This podcast is brought to by... For something a little different...this podcast was origianlly recorded as a 'Scope on the Periscope platform, so you'll hear references to the audience and Periscope specific terms...let's see how this goes. 5 Tips To Help You Trick Facebook's Algorithm Facebook, as a publicly traded company has a responsibility to earn money for it's investors, not to give you what you want...views. A+B=C, if C then D. If D=T+L then, M. I have no idea what that means but I know it's a very basic algorithm. A mathematical equation or formula. The language of computer program functionality. Facebook uses algorithms to determine exactly how your experience will be using the platform based on a multitude of variables, all designed to accumulate data to provide to advertisers to make money to please investors....plain and simple. "...you mean very little to Facebook..." Most of us aren't paying Facebook for anything but we are happy to use their infrastructure to post our messages, thoughts, pictures, videos,...you know, content. For a page, this means you mean very little to Facebook unless you are 'paying to play'. But, fewer and fewer people are actually seeing that content, even if it is awesome. How do you get around this algorithm problem and trick Facebook into pushing your content without paying? You play within the rules of the algorithm for your own benefit. You understand how the algorithm works and you manipulate it. Here's how. 1) Pictures Facebook loves pictures. Make pictures part of your content. Make the pictures good so that they get attention. 2) Videos Facebook after allowing native video has seen a dramatic rise in video use and views. Post videos on a regular basis...even if they aren't yours but make sure they are videos people will view. 3) Interaction / Engagement Make sure you reply to people who comment on your content. Like their comments (if appropriate) and reply, even if it's to just say "Thanks". 4) Share Great Content If someone else has produced great content that is popular, share it with your audience AND make sure to include where the information came from. 5) Keep Eyes On Your Content Think long, sticky content. Facebook is now rewarding content that keep eyes on it longer. With your picture, video, shared content, be willing to write "War and Peace". Write a long post that will keep eyes on your content. Just look at what Facebook had to say on one of their own recent blog posts about this: "For example, you may scroll quickly through your News Feed and like a photo of your friend’s graduation, followed by sharing a funny post from your sister. You keep scrolling and happen upon a post your cousin shared detailing everything she did and saw on her recent trip. Her post even includes a photo. You spend time reading her post and the interesting discussion about the best places to eat that had broken out in the comments on this post, but you don’t feel inclined to like or comment on it yourself. Based on the fact that you didn’t scroll straight past this post and it was on the screen for more time than other posts that were in your News Feed, we infer that it was something you found interesting and we may start to surface more posts like that higher up in your News Feed in the future." Adding into the end of tips number five....if you have made it this far, you now see what it means to have a long, sticky post. Even if you don't "like" the post or comment or share it, Facebook will reward this page because your eyes stayed here a lot longer so Facebook knows, there was something to it.