Facebook ranks content. Some people and businesses love this fact, and others hate it, but both groups must understand it to find success with their marketing efforts on this platform.
Organic traffic on Facebook receives less than 0.1% engagement. That’s up to 200 times less than what is possible on other platforms or through marketing channels like search engine optimization.
If you want to defeat the algorithm that ranks content value, your posts must be authentic and valuable to your followers and others.
How Can I Get My Content Featured on Facebook
The Facebook algorithm can control who sees your posts. That makes it challenging to grow your reactions, comments, and shares while working to build an audience.
When you can get your content featured because it is seen as necessary, you can extend your organic reach. Each engagement exposes your post to the extended network of each audience member, allowing your influence to grow.
Although the algorithm could be more accurate, these tips can help you defeat its efforts to block you from reaching the people who want to see what you share.
1. Get to Know Your Audience
Facebook repeatedly says that it prioritizes posts the algorithm indicates are informative and meaningful. That means a reasonable person interacting with your content for the first time would find it to be interesting, new, and valuable.
The platform wants people to share content, so it emphasizes posts, stories, and reels that get people reading or viewing. It combines past individual behavior with current trends to encourage spending more time on social media.
There is only one way to post content that meets these algorithmic demands. You’ll need to know your audience and the problems they’d like you to solve.
2. Creating Something Authentic
The internet is a place where creativity and authenticity are treasured. People can pretend to be something they’re not, but that effort doesn’t produce shareable content. Facebook emphasizes posts it determines are genuine through its algorithmic evaluations.
This platform also reduces the ranking for posts that the algorithm believes are misleading, spammy, or overly sensational.
When creating content for Facebook, the priority should always be to tell the truth. Even a minor exaggeration could be enough to have the information downgraded.
Headlines should clearly describe what someone can expect when reading or clicking on your post. Avoid using clickbait whenever possible, especially since the Facebook community often counters that technique by posting your information in the comments.
If you want to defeat the Facebook algorithm in this category, here are the things to avoid with your presence on the platform.
- Borderline content that isn’t technically in violation of Facebook’s policies, but probably could or should be.
- Fake news or misinformation, especially if the goal is to create an emotional reaction.
- Deepfake videos or manipulated content that third-party individuals have flagged as false.
Avoid sending links to sites with stolen or scraped content that adds little value to the user experience. Facebook wants people to see them as a resource, so create posts that reinforce that perspective.
3. Engage with Others
The Facebook algorithm prioritizes information from pages and similar content that users interacted with in the past. That means you’ll want to have conversations with followers whenever notifications come your way.
When people take the time to comment on posts, you have an opportunity to establish a relationship. If you can help each person feel seen and heard, the result is an increased chance for future interactions, engagements, and clicks.
Some conversations are easier to manage than others. Customer service principles help to navigate challenging circumstances to show the community your expertise and professionalism while resolving potential problems.
Try to make each engagement as positive as possible. The algorithm will favor your interactions more often when you show a pattern of value-added comments with your posts.
4. Create an Interactive Audience
The easiest way to show the Facebook algorithm that people are sharing your content with their friends is to have your audience interact with one another. When the platform sees a post generating numerous comments within a specific set of friends or networks, it uses re-targeted to keep showing that information to interested parties.
These tips can help you find more success when building interactive opportunities for your audience through Facebook content.
- Keep the content short. Most people use Facebook on a mobile device, so your best posts are about two sentences long with a complimentary photo to quickly capture a person’s attention.
- Quality is more important than quantity to the algorithm. If you’re not getting any attention on social media, try upgrading the text, videos, or graphics you use to engage your audience.
- Give people a look at the entire picture of what happens. Go behind the scenes, spotlight your volunteers, or share something that acknowledges relatable experiences.
You don’t need expensive equipment to upgrade your content to create an interactive audience. The camera on your smartphone or tablet is good enough to begin this segment of the journey to defeat the Facebook algorithm.
5. Don’t Try to Manipulate the System
There’s a difference between “defeating” the Facebook algorithm and attempting to manipulate it.
Your goal should be to use the algorithm’s processes to your advantage. When you create content consistently that meets Facebook’s expectations, you’re more likely to meet your definitions of success.
Trying to manipulate this system to gain distribution benefits beyond the information’s merits can make it harder to get noticed. If you violate Facebook’s terms of service to achieve an outcome, you might lose access to this incredible resource.
You’ll want to consider the following points when attempting to grow your organic reach.
- Don’t pay people to start engaging with your post. When a block of accounts focuses on specific information within a particular time, that activity sends a red flag to Facebook to review your profile.
- Paid comments create a similar result. Facebook considers these unsolicited actions to be spam, which works against what you want to achieve.
- Original content gets promoted more than royalty-free downloads. You can’t even boost reels that use songs, so don’t expect the platform to promote work that isn’t yours to offer.
An integrity-first approach with each post builds the foundation needed to defeat the Facebook algorithm. Although original content takes more time to create, it’s essential to remember that you’re also investing in your future with this option.
6. Focus on Safe and Respectful Behavior
Since 2021, Facebook has offered a feature that lets people control their news feeds. Your goal should be to get added to this favorites list. Once there, people will see content from you before other pages or friends.
The best way to achieve this outcome is to post engaging and interesting content that solves problems while staying safe and respectful.
What does Facebook consider to be safe and respectful content? There’s an entire page dedicated to what can get your posts de-ranked, but here are some of the highlights to consider.
- Never post something that could be considered hate speech, bullying, or harassment.
- Anything related to criminality or violence goes against what the algorithm wants to see.
- Materials that do or likely violate Facebook’s community standards should not be posted, including posts for buying, trading, or promoting restricted services or goods.
The goal should be to build others up with your posts instead of tearing them down. If it seems questionable, consider retooling the content before posting it to focus on this strategy.
7. Stick to the Basics
A status update is just as important as a high-quality video when you want to push engagement levels higher. It’s often better to have a mix of different posts when building a foundation for sharable information.
Although a simple status update seems humble today, people still interact at high levels without photos, videos, or links. It has one of the highest engagement levels because it is such an authentic expression.
8. Produce More Reels
In early 2022, Facebook expanded Reels from its initial launch because about half the time spent on the platform comes from watching videos. It’s the fastest-growing format because it aims to help people discover new things.
The news feed is more for relevant content from current connections. Reels look to build new relationships by offering observations or insights in different ways.
Reels can be shared to your Stories or seen within the Watch tab on Facebook. The platform also adds suggested content for people to watch even though someone might not follow that account already. [[6]]
If you have high-quality content posted in Reels on a regular schedule, you’ll find these short clips can do an excellent job of building more awareness for what you do.
9. Post at the Right Time
When you want to optimize your content for your Facebook audience, it helps to know when these people will be logged into their profiles and using the platform.
Teens typically access content during their lunch break and in the late afternoon. When your goal is to reach young professionals, try posting in the morning to have your information seen before people settle in at their desks or workstations.
Most users are logged in during the weekend, while fewer are available mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Every audience is different, so you’ll want to consider what each group needs when developing a posting schedule.
Once you find a rhythm that works for your needs, stick to it. People are more likely to interact with pages and brands when they feel like they’re a part of their daily routine.
10. Use Stories to Your Advantage
Stories might include Reels, but they also offer a more interactive option that stays separate from the algorithm’s news feed priorities. This option appears in the tabs at the top of the feed, above the rest of the content.
When you use Stories correctly, you can potentially bypass concerns with Facebook’s algorithm.
This feature lets you share content that disappears after 24 hours, although you can still access it through your profile later. To get your point across, you can add text, stickers, and effects to the still images or videos to share.
You can even add custom links and buttons to encourage more interactions with the Stories you share on Facebook.
11. Follow the Specifications
The news feed is constantly updating each user’s photos, videos, and status updates. Each post type comes with formatting recommendations that can help your information receive a potential algorithmic boost because following the rules is perceived to deliver some value.
The design recommendations for images include using JPG or PNG file types. The best ratios range from 1.91:1 to 1:1, while the resolution should be at least 1080p x 1080p.
For Facebook posts with text, the primary content should have a maximum of 125 characters. The best headlines and descriptions have 27 characters or less. You can have more content in the latter areas, but the platform will often truncate it for the viewer.
Some additional technical requirements are also worth reviewing when your goal is to defeat the Facebook algorithm.
- The maximum file size should be kept to 30 MB or less.
- Images should have a minimum height and width of 600 pixels.
- The aspect ratio tolerance maximum is 3%.
Although these standards are set for Facebook Ads, the guidelines were developed to maximize audience engagement through high-quality content outreach efforts. It only makes sense to do the same when creating posts for your audience to review.
Proactive Actions Are Necessary to Defeat the Algorithm
To expand your Facebook reach, you could use a trial-and-error method with your content. It is possible to find what an audience prefers by testing different post types.
The problem with that approach is that there are no guarantees. You could post hundreds of times without generating much response for those efforts.
That’s why it helps to implement strategies like the ones found here to boost attention for your content. In return, you’ll find that the Facebook algorithm can be helpful.
