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Have you heard about Facebook’s “Story Bumping” feature? In early August, the company rolled out a new algorithm geared at rewarding posts that have high interaction rates but a low number of views. You may have recently noticed that a post on your News Feed that’s several hours old is still appearing above more recent content. That’s Story Bumping.
Facebook changed their algorithm to push stories you haven’t seen above those you have—provided they’re getting a high number of “likes” or comments, thereby proving relevance. How does it work? It’s eerily in touch with your browsing habits, noting how often you interact with the friend or Page in question, how many likes or shares users—and your friends in particular—have given the post, how much you’ve interacted with similar posts, and whether you tend to hide similar content.
The Bump Statistics
According to Facebook’s research prior to the introduction of this feature, people read an average of 57% of the stories in their News Feed, and didn’t scroll down far enough to view the other 43%. The Story Bumping feature led to:
- An increase to 70% of overall News Feed content being seen and read
- A 5% increase in the number of likes, comments, and shares on stories from friends
- An 8% increase in likes, comments, and shares on stories from Pages
Do the Bump
How do you make this feature work for your business? You should still strive to write compelling, relevant content for your Page, and post it during prime posting hours. There are any number of theories on when this might actually be—some say 2-4PM and 11PM-1AM, some say 5-7PM. To be successful, you need to consider your specific target audience and post during times you know they’ll be online and reading their News Feed.
Track the Bump
Use the feature that lets you know how many people have viewed your post—Facebook Insights. You might even want to create a spreadsheet detailing subject matter, time posted, and number of views, so you can spot patterns over time. Make note of the posts that had the highest number of views, and make an effort to replicate both the time window and the quality/nature of that content if it’s outperforming your other Facebook content. (Similarly, Facebook will let you know when your posts are going viral by sending you a notification.)
Talk with the Bump
You will also want to make an effort to be actively engaged with your posts. Reply to feedback and comments from fans and stir up a conversation around your post topic. This will increase the likelihood that your post will be considered “relevant” and thus be presented to more users via Story Bumping. Your post will also move back to the top of the News Feed every time it gains a new comment, thus increasing the number of views organically, which also helps with the relevancy algorithm.
Love the Bump
Last but not least, it’s always a good idea to actively build your number of followers. If you follow the tips above, you should find that this is a numbers game and that the more followers you have, the better your content will naturally perform.
So the takeaway… like I have been saying all along, if you want to get your content, your marketing messages, and your promotions in front of more people, you have to create engaging, thought provoking, and commentary-inducing content that people want to interact with.