Ever since Mark Zuckerberg said he would Facebook algorithm to emphasize “significant interactions” with friends and family more than content related to sites and brands, it has also become stricter than ever towards organic reach. But even so, Facebook is still the largest social network in the world (or as we at Digitizer like to say - big brother). That’s why knowing how Facebook’s algorithm works is key to yours Facebook marketing strategy.

Later in the text you will find out:

• What content does Facebook prioritize on the News Feed
• How the new algorithm from 2018 affects brands on Facebook
• What is meant by “Significant Interactions”
• What are the tips for increasing organic reach on Facebook

How does Facebook’s algorithm work in 2018?

As of January 11, 2018, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will Facebook change your algorithm on the News Feed to make content related to friends, family and groups take precedence over others.

While we are trying to investigate all this, how and in what way it works, he stated the following: "You will see less content related to businesses, brands and media. And the content that is public will adhere to the same standard - it should encourage more significant 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 change, recognizing that companies, businesses and brands need to work much harder than before to attract users' attention. customers.

Many brands and companies have rightly reacted to such a statement with care and fear. Although organic reach has been declining steadily for some time, Facebook's "big brother" has not yet publicly acknowledged it.

Fortunately, 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, traditionally compete to increase the length of time spent on their platforms. The longer users are on the platform, the better. And that is one of the main measures of the popularity of a certain platform.

One of the ways in which Facebook measures quality is through the popularization of certain actions, which it views as “more significant” than others.

New Facebook algorithm gives priority to more active interactions through commenting and sharing and the idea is that instead of passively scrolling the News Feed and stopping occasionally to like an image or article, users will be inspired to engage in conversations.

These types of "significant" interactions contribute to the quality of time spent on the platform and (probably) help Facebook to 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 "significant".

In his statement, Zuckerberg wrote: Pages that publish posts to which people generally do not react or communicate, can expect the biggest "drop".

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

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

If the user takes a little more time to leave a heart on the post instead of the like, it means that your content will get a little 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 reactions on Facebook. He wants to see those reactions used.

Facebook algorithm not only prefers comments, but also responses to comments. Zuckerberg believes that starting communication is the most important thing in the new algorithm, which means that you should publish content that will inspire users to tag their friends and start communication.

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

Of all the "significant interactions" listed here, this is perhaps the most significant because what could be better: For a friend to just share some content on their wall or send it to a friend to enjoy or have a good time (as Zuckerberg says )?

Although post sharing is quite an active interaction, compared to the others, Facebook has gone a step further. This is simply not enough and your shared post needs to provoke a “reaction” from the user in order to have priority in the algorithm.

The previous 5 listed factors are the most important but that does not mean that Facebook algorithm only deals with them. In the following text, you can find out which are less important factors, but they are still worth mentioning.

• Average time spent on content 

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

• Content publishing time 

Your content will surely be more noticeable if you post it at a time when your users are mostly on the platform.

• Post type 

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

• Completeness (mediocrity) of the page

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

• How informative is the publication? 

Facebook emphasized back in 2016 that the algorithm likes informative posts. But it is informative of an individual character. For some, it can mean informatively published news, for some published interesting information, and for some a certain gossip. It is unknown whether this has changed in the new 2018 algorithm update.

There are probably quite a few other small details that can contribute to your better visibility on the News Feed but these are the most important we know at the moment.