In It's all about the ads, no promotion! we discussed the latest changes to the Facebook newsfeed and why we think it is a great opportunity for dental practices that understand it and adjust their Facebook (and dental social media) marketing accordingly. In this post we briefly go over how Facebook decides what to show in a newsfeed and what you can do to make sure your updates show up more often.

What is shown on your newsfeed is determined by an algorithm that measures and monitors on your own user behaviour when consuming content within Facebook and based on this will show you more of the things you want to see.

The folks at Buffer have covered this subject in a lot more detail click here if you are the type who likes to dissect every single factor and see how it all fits together.

For those who who only want the essential facts here is summary below:

 The Facebook Newsfeed LIKES…

• Posts that have loads of comments
• Posts that have loads of likes
• Posts referencing a trending topic
• Posts that get large number of likes, comments, or shares in short space of time
• Link posts
• Videos uploaded direct Facebook
• Posts tagging other pages within the text
• Posts that are commented or liked on by your friend network
• Posts from pages that you interact with regularly
• Post types that you interact with regularly
• Posts from pages with complete profile information
• Posts from pages where the fan base overlaps with the fan base of other known high-quality pages
• Images and videos that are original and not previously appeared in the Open Graph
• Original Links ( not been posted before)
  
  

The Facebook Newsfeed DISLIKES…

• Clickbait
• Repeat posts – reusing same content on a loop
• Like-baiting
• Posts that include spammy links
• Text-only status updates from pages
• Posts that are frequently hidden or reported (a sign of low quality)
• Posts that contain the words “like, comment, or share”
• Posts with unusual engagement patterns (a like-baiting signal)
• Posts that receive negative feedback categorises as 'meme content'
• Posts that are classified as memes by Facebook’s visual analysis of overlayed text on image
• Passive fans of a particular Facebook page may see that page’s posts bundled together in the Newsfeed such that the user would need to click a link to see more from the page
• Overly promotional content from pages—pushing people to buy an app or service, pushing people to enter
• A contest or sweepstakes, posts that reuse the same text from ads

(source: Buffer , January 2015)

Brendon Macdonald

Brendon helps businesses' ideal customers find them, trust them and buy from them.

Founder, ideas guy and solution chaser. Passionate learner and brainstormer. Inspired by inbound and growth driven design. Brendon has extensive experience in digital marketing in the B2B & B2C dental sectors, having worked with over 100 dental practices and global companies alike.

He helps businesses' ideal customers find them, trust them and buy from them.