Think back to Facebook in its early years, around 2006, when your feed showed posts in (mostly) chronological order every time you logged in. Fast forward nearly 20 years, and things look very different. Facebook started out as a simple way to share status updates and photos with friends and family, truly putting the ‘social’ in social media. Today, it has grown into a powerful hub for community building and business growth.
Users can now follow creators and brands, participate in groups and communities, and promote or discover events. Instead of only text and photo updates, the platform now includes disappearing stories, reels, live video, and a variety of other formats.
With all these new features, it’s no surprise that the Facebook algorithm — the machine-learning system that ranks and orders content in people’s feeds — has evolved as well. What was once a single, chronological feed has become a collection of different feeds — and each feed is powered by its own algorithm. Together, these algorithms determine which posts appear when someone opens the app.
Getting familiar with how Facebook’s algorithms operate is one of the best ways to increase your content’s visibility. When you understand what signals Facebook uses to decide which posts to show, you can be more strategic about what you share, when you publish, and the goals behind each post.
In this article, I’ll break down everything we currently know about how Facebook’s algorithms function and offer practical tips to help your content reach the audience it deserves.⚡Want to streamline your Facebook workflow? Buffer's Facebook scheduling and analytics tools make it easier to plan and schedule your posts…