By Katie Davis
I am sure that there are a lot of you just like me that login to Facebook each day and see one of these posts asking for you to “Like” and or “Share” a post. They are all the same as they always seem to have millions of likes, comments or shares. If you are like me I am sure these posts not only pull at your heart strings at times but also frustrate you as you want to support the cause but you do not want to promote a Facebook scam. Not to add to the fact people sending these Facebook posts are filling up your already overpopulated newsfeed with useless ads that distracting us from the stuff we actually want to keep on top of and use Facebook for, such as keep up with friends and family. So I thought that I would look into why these posts exists and what the benefits would be to creating a Facebook post with a picture of an ill person with a quote like, Like to fight Cancer, Ignore if you don’t. Well I had to do some research to get an answer to my question. But it seems that it is all about the Facebook Like algorithm, which is a secret formula that makes activi- ties such as sharing, commenting and liking a post such a very valuable commodity these days. The Facebook Like algorithm is Facebook’s way of dictating if content is of any value to users. The more likes/shares/comments it gets, the more exposure to
certain people it, and the profile it belongs to, will get both short term and long term.
All these metrics contribute to a users “EdgeRank” score which is attached to your profile and dictates how your page interacts with other profiles on Facebook. The greater a page/profiles edge rank is, the more it will be exposed in people’s newsfeed. EdgeRank is the reason you see a lot of what you see in your Facebook newsfeed these days. Certain people and pages have EdgeRank factors that Facebook have decided are relevant to you. So that answers the questions to how they get on my Facebook book page, but does not answer why. The why is because money can be made from it. Businesses world- wide are trying to figure out how to best utilize platforms like Facebook and others on social media to promote their brand along with their products and services. These businesses and marketing gurus know that EdgeRank, likes, brand exposure and followers are impor- tant, even if they don’t know exactly why or what to do with it right now, so they continue building up these audi- ences and Edgerank scores to use for a marketing oppor- tunity in the future. So to limit getting these in the future be careful about the site that you visit and while trying to hold back the tears on that next post from out of nowhere also try not to like and share.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • DECEMBER 2016
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