The Facebook algorithm remains a hot topic for social media marketers, business owners, journalists, and even world leaders. Whether you embrace it or find it frustrating, understanding how it works is essential for successful Facebook marketing. Let’s delve into the algorithm that shapes the feeds of Facebook’s 2.93 billion users.

What Is the Facebook Algorithm?

The Facebook algorithm consists of rules that rank content across the platform. It determines what users see when they check Facebook and arranges content in a personalized order. This process occurs every time a user refreshes their feed, evaluating posts, ads, Stories, and Reels.

Facebook’s goal is to show users content they’re most personally interested in. The algorithm considers various factors to achieve this personalized ranking.

Key Changes in the 2024 Algorithm

Emphasis on Meaningful Interactions:

Facebook aims to prioritize posts that spark conversations and generate meaningful interactions between users.

Posts lacking engagement may experience decreased reach.

Relevance Score Calculation:

Each post receives a relevance score, influencing its ranking in users’ feeds.

Factors include content type, user interactions with similar posts, and viewing duration within the same category.

Predicted Time Spent on Posts:

AI predicts how long a user will spend viewing a post based on past interactions with similar content.

Content type plays a role in this prediction.

Likelihood of Engagement:

The algorithm predicts a user’s likelihood to engage with a Page or view additional comments on a post.

Past interactions with Pages, time spent on similar posts, and overall Page activity influence this prediction.

Balanced Content Mix:

Facebook aims to show users a variety of post types, including videos, photos, links, and text posts.

Users won’t see multiple posts of the same type consecutively.

Remember, staying informed about these changes will help you navigate the evolving Facebook landscape! 

Mastering LinkedIn in 2024 – Part 1: Understanding How the Algorithm Works

While LinkedIn has been constantly tweaking its algorithm for the past three years, no update has been as significant as the one that took place in September 2023.

According to the 5th edition of Just Connecting HUB’s Algorithm Insights report based on the analysis of 215,000 LinkedIn posts, 95% of creators on the platform saw their reach drop by more than 50%, and for some, follower growth slowed to 40% compared to the previous year.

What’s behind these jaw-dropping numbers?

The answer: LinkedIn’s bold move to double down on users’ interactions with content.

Gone are the days of endlessly scrolling through photos of execs bragging in front of event booths.

Today, LinkedIn is on a mission to spotlight genuinely valuable content, transforming your feed into a goldmine of insightful, engaging material (well, it’s trying).

So, what does this mean for you and your LinkedIn strategy?

To understand, let’s first explore how LinkedIn’s algorithm delivers your content to the platform.

How does the LinkedIn algorithm distribute posts?

The main mechanism behind the LinkedIn algorithm is a kind of feedback loop that can be influenced positively or negatively by a variety of parameters, primarily focused on the quality of your post and your interactions with other users.

If your post validates signals that the algorithm recognizes as positive, it will continue to display your post to successive batches of users.

On the other hand, if a post is recognized as spam or if early batches of users do not interact with it, the algorithm will stop promoting your content.

The LinkedIn algorithm also uses a hierarchy of user groups to “test” the virality of your content and will deliver it in this order:

Bell ringers: People who have opted in to receive notifications on your profile via the notification bell will be immediately notified of a new post. However, it is not certain that LinkedIn delivers it to the entire sample of people, and some sources claim it could be about 70% of them.

Core circle: The users who interact with your content the most and mostly those who are followers. Some sources estimate that this could be about 7% of your followers.

New connections: As we’ll see later, new connections are highly influenced and will see your content early.

Active followers: Your followers who are actively using and engaging on the platform will see it next.

Active connections: Finally, LinkedIn will expand to other connections, even beyond your initial connections (40% of your impressions could come from them).

To go beyond your close connections, users who are shown your content must continue to engage with it, but not all types of engagement are created equal.

Positive and negative signals measured by the LinkedIn algorithm

Every action users take on the platform – even passive ones like reading a post – is constantly measured and factored into the algorithm.

We can divide interactions into two groups: positive and negative engagement signals.

Let’s look at the positive signals first:

  • Interactions with buttons such as Like, Comment and Repost.
  • Clicks on “See More” to expand your post and read the full content
  • Clicks on links, images, carousels, etc. included in your post
  • Clicks on the “Save” option to bookmark your post
  • New followers or connections gained from a post
  • Users who share your post in direct messages
  • Users spending extended time on your post
  • Users who share your content outside of LinkedIn
  • On the other hand, some interactions can slow down the spread of your post.
  • But Likes pale in comparison to Comments.

Comments on your posts are 15 times more powerful than Likes!

In addition, by engaging with other people’s posts shortly after they are published, you can increase the reach of your own posts (a mechanism we’ll explore in the next article).

9 parameters influencing the LinkedIn feed

In addition to everything I explained above, there are also nine parameters that can affect what other people see on their feed, and this is important to understand how this can impact the delivery of your posts.

So let’s look at them:

New connections

Connecting with someone on LinkedIn has a big hidden benefit that LinkedIn doesn’t tell you about. For the two weeks following the connection, LinkedIn will prominently display your content to them, which can be a huge boost if they engage. On the other hand, if they don’t engage during this time, the visibility of your post in their feed will decrease.