14 DAY TRIAL // To some, Facebook's News Feed ranking algorithm is as important as Google Search. And, just like Google, Facebook hasn't really explained how its algorithm works and how it picks the stories it shows to users in any great detail.
But that is changing, the company has started a series of posts detailing any major change to the ranking algorithm.
The very first change that gets this treatment is a new way of surfacing older stories. Facebook can now repeat stories in the News Feed if you didn't get to see it the first time around.
The company found that people only read 57 percent of the stories in the feed, they never got to the rest. But that doesn't mean those stories weren't interesting to them, they just didn't have time to get to them.
With the new system, those stories, if they are still popular and generate activity, may be moved further up the stream and shown again in the News Feed.
In testing, this change led to people reading 70 percent of the entries in the News Feed. Users should be getting to see more stories that interest them and popular entries will be seen by more people, a win on either side.
"The data suggests that this update does a better job of showing people the stories they want to see, even if they missed them the first time. For Page owners, this means their most popular organic Page posts have a higher chance of being shown to more people, even if they're more than a few hours old," Facebook explained.
The new ranking only applies to organic posts, ads will be treated just as they always have. "Advertisers should note, however, that this change does not impact how paid content appears in News Feeds," the company noted.