EdgeRank and Graph Rank Defined
Facebook has two algorithms that are important to marketers and developers but are largely misunderstood by people across industries.
Graph Rank and EdgeRank are what the social network uses to organize the massive amount of activity generated by people, pages and apps and to decide what stories to show whom. Graph Rank applies to Open Graph applications, not page posts or friend’s status updates. Those are affected by EdgeRank, which determines what shows up in your News Feed. Neither of these is a global score. Every bit of activity on the site has a different rank for different users. And because time and affinity plays a role, the rank of each object is not constant.
EdgeRank is the algorithm that determines what items populate your News Feed. With all the friends people have and pages they like, most users would be overwhelmed to see all of the activity generated by these connections. Facebook, therefore, assigns a value to every possible story that could end up in the feed. This value is based on affinity, weight and time. Affinity is the relationship between the user and the page or friend that created an item. Weight is affected by the type of story, for instance, whether it is a photo upload or a comment on another person’s status. Facebook tends to value rich media content and often when it introduces something new like Questions, it temporarily weights activity from that feature higher. The third factor affecting EdgeRank is how recently an action was taken.
These factors are why you might see every check-in and linked shared by your best friend, but only see whole photo albums from someone else. EdgeRank is also the reason most fans don’t see every post from pages they like. The more users interact with the page, however, the greater the affinity score becomes and the more likely they are to see page posts in the future.
[Update July 25, 2012 - Facebook says it no longer refers to its algorithm as EdgeRank, though many people outside of the company still refer to it that way. Facebook software engineer Phil Zigoris told Inc.com:
"EdgeRank is a term that has been used in the past to describe how we optimize the content of news feeds based on what is most interesting to you [as a user]. We don’t have a product or system called EdgeRank. The news feed algorithm takes many factors into account when it’s deciding what to show, including how often two people interact, how many people have liked, commented on, or shared a story, and the type of content that is being shown.”]
Graph Rank is a new algorithm Facebook is using to determine how Open Graph application activity will be distributed through News Feed, Ticker and Timeline. Graph Rank was introduced at F8 with the announcement of a new type of app that can continuously publish user activity to Ticker and Timeline. Because Facebook expects a proliferation of sharing through these Open Graph apps, it developed a system to manage the amount and type of activity that each user will see. Graph Rank seeks to show users highly relevant application stories based on the other connections they’ve made on Facebook. So if a user plays Words With Friends, they are more likely to see a friend’s story about another word game than a story from an arcade shooter game.
This seems to be a reaction to the negative feedback Facebook received after first allowing third-party apps on the platform. Many users were frustrated with the amount of app activity that filled their feeds. The social network initially responded by cutting off several viral channels that allowed apps to grow organically. This left a sour taste in the mouths of many developers. With Graph Rank, Facebook hopes to strike a balance that helps users discover apps they are likely to enjoy without compromising the site or turning off developers.
Together, EdgeRank and Graph Rank help personalize Facebook for each user. Marketers and developers who understand the way the platform ranks content can find ways to optimize their efforts there.
Images from http://www.livestream.com/f8conference and http://www.livestream.com/f8live.
See also: People Talking About This Defined and Understanding the Difference Between Sponsored Stories, Page Post Ads, Promoted Posts and Marketplace Ads
December 29th, 2011 at 11:30 am
[...] EdgeRank and Graph Rank Defined Graph Rank seeks to show users highly relevant application stories based on the other connections they’ve made on Facebook. So if a user plays Words With Friends, they are more likely to see a friend’s story about another word game than a story about an arcade shooter. [...]
January 3rd, 2012 at 8:25 pm
[...] corroborates with Facebook’s Edgerank formula helps determine the top content that will appear at the top of your Facebook News Feed when you [...]
January 3rd, 2012 at 8:53 pm
[...] Dezember 2011 veröffentlichte Insidefacebook.com einen interessanten Artikel zum Thema EdgeRank und GraphRank. Da ich immer wieder teilweise sehr [...]
January 12th, 2012 at 5:40 am
[...] the Graph Rank description. edgerankfacebookgraph [...]
January 14th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
[...] an item is ‘Highlighted’ depends on a complex algorithm determined by your Page’s Edgerank. A higher ‘People Talking About This’ means your Edgerank will improve and your Reach [...]
January 17th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
[...] Utilizing a strategy takes results from generic numbers to benchmarks with meaning. The social media strategy sets out specific categories where results are expected. Now, the results are marked, expected and a plan is already in place if they aren’t met. The strategy gives a time frame and sets up the efforts for evaluation. Instead of counting the number of ‘connections’ that were made on Facebook, LinkedIn or Pinterest, a strategy sets tasks in place to realize higher levels of engagement, click through rates and overa…. [...]
January 27th, 2012 at 6:32 am
[...] is made inside fractions of a second by a proprietary algorithm Facebook has previously named EdgeRank. This active news feed filter derives its name from matrix-speak, the terminology for [...]
January 30th, 2012 at 6:27 am
[...] musings of your former classmates. Despite Facebook’s efforts to keep content relevant with its EdgeRank and groups, users are now searching for a more curated social [...]
January 31st, 2012 at 5:06 am
[...] Edgerank algorithm works by promoting content that has the greatest number of interactions from your friends to your [...]
February 16th, 2012 at 12:27 am
[...] whether your content lives or dies. Or more accurately, your friends do. With recent updates to EdgeRank, Facebook’s proprietary content-ranking algorithm, your post’s visibility is a function [...]
February 16th, 2012 at 2:54 am
[...] whether your content lives or dies. Or more accurately, your friends do. With recent updates to EdgeRank, Facebook’s proprietary content-ranking algorithm, your post’s visibility is a function [...]
February 16th, 2012 at 7:49 am
[...] whether your content lives or dies. Or more accurately, your friends do. With recent updates to EdgeRank, Facebook’s proprietary content-ranking algorithm, your post’s visibility is a function [...]
February 16th, 2012 at 9:09 am
[...] content, you are less likely to show up in their feeds (this is based on the Facebook algorithm of EdgeRank, which we’ll discuss in another blog [...]
February 16th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
[...] (“We just reached 10,000 fans!”). McQuade encouraged other nonprofits to take some time to understand EdgeRank to find out who’s actually seeing your content. That can help inform the content you post [...]
February 16th, 2012 at 10:43 pm
[...] either your calm lives or dies. Or some-more accurately, your friends do. With new updates to EdgeRank, Facebook’s exclusive content-ranking algorithm, your post’s prominence is a duty of [...]
February 17th, 2012 at 1:12 am
[...] Social networks such as Facebook can determined the quality of the content you produce by examining sharing statistics, and how engaged your audience are. Inside Facebook, this algorithm is known as ‘Edgerank’. [...]
February 17th, 2012 at 9:20 am
[...] to hit 10 million U.S. monthly unique visitors. This also explains why Facebook’s algorithmic EdgeRank system prioritizes pictures ahead of textual content in news feeds: people are attracted to images. [...]
February 17th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
[...] building communities, whether for yourself or for clients, it’s pretty important you understand EdgeRank’s Algorithm. And if you either don’t know what I’m talking about or don’t know enough about [...]
February 18th, 2012 at 10:24 am
[...] up their fan count. Not only does it not work, it actually becomes detrimental as it affects your Edge Rank score. On Twitter, some will follow just about anybody in the hope that just about anybody will follow [...]
February 21st, 2012 at 10:58 pm
[...] page. And engagement is the lifeblood of any page. Not only is it a vital part of Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm, it’s also a major “social proof” since Facebook made the “Talking About [...]
February 22nd, 2012 at 9:34 am
[...] as Eli spoke about the bubble and how Google search and your Facebook news stream is personalized to show you more of what you want (e.g. ice cream) and less of what you might need (vegetables), I [...]
February 24th, 2012 at 9:56 am
[...] content, you are less likely to show up in their feeds (this is based on the Facebook algorithm of EdgeRank, which we’ll discuss in another blog [...]
February 24th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
[...] Social networks such as Facebook can determined the quality of the content you produce by examining sharing statistics, and how engaged your audience are. Inside Facebook, this algorithm is known as ‘Edgerank’. [...]
February 28th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
[...] for your trip to the golden age, to come up with your own way of engaging connections and using EdgeRank factors to focus on the nitty gritty of developing your brand through social while truly defining [...]
March 2nd, 2012 at 1:32 am
[...] ein Unternehmens-Post laut Facebook durchschnittlich nur 16% der Fans, da es bei 84% durch den Edge Rank aussortiert wird und somit nicht im Newsfeed der Fans auftaucht. Mit dem Reach Generator haben [...]
March 2nd, 2012 at 6:52 am
[...] wіth уουr οwn approach οf enchanting connectors аnԁ bу EdgeRank factors tο thoroughness οn thе nitty dirty οf building уουr code by [...]
March 5th, 2012 at 4:07 am
[...] Facebook erreicht ein Unternehmens-Post durchschnittlich nur 16% der Fans, da es bei 84% durch den Edge Rank aussortiert wird und somit nicht im Newsfeed der Fans auftaucht. Mit dem Reach Generator haben [...]
March 7th, 2012 at 3:58 am
[...] page. And engagement is the lifeblood of any page. Not only is it a vital part of Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm, it’s also a major “social proof” since Facebook made the “Talking About This” metric [...]
March 9th, 2012 at 8:13 am
[...] newsfeed has long been the prime real estate for Facebook content. Facebook’s edgerank has always ultimately decided what will show up in a user’s newsfeed. Now, a premium ad can show [...]
March 9th, 2012 at 9:14 am
[...] already uses the EdgeRank algorithm to help determine content visibility. The majority of a brand’s content is weeded out by this [...]
March 19th, 2012 at 6:44 am
[...] algorithms are going to continue to develop in the way they are now. Take Google’s Panda and Facebook’s EdgeRank – both algorithms that punish boring brands to death. In all honesty, this is a GREAT thing. [...]
March 22nd, 2012 at 12:54 pm
[...] to tell your brand story on Facebook, now it is more important than ever. Facebook has updated Edgerank (its algorithm for the Newsfeed), requiring brands to produce better content in order to get any [...]
March 23rd, 2012 at 4:52 am
[...] Read the entire piece [...]
March 25th, 2012 at 4:01 am
[...] updates, it’s imperative that you include rich media in your content. Facebook uses an algorithm, EdgeRank, to determine the items that populate an individual’s News Feed. Values are assigned to each [...]
March 26th, 2012 at 10:43 am
[...] List as well. When you get followers to add your page to their Interest Lists it also improves your EdgeRank. EdgeRank is an algorithm which ranks objects in Facebook News Feeds. Your EdgeRank [...]
March 28th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
[...] http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/12/27/edgerank-and-graph-rank-defined/ [...]
March 31st, 2012 at 6:01 am
[...] also give Nicole a chance to work around Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm, which can especially be useful if posts from Smocked Auctions don’t show up in a fan’s [...]
April 6th, 2012 at 7:13 am
[...] pages are definitely not as “small biz friendly.” The new format brought changes to Facebook’s EdgeRank, the look and functionality of business pages, as well as changes to their advertising options. [...]
April 8th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
[...] Plus, if you look at Cabot’s post engagement, very few of his 600 Facebook followers are clicking “like” or commenting on his posts. And that is crucial to improving your Facebook page’s EdgeRank! [...]
April 12th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
[...] content and update it frequently. For more details on why interaction is so important, read up on EdgeRank — Facebook’s algorithm for deciding which posts appear at the top of News Feeds/ [...]
April 13th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
[...] to generate greater reach for your brand because increased interaction with content drives your EdgeRank (Facebook’s algorithm that determines what items populate your News Feed). Just because you [...]
April 22nd, 2012 at 5:27 am
[...] picking up enough steam from the broader Facebook community to bump up engagement and improve their Edge Rank. The problem that they often have is that this takes time both on Facebook and in real life.Big [...]
April 23rd, 2012 at 7:09 am
[...] up enough steam from the broader Facebook community to bump up engagement and improve their Edge Rank. The problem that they often have is that this takes time both on Facebook and in real [...]
April 25th, 2012 at 3:51 am
[...] In the beta tests, the CMO said, “we’ve seen increases in the ‘People Talking About This’ metric and affecting [Facebook] edgerank.” [...]
April 25th, 2012 at 8:03 am
[...] Develop an ad targeting users who have shared or commented on your previous content – Facebook’s EdgeRank will give content with high engage a boost on news [...]
April 28th, 2012 at 12:43 am
[...] picking up enough steam from the broader Facebook community to bump up engagement and improve their Edge Rank. The problem that they often have is that this takes time both on Facebook and in real [...]
May 3rd, 2012 at 9:32 am
[...] 3 ingredientes confirmados por Facebook que participan para establecer una puntuación que acabará decidiendo dónde se [...]
May 13th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
[...] is especially important considering Facebook’s EdgeRank, their own algorithm which calculates what content is shown on people’s newsfeeds. Simply put, [...]
May 14th, 2012 at 9:16 am
[...] solve this problem Facebook uses their EdgeRank solution to determine what content a person is more likely to enjoy [...]
May 15th, 2012 at 10:01 am
[...] of people in New Zealand. Currently, the visibility of Facebook posts is determined by the site’s EdgeRank algorithm that takes into account factors like affinity, weight and time to determine who sees that [...]
May 16th, 2012 at 7:29 am
[...] Number of joiners (likers) – This indicator is actually not the best way to measure success. The reason is simple: the number of likers in itself does not bring anything to the brand. It is a vanity metric. One may think that the bigger the number of likers, the bigger the coverage for future marketing messages. This is not entirely correct, as Facebook uses an algorithm which actually takes into account the strength of the connection between the liker and the brand, and the type of the content published by the brand. If for example, I decide to publish a trivia comment such as “What do you think of the phone XXX” and hope to engage all my likers, I’ll be disappointed. Such messages reach only 3-7% of the total number of likers. Pictures and video have a bigger success, but likers’ level of engagement is of the greatest importance. This means that any marketing strategy has to focus on increasing the engagement of the users instead of collecting new likers. To read more on the topic, please see this article. [...]
May 24th, 2012 at 1:11 pm
[...] users paying to reap the benefits of feeling popular, so what’s the controversy? The news feed was originally designed to display posts that have generated attention organically through “Likes” and comments. [...]
May 25th, 2012 at 1:04 am
[...] That’s great engagement and will have significantly helped their EdgeRank. [...]
May 25th, 2012 at 4:02 am
[...] role. As you may already know, there’s a science to Facebook visibility—and that’s where the EdgeRank algorithm comes in. Understanding the algorithm and what it means is an important step when it comes to [...]
May 25th, 2012 at 7:45 am
[...] some businesses and individuals about this new feature. It seems many people were unaware how their EdgeRank corresponded with how many people see their Page updates.If you’re a Page Administrator, you [...]
May 25th, 2012 at 10:42 am
[...] uses EdgeRank to determine what your audience should see in their news feed. So you could be excited about a [...]
May 25th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
[...] uses EdgeRank, an algorithm that determines what items populate your News Feed. Facebook, therefore, assigns [...]
May 31st, 2012 at 8:32 am
[...] a normal Facebook post by a brand on their brand page, your reach is limited and constrained by Facebook’s EdgeRank Algorithm, which somehow decides who gets to see your posts. A Promoted Post, however, will reach beyond the [...]
May 31st, 2012 at 11:33 am
[...] now your reach on Facebook was limited by the scope of Faceook’s EdgeRank algorithm – meaning when you posted an update your content was only visible to a small number of your [...]
June 4th, 2012 at 9:26 am
[...] but Facebook Insights tells you your posts only reach 750 people? That is because of Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, which determines who sees your brands posts. The average reach for a post is around 15% [...]
June 4th, 2012 at 8:31 pm
[...] what shows up in your News Feed. But now, Facebook’s updated EdgeRank algorithm (explained well here) drastically influences what you see. It theoretically populates your News Feed based on assigned [...]
June 5th, 2012 at 2:09 am
[...] content you post to your Facebook business page has been limited by the scope of Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm. In other words, when you posted an update to your page, that update would only reach a limited [...]
June 6th, 2012 at 9:20 am
[...] uses something called EdgeRank which ‘Inside Facebook’ describes as, “The algorithm that determines what items populate your News Feed. With all the friends people have and pages they like, most users would be overwhelmed to see all [...]
June 7th, 2012 at 9:56 am
[...] promote new status updates to their Facebook fans. Pretty clever on Facebook’s part – they use EdgeRank to minimize user engagement with fan pages, then charge page owners a fee to increase exposure to [...]
June 8th, 2012 at 10:16 am
[...] (liked, shared, or commented). To get in the Newsfeed, you had to navigate the joys of EdgeRank, Facebook’s mysterious algorithm for how and when brand posts appear in user feeds. Recency [...]
June 8th, 2012 at 3:13 pm
[...] the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine which posts make it into which users' News Feeds. Insidefacebook.com has a pretty good explanation of how it works if you are interested. But, according to social media rock star Mari Smith, only [...]
June 14th, 2012 at 9:33 am
[...] this is because of a Facebook algorithm that they have been running for quite some time called “Edgerank.” The Edgerank algorithm calculates a variety of factors, including each specific fan’s past [...]
June 17th, 2012 at 12:47 am
[...] reminds me of Facebook’s Edgerank which calculates how you are connected to another user using an algorithm as a function of your [...]
June 27th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
[...] – Your Average Facebook Post Only Reaches 12% of Your Friends Inside Facebook – EdgeRank and Graph Rank Defined Facebook Help Center – Promote Your Page [...]
July 3rd, 2012 at 1:16 pm
[...] important to understand Facebook uses this thing known as EdgeRank to determine what displays in your News [...]
July 12th, 2012 at 12:39 pm
[...] There’s a lot of ways EdgeRank slices many factors that affect your news feed distribution. If you’d like to dive into the specifics of EdgeRank, google it and you’ll get a wealth of detailed articles, like this, this, and this. [...]
July 13th, 2012 at 4:30 pm
[...] There’s a lot of ways EdgeRank slices many factors that affect your news feed distribution. If you’d like to dive into the specifics of EdgeRank, google it and you’ll get a wealth of detailed articles, like this, this, and this. [...]
July 16th, 2012 at 5:03 am
[...] Image via Inside Facebook [...]
July 20th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
[...] states that business page posts were always only seen by a portion of your audience due to their proprietary algorithim Edgerank which selects the followers that see your posts based on their past engagement with your content [...]
July 28th, 2012 at 7:59 am
[...] into News Streams, and the number of Fan News Streams reached was dictated by Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm. Now, for Pages with over 400 Fans, we have to pay hard cash. (For those with less Fans, [...]
July 28th, 2012 at 9:58 pm
[...] this has always been the case. What determines who of your fans see your posts is based on the EdgeRank algorithm. In short, this means the more interaction you have on your post the more people in your fan base [...]
July 29th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
[...] by now you have learned about Facebook’s EdgeRank, a built in algorithm of determining what accounts will receive higher posting value, similar to [...]
August 3rd, 2012 at 12:01 pm
[...] There’s a lot of ways EdgeRank slices many factors that affect your news feed distribution. If you’d like to dive into the specifics of EdgeRank, google it and you’ll get a wealth of detailed articles, like this, this, and this. [...]
September 2nd, 2012 at 9:25 pm
[...] page. And engagement is the lifeblood of any page. Not only is it a vital part of Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm, it’s also a major “social proof” since Facebook made the “Talking About [...]
September 5th, 2012 at 6:31 am
[...] EdgeRank is the specific algorithm created by Facebook to help users increase the relevancy and credibility of site postings. You can take each individual post and examine its effectiveness. You can then use that information to improve your postings. In the end, after creating your fan page, what it really comes down to is engagement. If you are not on your fan page on a daily basis talking to your fans, you are missing out on an opportunity to gain potential customers and, as a result, losing business. So, create a fan page, share it with others and be there for your clients. [...]
September 6th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
[...] is EdgeRank Algorithm that Facebook uses(and makes a lot of money because of it)More details here: http://www.insidefacebook.com/20…P.S. Most Social Marketers(Primarily Facebook) make their living by helping their clients improve [...]
October 21st, 2012 at 8:46 am
[...] and on Graph Rank: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/12/27/edgerank-and-graph-rank-defined/ VN:F [1.9.20_1166]please wait…Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast) [...]
October 24th, 2012 at 9:38 am
[...] EdgeRank algorithm does affect what users see in their Newsfeed. Facebook (seem to think they) know better than you do [...]
October 27th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
[...] of your fans are seeing that content appear in their news feeds. Facebook uses its complex EdgeRank Algorithm to determine which content each user sees in their news feed. Facebook estimates that only 16% of [...]
October 30th, 2012 at 7:03 am
[...] has always been pretty open about how it works, and that hasn’t changed. The reason everyone is suddenly pissed off is [...]
November 27th, 2012 at 12:49 am
[...] give you a backdrop, Facebook uses its complex EdgeRank algorithm to determine which content each user sees in their news feed. Facebook estimates that only 16% of a [...]
December 3rd, 2012 at 7:17 am
[...] or “like” Sally’s status updates, you’ll see fewer status updates from Sally over time. Edgerank uses fairly specific signals to regulate this activity for both individuals and fan pages on [...]
December 26th, 2012 at 11:34 am
[...] Posts – This is where things get a little hairy. Not that long ago Facebook incorporated the Edgerank algorithm into the newsfeed. What this does is filters out updates and activity from the people AND pages [...]
January 16th, 2013 at 5:22 am
[...] all the rage surrounding Facebook’s attempts to find the perfect way to handle EdgeRank is to be believed, they have a real discoverability problem. The news feed works just fine for some [...]
January 21st, 2013 at 8:04 am
[...] uses EdgeRank, an algorithm which decides what items occupy your news feed. The algorithm assigns a value based [...]
March 24th, 2013 at 8:44 am
[...] Read More: EdgeRank and GraphRank Defined [...]
May 3rd, 2013 at 5:57 am
[...] a good, quick summary from InsideFacebook.com on Facebook’s EdgeRank [...]