With all the hulaballoo that’s been going on these days about Facebook’s Edgerank change as of September 20, I got curious. Had Edgerank really affected my page? Were my fans seeing less of my posts?
Wouldn’t it be cool if I had some way to mine that data? Oh! Wait! I do!
I checked my insights for my page. I downloaded the results for the last four months, from Aug 1 until today. Insights gives you lots of data, but I pared it down to two factors: the date and the amount of people that saw the post from that date. I figured the amount of people that like my page is not as important for this experiment, although certainly the amount of people seeing each post should rise at a similar rate as the amount of people that like my page.
So. I went to the data. And check it out:
Not really that much of a change, right? Yes, it does seem to be down a bit, but between September 1 and November 1, I seem to be holding fairly steady at somewhere between 400 and 600 views per post. If, as many of the blogs are saying, post views are down to 10%, you’d think there would be a much greater dip.
So. What’s going on here?
Well, from the beginning, I have always tried to share useful information through my page. I’m not trying to be spammy or sell you anything. I’m primarily sharing information: blog posts and links to other articles that I find interesting. Edgerank was specifically rejigged to keep spaminess at bay. Maybe it’s doing its job?
The truth is, even before they rejigged their algorithm, you would never have 100% of the people that like your page see your post. Some people only check into Facebook once a week. Some people live in Australia, and are asleep. Some people aren’t allowed to check Facebook at work (poor them). You want to create content for your page that people are going to find useful, and they will like, comment, or share it. That’s what’s going to drive your stats up. For me, apparently, it’s quotes by Seth Godin. What is it for you? Where do your numbers spike? Do more of that. It’s a wonderful insight.
Share content that people find useful. Post things that are interesting and fun. And you have no reason to fear Edgerank.
Additional reading:
- Search Engine Journal
- Mashable
- My November e-newsletter, that talks about how to hack around Facebook’s Edgerank
Check out your own page views and let me know if you’ve seen a big dip since the end of September. Share in the comments section below.