How does Facebook's Algorithm Work?

Discover how does Facebook’s algorithm work, how does Facebook rank all the posts that have the possibility of being shown on a user’s news feed and how does Facebook prioritize posts from friends over brands.

The Facebook algorithm, like search engine algorithms, ranks all the posts that have the possibility of being shown on a user’s news feed based on how likely a user will have a positive reaction to that content. Facebook prioritizes posts from friends over brands, emphasizing “meaningful interactions.”

Facebook’s algorithm uses four main factors or signals:

1) A listing (“inventory”) of the posts available to show.

2) Signals from each post that tell Facebook what it is.

3) Predictions on how users will react to each post in the inventory.

4) A final score based on all the ranking signals.

Facebook’s ranking factors are based on data about user behavior and consider the behavior of everyone on the platform. There are three major categories that Facebook looks at:

1) Who users typically interact with

2) The type of content: videos, images, links, etc.

3)  The post’s popularity

As of May 2019, Facebook started directly surveying users to better understand the content they want to see. Facebook asked users things like:

* Who are your close friends?
* What posts do you find valuable?
* How important is this Facebook Group to you?
* How interested are you in seeing content from this Page you follow?

Based on those responses, Facebook updated its algorithm to make the news feed better for users. This included showing users more content from Groups and Pages that they’ve been following the longest or engaging with the most. Other content would then get pushed lower in the news feed.

Read more here.