulated products.
• Content with low-quality medical or financial claims, such as miracle cures or get-rich-quick schemes.
• Non-original content or news content without attribution
• False claims and disinformation

3. Don’t try to manipulate the algorithm

But wait, isn’t this post about how to manipulate the algorithm? No, this post is all about understanding how the algorithm works so you can find out what Facebook considers valuable to its users.

You should do the work to find out how these general principles apply to your particular audience. Then create content that will resonate with them and in turn send positive ranking signals to the algorithm.

Trying to manipulate the algorithm to get more exposure than your content deserves based on these ranking signals is a big no-no. This may include, for example, paying for participation or comments, or engaging in other black strategies (or “non-genuine sharing “) to manipulate reach.

Facebook is specifically working to limit the spread of clickbait, engagement bait and misleading landing pages, so trying to manipulate the algorithm with these strategies will only work against you. Buying likes can also lower your giveaway.

Simple message here: work with the algorithm, not against it.

4. Engage with your audience

The algorithm prioritizes posts from pages with which the user has had meaningful interactions in the past. This means that speeding up your return game is key.

If a person takes the time to comment on your post, don’t miss the opportunity. Make them feel heard with a reply and it will increase the likelihood that they will continue to comment on your posts in the future. This, of course, sends more of these juicy engagement signals to the algorithm. Ignore them and they will most likely silence you in return.

Pro Tip: Whether you’re a sole proprietor or have an entire team of community managers, Hootsuite Inbox makes managing those conversations at scale a lot easier.

5. Make the audience interact with each other

Remember we said that the algorithm values ​​content that people want to share and discuss with their friends? Well, a pretty simple way to send that signal is to get people to share your content and discuss it with their friends.

Facebook itself says that if a post generates a lot of conversation among the user’s friends, the algorithm applies “action reminder logic”to show the post to the user again.

To get your audience to share and talk about it, check out our Facebook engagement tips.

6. Post at the right time

The algorithm helps people see your content even if they weren’t online when it was first published. But as we emphasized in this post, engagement is a key signal that indicates the potential value of a post. And you’re more likely to get that engagement—especially the important early engagement—if you post when most of your audience is online.

Simply put, posting at the right time maximizes the chances of people seeing your post, including people who are offline at the time of posting!

This is such an important topic that we have an entire post dedicated to understanding when is the best time to post on Facebook. Also built into Hootsuite Composer and Hootsuite Analytics is a tool that will show you the recommended time to share your next post on Facebook to maximize engagement with your specific followers.

7. Don’t forget the main status message

When you’re trying to increase your engagement rates, it can be tempting to find sophisticated Facebook algorithm hacks. But don’t forget the humble status post. (A post without a photo, video, or link.)

Hootsuite’s latest research shows that status posts, on average, have one of the highest engagement rates: 0.11%. Posts with photos only take up slightly more space at 0.12%. Videos and messages with links take up significantly less space – 0.08% and 0.04%, respectively.

Source: Hootsuite Global State of Digital October 2022 Update

We’re not saying you should create an entire Facebook page with status posts, but they can be an effective way to convey simple information and get the highest engagement rates.

8. Expand your reach with the best supporters

Your employees may have more trust and authority in the Facebook algorithm than your brand page. This is because they enjoy great trust and authority from their followers and friends.

Your employees can exponentially expand your potential reach if they can share your brand content with their circles. Hootsuite Amplify can help employees easily share pre-approved content on their social networks.

Partners are another great advocacy group that can help expand your reach and build trust in your brand. Provide them with resources and training to help them spread the word on Facebook and expand your target audience with signals from their own algorithms.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Facebook Algorithm

What is the Facebook algorithm?

The Facebook algorithm is a set of ranking signals based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. It calculates what content each user is most likely to enjoy and then provides them with a personalized feed.

How to beat the Facebook algorithm?

There is no way to “beat”the Facebook algorithm (and you will be fined or even banned from your account if you specifically try to cheat the algorithm). However, there are many strategies you can use to send strong ranking signals to the algorithm.

The most important strategy is to create high-quality content that your specific audience will enjoy, while at the same time keeping in touch with your page’s followers and fans.

How to reset the Facebook algorithm?

You can’t completely reset your Facebook algorithm, but there are a few steps you can take to immediately change the content you see, followed by an ongoing maintenance strategy to better train the algorithm over time.

First, “reboot”.

1. Click your profile picture and select Settings & privacy > Feed.
2. Use the options here to change the Facebook algorithm immediately.
   • To see more content from specific people and brands, add them to your Favorites.
   • To take a temporary break, set them aside.
   • Use the Unfollow option to stop seeing content from a person or brand in your feed, but stay in touch with them.
   • And scroll through the people and brands listed in the Recovery section to see if there’s anyone you’ve unfollowed that you’d like to see more of again.
3. Go back to “Settings and Privacy”, then click on “Settings”, then click on “Advertising”in the menu on the left. Go to the Ad Topics section to view and change the topics you want to see more or less in your Facebook ads.

Further maintenance. Use options in the feed, such as “Hide Post”, “Snooze”and “Unsubscribe”to tell the algorithm what you like and don’t like. And be selective with the posts and pages you like, as they all send signals to the algorithm that you want more of that content.