Karen and I have been seeing a lot of people posting things like
“Like this post if you see this status in your feed - I’m trying to see who actually sees what I’m writing”
“If you want people to see what you’re actually posting follow these steps…”
Which has led to this post. Let’s talk about what you see when you’re on Facebook.
The newsfeed isn’t a chronological list of all information posted
Twitter posts everything that everyone writes in chronological order. My most common analogy is that it’s like the radio. You miss a lot when you aren’t listening because it never stops moving.
Facebook isn’t like that.
Facebook decided that instead of doing that it could try to figure out what it is you want to see. It’s done this with it’s Edgerank formula (which Karen wrote about before).
What does that mean? It means that instead of showing you everything, Facebook monitors what you’re doing on Facebook and then tries to compile information in your feed that it thinks you’ll like.
How does Facebook decide?!
We don’t know exactly (top secret!!) but here are definitely things that help:
- If you comment on a person or a page’s status update, Facebook figures you’re interested in what they have to say.
- If you like something a person or a page says, Facebook figures you’re interested in what they have to say.
- If you share something a person or a page says, Facebook figures you’re interested in what they have to say.
So what do I do?
- If you want to make sure you see information from specific people or pages, don’t just think “hmm, interesting” when you see something go by in your feed, engage with it somehow (like, comment, share).
- If you want people to see more of your posts, invite them to engage. Ask easy to answer questions, ask them to like your status update if they agree, ask them to share if they think what you have to say is valuable.
- If you really want to make sure you’re seeing everything someone is saying, go and visit their profile or page.
Conclusion
- Facebook isn’t up to no good, trying to hide content from you to make a buck (I mean, they’re trying to make a buck, no doubt…. but….)
- Facebook’s attempt to figure out what people want to see makes a lot of sense given its audience. This audience wants to see what their closest friends have to say and what the brands they like the most have to say, not wade through every. single. thing. people say about everything.
- Like all my posts and make lots of comments and share all that we say so that you always see what I have to say and make us feel important and special. :)
Over the coming weeks we’re going to be talking more about all the new things Facebook has been up to. Do you have any specific questions you’d like us to cover?