5 Ways to Outsmart the Facebook Algorithm in 2020

December 19, 2019

This year saw even more changes to the Facebook algorithm, and the social media giant doesn’t seem to be slowing down in 2020. Although this improves the experience for Facebook users, it often means that organisations have to work harder to be heard over content from family and friends.

So how can you work with the Facebook algorithm instead of against it to ensure your content is seen?

While you can pay to boost content on Facebook, create a more sustainable strategy in 2020 with these 5 tips!

What Is The Facebook Algorithm?

The algorithm is a formula that Facebook uses to rank all available content on the platform. It is designed to show users the most relevant and exciting content to keep people engaged. While this is excellent news for us as Facebook users, it can make social media managers’ lives a little more tricky. Content from organisations is often de-prioritised in favour of posts from family and close friends which are deemed more relevant.

Facebook confirmed that its content-ranking algorithm is based on the following factors:

Inventory: Assessing the content available on Facebook at that point.
Engagement signals: Determining the quality of the content and how interesting/relevant it is.
Engagement predictions: Predicting how many other people would find that content interesting depending on the initial engagement levels.
Overall score: Receiving a total score that determines which newsfeeds the content appears in.

Tip 1. Only Share Meaningful Links

The Facebook algorithm works so hard to keep people engaged on the site, so why would they want to show content that encourages users to leave?

In the drive towards improving the user experience as much as possible, the algorithm has also started demoting content with links that are not worth a user’s time; looking at you, quizzes and click bait articles.

While we’re not suggesting that you never post links back to your website again, consider cutting down non-Facebook links. Maintain a healthy balance between linked and non-linked content and remember that there are creative ways to share the same information, including:

Share links as text in images instead of in the post
Share links in the first comment under your post
Ask your audiences to private message you if they want further details

Tip 2. Use Facebook Stories

Ephemeral content (content that is only available for a short time) is only going to continue to rise in popularity in 2020; Facebook Stories hit a massive 500 million daily users in 2019!

Stories allow organisations to connect on a more personal level. They tend to be less polished than content on a feed, but that works in your favour as your organisation appears more authentic and personable.

Tip 3. Encourage Colleague Engagement

As soon as you post a piece of content on Facebook, the algorithm starts monitoring how many people engage with it to decide whether to display it to more of your audience.

A way to ensure that your content sends those engagement signals to Facebook is to ask your colleagues to provide initial engagement. Your team are often an untapped resource when it comes to improving your engagement score and getting your message out there.

Naturally, some of your colleagues will either already do this or feel comfortable getting started on their own. Still, for others who are less familiar with social media, it can really help to provide some initial training and guidance.

Similarly, sharing links to your Facebook posts that you want your colleagues to engage with through a weekly email or on an internal messaging forum is a straightforward way to get all teams involved.

Tip 4. Get Started With Live Video

Facebook themselves have said that live videos generate 6 times more engagement than traditional videos. With the algorithm centred around promoting engagement, it’s no surprise that live videos are the way forward!

In a recent feature release, Facebook introduced more tools for users to have better control over the quality of their live video content. As Facebook expands the functionality of live streaming, it’s clear that live videos have an algorithmic advantage for a user’s feed ‚Äî so get filming.

Tip 5. Spark an Emotional Response!

Our final tip is to create content that makes people feel something. People use Facebook for many reasons, but in lots of cases, they just want to pass the time and be entertained.

The more engagement your content gets, the higher Facebook will rank it, and the more people will see it. Consider how you can bring more emotion into your content using these three tactics:

Nostalgic Content: Evoke recollections and a sense of pride or fondness for yesteryear. This theme not only encourages people to get involved in the conversation and share their own memories but selecting content from different periods can actually focus on different audiences. Getting involved in #ThrowbackThursday each week or every other week is a great way to start to test this tactic out.
Wow and WTF!? Content: These are moments that are outrageous, hilarious, or awe-inspiring. If you think it’s crazy or incredible, your audiences probably will too. This kind of content creates a fantastic talking point, even if people just want to share their disbelief! It’s important to remember that Facebook users generally visit the site when they’re looking for a distraction or entertainment and so don’t be afraid to meet that need.
Awwww Content: Tactic three is all about the cute stuff. Whether it’s adorable kids, animals, or heart-warming interactions, it’s hard to ignore content that is just lovely and connects with us on a human level.

2020 is set to be another incredible year for social media, so get ahead of the game and put your content at the top of people’s feeds with our advice!

Did you find strategies in 2019 that helped improve your organic reach? Let us know @SoCrowd or email us at marketing@crowdcontrolhq.com.

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