Cracking the Facebook Algorithm Code

How do you know you’re in the right place?

If you’re struggling with knowing what to post on your Facebook business page, you’re in the right place.  

If you are feeling overwhelmed with your Facebook business page, you’re in the right place.

If you know that there’s a Facebook algorithm but you have no idea how to crack the code, you are also in the right place.  

If any of those apply to you, welcome! I am truly passionate about helping small business owners and people who want to live life by their design, market to the best of their ability. I am a huge believer that Facebook is your best marketing tool and we absolutely need to be utilizing it to the best of its ability.  But, I feel overwhelmed running Facebook business pages and I hear from you guys that you are overwhelmed as well.  

If you feel frustrated with your Facebook business page, I want you to know you’re not alone. I also want you to know that you don’t have to pay to play on Facebook and it is absolutely the best free advertising tool out there. I want you to use to it to its best capabilities and best capacities.

When we talk about advertising on Facebook, the number one thing I recommend is you have a Facebook business page.  If you already have a Facebook business page, just hang on tight here while I quickly explain, then we’ll get into algorithms. If you’re just using your personal profile to talk about your business, you absolutely need a business page.  It is the best place you can advertise for your business and it’s different that your personal page because you cannot run Facebook ads from your personal page.

I told you earlier you don’t have to pay to play, which is true, you don’t.  You don’t need to run any ads, but I recommend that if you are going to use advertising in your business that you consider utilizing Facebook ads because it’s hands down the best advertisement today. Step number one is make sure you get a Facebook business page and make sure it’s set up correctly.  If you’ve done that, great!  Let’s move on to step number 2.  

Step number two is understanding the Facebook algorithm.  If you already feel overwhelmed, don’t worry. For the longest time, I felt overwhelmed too.  I am going to quickly explain what the algorithm is, and then I’m going to tell you how we’re going to crack the algorithm code. What we’re going to be doing on your page that will put you leaps and bounds ahead of your competition when trying to beat the algorithm.  Facebook algorithms, same with Instagram is just simply the level of posts that you see in your newsfeed.  

Facebook prioritizes what we see based on what we have previously shown them we are interested in. They don’t let us know 100% what their Facebook algorithm is which is probably a good thing because then we’d all just crack it and it wouldn’t be fun anymore.

Facebook algorithms work in multiple ways. Facebook algorithms give number one priority to Facebook Live video. If you’re not using live video, you need to start because every time you do a live video, it will show up higher in your newsfeed.  Number two priority is regular video. Don’t get this confused with a YouTube link!  I often see this when people are preparing for a production sale, especially in the agricultural industry. People will post a YouTube link, and that is not what I consider video.  I want the actual video on Facebook, not a link. Third priority is pictures, number four is text and number five is links.  

Let’s recap- live video, video, pictures, text, links, in that order.  

If you are putting text and a link and you wonder why your posts aren’t being seen, it’s because it’s getting buried because it’s at the very bottom of the algorithm and the very bottom of the priority.  

If you’re a customer of mine or you’ve listened to us, or you have a production sale and I keep telling you that you need to post the videos of your bulls or your heifers actually on your Facebook page, I’m doing that because in the algorithm Facebook video is number two and links are dead last. If you send someone off of your Facebook page, onto YouTube to watch the vide

going to see that post.  So, that’s the Facebook algorithm from the very basic level.  That is how they prioritize the posts but now let’s go a little bit deeper.

A lot of times, our gut instinct when we create a Facebook business page is we want to invite everyone to like the Facebook business page.  I did this.  I probably did this on my first five or six business pages, so if you did it no worries because I am so guilty of it and I see it all the time.  

What happens with that is, they take algorithms by percentages.  The number of people who are engaging with your posts and making that a percentage is super important.  By engagement, I mean shares and comments and tags and all of the above on your posts, not likes.  Compare the number of pages likes, with the number of people who are engaging with your posts.  It doesn’t really matter how many page likes you have, it matters what percentage of your page likes are actually engaging with your content.  I often tell people to start tracking the right numbers, not the wrong numbers.  If you have watching your numbers increase or you’re inviting more people to like you page, stop!  Page likes mean nothing.  

Now let’s talk about the myth that you have to pay to play.  What is the number one thing that frustrates you about social media the most?  The answer I recently got was that you have to “pay to play”, which you absolutely do not!  If you are going to pay to play, here’s a quick tip: please do not push the boost post button.  

If it really is frustrating to you and you think that you have to pay to play in order for you to reach your ideal customers, when you’re thinking that you continuously have to run Facebook ads in order for you to get engagement from your customers.  What I see is that people are confusing post likes and page likes for engagement.  I often tell my customers and the people in the KRose Marketing group that if someone were to walk through the door and they were my ideal customer, I should be able to picture them exactly what they would look like and do.  You need to narrow your ideal customer down to a tee.  This will make creating your Facebook content so much easier.  

My last tip is that you need to stop the selling.  This is really hard for a lot of you because you have business posts and you have a business and that’s what you want to do- you want to sell.  I get it.  There are so many opportunities to get people to know, like and trust you that does not involve a sales post.  I promise you- if you start providing value, that does not involve a sales post you will be higher in the algorithm.  There are so many ways to provide value to your customers without selling.  Use your Facebook page to become the master of your industry. Give without expecting anything back.  

That is Facebook algorithms in a nutshell. They are not hard and it can become easy to crack the code.  They can change without notice, and it’s important to try and keep up with them. IF you have any questions or are struggling to get engagement, reach out to us. I’m more than happy to hop on a free call with you!