Just for the record, I have little interest in improving my Facebook ‘reach’.  On the other hand – I am fascinated by the mathematics used to manipulate our environment in that world.  Here are two interesting little links.

This one is fascinating – it details the workings of the algorithm that determines what information comes up in your ‘news feed’, known as the ‘Edge-rank’ algorithm.  Fascinating.  It sums the social distance between you and the event creator, the ‘weight’ of the event itself plus a constant time decay results in a score that is then used to determine what material is most likely to engage you and therefore is shown in your newsfeed.  The thing blows me away is the simplicity.  Only three parameters are considered and NO interactions!

The second post is a lovely little graphic display results of an empircal study into what kind of data results in the most response (sharing/liking etc…).  There’s a few intriguing tidbits in here including the fact that posts made on Sundays are more likely to go viral (or, in their language: exhibit a higher ‘virality’).

And of course, knowledge of these kind of algorithms are frequently used by the more unscrupulous end of the social media ecosystem for things such as ‘Like Farming’.  Indeed there are whole categories of posts – many of which you will recognise – that game this algorithm for profit.