Facebook's filter trap

Anyone who runs a company page on Facebook is aiming for the widest possible reach, especially in the intended target group. However, both Facebook friends and Facebook itself stand in the way of this goal: friends can unfriend, but they can also unsubscribe from all or part of the messages on a fan page. Unsubscribing reduces the friend counter accordingly, but how many friends have switched to mute can now only be determined in a roundabout way using Facebook's analysis tool (Insights). So anyone who has got on their fans' nerves too often with too many irrelevant posts has been discreetly but permanently punished for it - and may be under the mistaken impression that all their friends are still on full reception.

For private users and companies alike, the news page is one of the most important functions on Facebook. However, not all status updates appear here. What a user sees is monitored by Facebook's Edgerank algorithm, which separates posts that are important to the user from those that are not. If a status update fails at this hurdle, it is very unlikely that a user will see the post at all. It is no secret that the Edgerank algorithm exists and how it basically works. A developer conference at the end of April 2010 provided the first detailed information about this new unit of measurement on the Internet. These three factors play a role:
1. affinity: The closeness or connection between two users as measured by Facebook. The more frequently and above all regularly a user comments on posts on a fan page, clicks on "Like" or looks at the wall, the higher the affinity score.
2. weighting: This is about the potential of a wall message to trigger further interactions. Messages with a link, an image or a video are rated better than pure text. However, it is also important how intensively a particular status message is actually reacted to.
3. expiration time: Recent wall posts have a higher chance of being displayed in the main notifications of friends. After a few hours, a Facebook post is hardly visible anymore.
Just like the mechanisms used by search engines to rank websites (most famously Google's PageRank), Facebook's EdgeRank also secretly destroys the best-intentioned marketing intentions. Various studies have recently been published on this subject, all of which have come to a sobering conclusion: Only around 5 to 20 percent of updates posted online make it into the newsfeed display of fans - whether they are then noticed there is yet another question.

Tangible effects
Given the drastic effects of Facebook's news filtering, it is surprising that in a survey of social media practitioners conducted by Werbewoche, several participants admitted that they had not yet dealt with the Edgerank algorithm: "We are still at the very beginning when it comes to Edge Rank" or "We have not yet dealt with this topic in enough depth" and "To be honest, we have not given this topic much thought either". Others can report specific observations. Florian Wieser from the online marketing agency Coundco, for example, states: "We have not noticed an extreme drop in engagement on any of the pages we manage." However, he reports other effects: "It is sometimes difficult to understand why a post has just made it to the top again, even though Facebook's rules seem logical. Especially in the usually smaller interaction spheres of likes or comments, 10 or 20 suddenly become extremely significant. An old post can suddenly be top again, even though this information is long gone. Such incidents disrupt a well-planned editorial plan and an orchestrated dramaturgy. It tears apart serially posted stories and is therefore of little use for storytelling." Moritz Adler, Product Manager Mobile Team at Local.ch AG, also says: "We feel the filtering" and adds, "I don't think the filtering is bad. It tends to lead to writing less, but better content. We think this is ultimately also in the interests of our readers, who we don't want to spam." Dominique Locher, Marketing & Sales Director at LeShop SA, comes to a similar conclusion: "Whether with or without a news filter, information and offers on social networks must be relevant, emotional and attractive for customers. We work on this every day throughout the company - not just in the networks. In my opinion, it would not be sustainable to focus too much on search engine or network algorithms."

No chance for beginners?
However, the effect of the Edgerank algorithm has serious consequences for small and, above all, new Facebook presences, as Marie-Christine Schindler, PR consultant and author of specialist books, notes: "The hurdle for getting started has increased. An organization that runs a fan page on Facebook must first prove itself." Anyone starting out will first have to get their affinity rating up. This can be done by launching polls on controversial topics and inviting people to comment, as well as posting articles with pictures and videos. If new posts now regularly appear in the newsfeed of friends and the ground has been prepared, it is worth spreading the actual content that would previously have simply gone under. But even now, the ball must be kept constantly in the air and the Edgerank rating must be maintained. This includes keeping a close eye on which posts trigger the most interactions, likes and comments and when the page's Facebook fans are most active. In order for a fan page to attract visitors, it must be marketed. Marie-Christine Schindler advises doing this cross-media outside of Facebook. "First and foremost, through proper integration into the website, but also in all communication measures from the footer of the email, to mentioning it in print products and linking it in the newsletter."

Do without Facebook?
It is clear that setting up and maintaining a fan page on Facebook is hard work. In the long term, a tactical approach to content is required, which in many cases must first be learned and for which investments in new resources will be necessary in many places. Empty one-way communication and pseudo dialogs do not lead to the desired target group, but social media managers are forced to engage in real dialog and community management. Not all companies regularly have such content for fans that encourages interaction and cannot or do not want to afford the effort required to be as successful as possible against the EdgeRank algorithm. Take ARGUS der Presse AG, for example, where Social Media Manager Michael Wuschech came to the conclusion: "This initial situation is one of the reasons why we have decided not to have a Facebook presence."

Christoph J. Walther