Facebook & it's New Metric Demystification

Do you  ever wondered why you can have 500 odd friends on Facebook friends list, yet only 15-20 show up in your news feed..? It’s not that those other friends have stopped using Facebook; chances are they’re still there. It’s just that they aren’t showing up in your news feed.

If you haven’t noticed, there are now two settings on your Facebook news feed: “Most Recent” which shows most of the content published by your Facebook friends in chronological order and “Top News” which filters content based on EdgeRank.

Edge Rank is the new metrics which Facebook has recently unveiled that allows us to monitor Shares and Clicks. Shares are a very important aspect of EdgeRank. You may not realize it, but News Feed only displays a subset of the stories generated by your friends — if it displayed everything, there’s a good chance you’d be overwhelmed. Developers are always trying to make sure their sites and apps are publishing stories that make the cut, which has led to the concept of “News Feed Optimization”, and their success is dictated by EdgeRank.

Facebook looks at everything published as “objects.” These can be status updates, links, photos, video or anything else that can be shared on Facebook. Every object receives a ranking (EdgeRank), which determines if it will show in your personal newsfeed. Objects with a high EdgeRank appear in your “Top News” feed. Objects with a low EdgeRank will not.

Let’s take a closer look at the three factors that determine EdgeRank.

News Feed Optimization (NFO),

EdgeRank = ∑u_e w_e d_e

u_e = Affinity score between the Viewing User and the Edge Creator.

w_e = Weight of this Edge type (Likes, Comments, tag etc..,)

d_e = Time Decay Factor based on how long ago the edge was created.

Affinity is dependent on a user’s relationship with an object in the news feed.

Weight is determined by the type of object, such as a photo/video/link/etc.

Time Decay, as an object gets older, the lower the value.

So how will you get High EdgeRank Score..????

Here we go the following lists factors that determine ranking of items in news feeds or could influence news feed ranking on Facebook.

ELEMENT	TOPIC	Description
Fresh news and activities	Recency	Recency of activity (news, tags, comments, likes, link clicks.
The type of content	Content	Status updates, photos, videos, comments
Who has published the content item	Author	It may be a person, a page, a group, an application. Each will have its own authority and affinity.
Comments from friends	Engagement (EDGE)	The greater the number of comments from friends, the more likely that a story will appear.
Likes	Engagement (EDGE)	Counts could be used, particularly those made recently, possibly calibrated on the basis of the authority of who has done the liking and / or the rate of liking.
Clicks on links, if present	Engagement (EDGE)	Facebook tracks all links to external sites. It is easy to imagine that this data is used as news feed item ranking signal.
Personal Behavior history	Engagement (EDGE)	A user has historically shown greater interest in news by a certain author or of a certain type.

Something else you should know about is the lifecycle of Facebook “news”. No piece of news will last forever. Unlike ranking on Google where you have an unlimited life span, Facebook news is sort of limiting. As users constantly update their profiles and post new content, it has to be seen. Pretty much all Facebook content is displayed in the news feed. There is just no way of keeping yourself “in the news”. However, you can definitely increase the life span of a certain piece of news which you would like to have by simply using the factors above and by Engagement especially which I explained above.

In my next post will dicuss few more on the stuff required to attain high EgdeRank and factors need to do in Optimizing our NFO (News Feed Optimization).

Your suggestions and feedback are most welcome...!!!!

Be an Expert @ Google Search...!

Want to be an Expert @ Google Search...!!!

Go through the Below Post..!!!

Usage of Google has increased a alot it's almost 10.3 Billion searches have been made on Google last year. People used to type in the keyword query and search through but it will result with unrelevant searches along with the content you look for and we also will be keep on changing the query to extract the information we need. and this below post will especially feature to the people If your current use of Google is limited to typing a few words in, and changing your query until you find what you’re looking for, then go through the below post, telling you the a better way – and it’s not hard to learn. These below are 12 tips which will be useful in matching upto your relevant search to your expectation when search...!

1. Explicit Phrase:
   Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing.  Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase.  To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

   Example: "internet marketing"

2. Exclude Words:
   Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising.  To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

   Example Search: internet marketing -advertising

3. Site Specific Search:
   Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.  Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.

   Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

4. Similar Words and Synonyms:
   Let’s say you want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms.  To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.

   Example: "internet marketing" ~professional

5. Specific Document Types:
   If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:".  For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

   Example: "internet marketing" filetype:ppt

6. This OR That:
   By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search.  If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator.  (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).

   Example: internet marketing OR advertising

7. Phone Listing:
   Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know who it is.  If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

   Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).

8. Area Code Lookup:
   If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

   Example: 617

9. Numeric Ranges:
   This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip.  Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers.  You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods.)  This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices, or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.

   Example: president 1940..1950

10. Stock (Ticker Symbol):
    Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.

    Example: GOOG

11. Calculator:
    The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.

    Example: 48512 * 1.02

12. Word Definitions:
    If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.

    Example: define:plethora

There are few more tips as well with the usage of Converters, Using link in place of Site, Analysis of Site on google and lot more the above listed are few basic tips for your benefits...! If any suggestions or Information needed to be added you are most welcome...!!!!

Social Media Marketing

Impact of Social Media Marketing

As social media has grown in functionality and reach over the years, it has changed the ways brands interact with their audience of current and potential consumers.

Impact of Social Media




Go through the below Presentation to have a brief on the Transformation that Social Media has produced as the Generation Goes on...

Transformational Impact of Social Media

View more presentations from Steve MacLaughlin

The Evolution of Social Media

A dozen or so years ago when the internet was just beginning to gain a foothold in our culture, forward-thinking businesses established their online presence in a world where they had a high degree of control over their message. Interactivity and conversations were limited to putting an email link or a contact form on your website;  comments systems, feedback, and reviews were nearly nonexistent, and “going viral” meant emails with subject lines like “Fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: You have to see this!”  Early forums and BBS were used by only a tiny fraction of the internet-connected population and search engines were slow and inefficient, so there was very little interference in business-to-consumer communications.

MetaFilter was probably the first true social media site, but with the very small demographic of sophisticated early adopters, getting a marketing message on the site was nearly impossible. There was a very low tolerance for any type of promotional activity, and the community would ruthlessly go after any appearance of commercial intent. This is still true on many strictly social media sites; content must pass a fairly stringent test of ‘interestingness’ in order to rise to the top. Social media marketing takes place in a democratic environment that has shifted the power over last decade from the company to the individual, and smart businesses have adapted to this model and learned to take advantage of the system without relying too much on ‘gaming the system’ which often has very negative results. To prosper in the social media universe, a brand must find ways to offer value along with their message in order to gain the number of up-votes, likes, or shares it takes to rise to the top.

Whether or Not Use Social Media, it has changed your Business

Social media, and social networking, have changed the business landscape, both for companies that have adopted them and for those who have not.  By definition, social media is where members share content with a wide audience, with the focus on the content, while social networking is more centered on conversations and groups with shared interests.  Facebook, which straddles the line dividing the two types of interactions, has 600,000 regular users worldwide and welcomes companies, organizations, and brands to utilize its platform to connect with their audience.

Almost all social networks have incorporated a measure of social media, allowing users to become curators of the interesting content they find, sharing links, images, and short personal stories. Businesses who have learned to create content and engage in conversations are already ‘in the stream’ – and more and more, internet users have the expectation they will be able to interact with their favorite brands. Companies that have embraced this have an ever-growing advantage over those who have not.

Why Social Media..???

The Internet users now visit a social network site at least once a month. Lets see some stats how necesserily Socila media is turned out. Social networking and media sites accounted for 12% of all time spent online in 2010 with the average user spending 4.5 hours on these sites. Globally, social networking accounts for 15.6 percent of online time among those age 15 and older.  

Web-based email usage has decreased in every age group except those 55 and older, as more and more communication takes place on the various social websites. The sharp increases in web email usage in the over 55 demographic is accompanied by a similar increase in their usage of social sites; the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is women 55 and older. Social media is here to stay, and chances are, your customer or client base is already spending a significant amount of time there.