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How to find a post on facebook news feed


[Solved] Searching Your Own Facebook Timeline For A Specific Post - SocMedSean

NOTE: As Facebook continually updates their ability to search timeline via the graph search, I continue to test and update this post about fb search capabilities at the bottom, so be sure to read all the way through. If you still have questions, feel free to ask in a comment and I will help where I can.

Three different people asked me similar questions about their Facebook timeline in the last month, which leads me to believe that, even though this capability has existing for a while, some folks aren’t aware that you can search your Facebook feed for a post from the past.

Yep, that’s right, if you were wondering how to find old posts on Facebook, there is a way to do it and it’s pretty easy. And it’s not just posts from the last week, it’s posts that go back years.

Here’s the latest question that I received about the topic:

Please note: Some of the links in my posts are affiliate links. I get commissions for purchases made through those links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases when you buy something from those links.

Hey Sean – Can you help me figure out how to find a Facebook post that I posted on my own timeline a few years ago? To be clear, I’m just looking to search my Facebook posts in order to find one of my own status updates. I don’t want to have to scroll through years of posts on my Facebook timeline.

Thanks!

Janet

Thanks for asking, Janet! The good news is it’s pretty easy to search for a post on Facebook, so…here’s the answer.

When Facebook introduced their updated search graph a while back, one of the capabilities was the ability to search for posts from a specific person or even posted by you. The goal was to make it so you wouldn’t have to scroll through your Facebook timeline, which likely contains thousands of posts, to find the one you want. 

So, I thought I’d put together a quick tutorial on how to search on Facebook that will hopefully help other folks out.

Table Of Contents - Click To Expand Or Hide -->

Searching For Your Own Facebook Posts

If you want to learn how to search on Facebook, the first thing you need to understand is that it’s not as easy as just typing the phrase and pressing the Enter key, like on Google. You have to know a little bit about the Facebook graph search syntax because it’s the special language that powers Facebook search. It might seem complex at first, but once you get used to it, it’s pretty straight-forward.

As an example, I wrote a few haikus on Facebook quite a while back and I wanted to show them to my daughter while she was in the process of writing a haiku for school. In order to do that, I needed to search my own posts for the keyword “haiku”. Keep in mind that my haikus were posted a LONG time ago (relatively speaking in the world of Facebook).

To do this, I simply typed “Posts by me with Haiku” and Facebook returned all posts where I was the author and I included the word “haiku”.

Don’t judge my poetry.

Graph search gives me the ability to search for a post on Facebook without having to scroll through my timeline. 

The key to searching in Facebook is understanding the syntax.  In the search above, there are basically three components:

  • Posts – Tells Facebook that we’re searching for post content like status updates, not images or videos.
  • By me – Tells Facebook that I only want to see the posts that I authored.
  • With Haiku – Tells Facebook to find only those posts that have the word Haiku in them.

Easy, right? Using this simple structure, you can search old Facebook posts, so long as you remember at least one of the words that you posted. And that’s just how to search Facebook posts for content that you posted.

The Facebook search feature also allows you to go beyond searching for your own posts and find Facebook posts that were published by yoru friends and family.

NOTE: You can still use the search box to type in Facebook keywords. When you do that, it will return friends, pages, groups, etc…that match the keyword. So if you type in McDonald into the Facebook search and press Enter, it will return your friends who are named McDonald, it could show you the McDonald’s Facebook page, or even a group called “Old McDonald Had A Farm”. The keyword search on Facebook still works, it just returns a LOT of varying results.

Searching Other People’s Facebook Posts

If you want to use Facebook search for other people’s posts, you could easily switch up the syntax and ask something about your friends.

For example, imagine that you can’t find an awesome infographic that one of your friends posted about social media community management.

Just use a query like “Posts by my friends with social media management”. In this case, the query breaks down like this:

  • Posts – Search only posts.
  • By my friends – In this case, Facebook is only going to return content that your friends have posted
  • With social media management – Facebook is going to find those posts that contain the words social media management

Cool, right?

TIP: If you use a multi-word phrase like social media management, the Facebook search algorithm will do it’s best to find all of those words, but will also return posts that have just the word social or media or management. If you really want to hone in on a phrase like social media management and you ONLY want to see results with the full phrase, then just put the phrase in quotes. That way it would look like Posts by my friends with “social media management”.

While most people use the search function to find friends or pages, it really does offer a pretty robust content search capability.

Here are a few more queries that you might give a try:

  • Pages liked by me who like Nike – This will show you all the pages that both you and Nike like
  • My Friends who like Nike – Pretty self-explanatory
  • Friends of my friends who work for Garmin – COOL! You can actually find out who in your social network works for a company that you might be considering. In addition, because you have a relationship with them (via your friend), you might be able to connect directly with them to ask questions.

There you have it. Search capability that allows you to find those posts you were looking for or had maybe even forgotten about.

If you really want to dig in and learn more about Facebook search and all of it’s robust commands, there’s a pretty good help section on Facebook dedicated just to search.

Hope that helps others out there!

–Sean

Update #1 – Facebook Mobile Search Capabilities On Android

Great questions came up about whether this solution works on mobile devices. As you can see in the screen capture below, the solution works great on the Android Facebook app. I’ll be testing later today on iOS and will report back.

You can use the Facebook graph search to search your timeline for old posts on Android devices

 

Update #2 – Facebook Mobile Search Capabilities On Apple iOS

As you’ll see below, testing on an Apple iPhone confirms that the search function works with the most recent version of the Facebook app. If you aren’t able to use the search function, be sure to check to be sure you’re using the most recent version of the app.

You can use the Facebook graph search to search your timeline for old posts on iOS devices

 

Update #3 – Can’t I just use my browser’s search capability to find past posts on my Facebook timeline?

I got a question from a reader that asked whether they could just use the Chrome or Safari search feature that is included in the browser to find older posts in your Facebook timeline. Unfortunately, the short answer is “no”. Here’s why.

In case you were wondering how to search for a word on a page in a browser, you can just press CRTL+F in Chrome or Firefox or CMD+F in Safari to open a search box. Type in your search term and the browser will identify any instances of your search term on the page that is open.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for social networks like Facebook and Twitter because they use a technology called Ajax to only load a certain number of posts at a time. As you scroll down the page, Ajax makes a call to the server and loads more posts. This means that to use the browser search feature, you would have to:

  • Load the page
  • Open the browser search and type your work or phrase
  • Click Find.
  • If no results were found, scroll down the page to load more posts
  • Click Find.
  • …and so on.

It’s not a very easy way because you could be scrolling for hours to find the post that you want. It’s just easier to use the Facebook search feature to locate the post.

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Tips for Searching Your Facebook Timeline

Have you ever needed to look for a post you shared on Facebook?! Or maybe a comment, like, or reaction you made that you would need to find and edit? Did you feel like Facebook, the Social Media giant, has just hidden the content? Did you try to locate it by scrolling through your own and your friend’s timeline endlessly searching for the old posts? Did it take ages just to find it?

Do you ever think there has to be a better way to search for what you were looking for on the social network???

Well, Yes, there is a better way to search for specific information on your Facebook, and we can help. In this article, we will give you the Tips for Searching for Content on Your Facebook Timeline in 2020 Facebook.

Facebook Timeline Narrative 

There are many reasons why you may want to access old posts;

1. Maybe you want to access a comment that you previously posted,

2. Or you may want to show a previous post to a friend in person, 

3. You just want to refer to or use a previous post. 

Whatever it might be and wherever it may be, either on your own or your friend’s Facebook, there is a solution to search for a post without scrolling through every information and search results.

Facebook Timeline is a feature that has been present since the beginning but has always gone unnoticed. By default, Facebook chooses not to display every post by you or your friends on your Timeline. Obviously, if you just scroll through your Profile Page once, you Will Not Find every Post.

Before, there used to be a bar on your profile page’s right-hand side with the different years on it, but even that only showed the highlights. So, you weren’t necessarily viewing all the posts from that year. That meant you might not even be able to find the post you were looking for anyway. 

Facebook Timeline Reinvented

The Facebook Timeline Reinvention has been the most significant upgrade in Facebook 2020 Version. The new upgraded Facebook design has several cool features that can give your profile a better impression and enhance its ranking among other social networks. These include:

1. Reinventing and Designing your Profile and Cover Photos

2. Checking for Grammar Mistakes

3. Poking People differently

4. Managing Posts in Bulk

5. Using Videos as a Profile Picture, and

Just like everything else that has been upgraded, your Timeline has become more comfortable to use too. 

So, what are the Tips for Looking for Posts on Your Facebook; well, here we go.

Tips To Effective Post Searching On Facebook

Well, there are a few ways to search for your published content on Facebook, and we will name all of them to make your life easy. These would all be accessible both on Facebook Mobile and Desktop. But our examples have been illustrated through Facebook Desktop.

#Tip 1: Facebook Search Bar Browser

The most overlooked but effective, easy, and fast way to find something on your Timeline or anywhere else on Facebook is the Facebook Search Browser and its search results. Facebook Search Bar is not just for finding friends, locations, interests, or business. It is a search engine for everything on Facebook. So, you can use it to find your specific posts on your Timeline, too, just by entering your query and viewing the results.

You must just:

1. Click on the Facebook Search browser Bar

2. Type; My posts + “The Specific Subject” you are trying to find. For example, My Posts “Rolls Roys.”

3. Then Press Enter or Magnifying Glass Icon to produce Results.

Now everything I had posted regarding Rolls Roys will pop Up. 

Or. 

You can search by adding “My Posts” and then the subject you are searching to find. Or you could just search for the Word and filter your search using the filters on the left-hand side of your page. 

To Exemplify: 

Here we searched only for the subject intended, like; “Engagement.” Now we can select to filter what we are searching for and where we are trying to find the results.

Based on the filter you select, you can select where you are searching for your specific post or subject. The benefit of the Facebook Search Bar Browser feature is numerous. One is that even if the topic you are looking for belongs to a Facebook friends’ account, a celebrity, business, news, groups, or a public page you do or do not follow, it is locatable through the results and based on your words search.

For Instance: If you are looking for a couch that you previously saw on Facebook Marketplace, you must just:

1. Search “Couch” on the Facebook Search Bar

2. Then Click Marketplace among the Filters. 

Or

If you are searching for a Person or a Location, you have the option to enter the specific name in the Search Bar and see, check and scroll through the related results and options to find your specific information.

#Tip 2: Activity Log

If you are looking for your own posts, comments, or activity, the most incredible place to look for it would be in the Activity Log feature. It is a feature that serves several options, including:

1. Your Posts may it be:

a) Photos

b) Videos

c) Relationship Status

d) Posts Share

e) Music

f) groups activities

g) web and link share

h) Past activities both in Public or Private Accounts, Pages, or other people you follow.

2. Posts you are Tagged in by other people

3. Posts by Others on Your Profile.

4. Posts You have Hidden.

5. Images and Videos on Your Profile

6. Photos you are Tagged In by other people

7. All your Photos

8. All posts you have liked, commented, or shared; in public or private.

9. Archived and Deleted Messages

10. In the new Facebook Upgrade, you can see what you searched for on Facebook Search Browser Bar.

You can access your Activity Page By: 

1. Log-In to Your Facebook

2. On your Facebook Home, Click your Profile Picture and Name

3. In your Profile and under your Cover Photo, Profile Photo, and Name. On the right-hand side, find the three horizontal dot Icon and go over it, using your cursor pointer.

4. A menu will appear, with; “Activity Log” and “Timeline Settings.” 

5. Click on the “Activity Log.”

6. Once you click on the “Activity Log,” It will open to a new Page.

7. Here, you can search for anything in different sections by Selecting the Icon Bar Filters on your Left. All your Past actions are precisely recorded here for your privacy. 

8. You can select your:

a. Archives: This is the location where your Inbox Conversations will go once archived, and they are only visible to yourself. Archiving a Conversation will hide it from your inbox until the next time you choose to chat with the person again. Archiving a message should not be confused with deleting an Inbox message. While Deleting is permanent, archiving a message will just hide it for a while. 

b. Trash: All messages are deleted from your Inbox. 

c. Timeline Review: It is where you can manually control tagged posts before their appearance on your Profile.

d. Photo Review: This is where you can review the Photos you may be in or are tagged in by other people.

e. Tag Review: This is where you can review posts that you have been tagged in by someone, not in your friend lists. 

9. Below, your Activity Menu is all your Activities based on the most recent date. 

***Additional Tip: When looking at each activity, a small round horizontal three-dot Icon will pop up. Depending on the activity, you could choose to Delete, Move to Trash, or Show / Not Show on Your Facebook Posts. You would just have to click the icon shown below:

10. You can also click on the small Filter Link 

11. Using the Filter, you can search for your related Activity and Facebook particulars based on:

a. Years

b. Months

c. Or Detail Categories like:

i. Actions

ii. Posts 

iii. Activity You are Tagged In

iv. Photos and Videos 

v. Photos Tagged In

vi. Other People’s Post on Your Account

vii. Hidden Posts from your Profile

viii. Likes and Reactions 

ix. Posts and Comments

x. Pages, Page Likes, and Interests

xi. Comments

xii. Profile

xiii. Added Friends

xiv. Removed Friends

xv. Sent Friend Requests 

xvi. Received Friend Requests

xvii. Life Events 

xviii. Archived Stories

xix. Your Stories

xx. Video Polls Taken

xxi. Songs Listened To

xxii. Articles You have Read 

xxiii. Movies and TV

xxiv. Games and 

xxv. A lot more…

Which gives you a lot more ease in finding what you are looking for in your Timeline. 

The Activity Log Feature gives you detailed access to all your actions on Facebook. Whether it is your Posts, your comments, likes, reactions, or searches, it records it all. It is especially helpful to search for or see your activity on someone else’s Facebook Pages, Comments, or Posts. 

#Tip 3: Facebook Posts Filters

In the new Facebook Update 2020, you can also search for your Timeline details using the Posts Filters on your Profile Page Shown in the Image Below. The latest Posts Filter is maybe the most extraordinary change and addition to your Facebook account and the best part for more comfortable and quicker searchability. 

For easy searchability through your Posts, you can:

1. Click on the “List View” – Which is the automatic way your posts are aligned, or

2. Click on the “Grid View,” – Which turns your Posts into grids separated by respective Months and Years. 

3. Or You Could click on Filters. Shown Below:

4. Then, a Pop Up Menu will Appear, called “Post Filters.”

Under the Post Filters Menu, you can select the Year, Posted By, Privacy, and Tagged Posts on your Timeline. It will only specifically look for Content and Posts on Your Profile, whether posted by yourself or your friends. 

5. You would just have to select your filters and click “Done” to see the Posts or Content you are searching to find. 

The new Post Filters and Grid View option on Facebook is an excellent addition if you are looking for something on your Timeline. It is also much more accessible than your Facebook Log. But, if you still can not locate the content you are looking for, the Action Log provides a more detailed history of your every move on Facebook. 

***Additional Tip: The Grid View is not available on Facebook Mobile. Information is only Presented in List. But the Post Filters is still accessible on Mobile.

#Tip 4: Third-Party Apps

You may also choose to use Third-Party Apps and Websites to help in your search functionality on Facebook. For Instance, one Tool of choice is:

Q-Search – This is an App that quickly separates posts on your Timeline concerning your Search Result. It gives you the choice of filtering your search by status, photos, or links. It will then display your own posts but other posts by friends under the same investigation. It also allows you to search on your friends’ Timeline for your own posts.

Which Tip Is The Best?

There are other Third-Party tools, but we do not recommend using them unless it’s necessary. With any social media or social network tools in general, there is a small amount of privacy loss. You would have to accept this privacy reduction to allow the agency to access your account information. This choice would not be ideal for any account, especially a Business or Influencer Account on social media.

On the other hand, Facebook’s new Updates are becoming more straightforward and accessible to its social media users. If you are Searching on Your Facebook Timeline for specific content or old posts, we would recommend doing your best to do so using the first three tips given in this article and features on Facebook itself. By using the Features within Facebook, you would not compromise your privacy to find content. 

How to set up a Facebook news feed

How does the Facebook news feed* work, what is its algorithm and how can I customize it for myself? Understanding the functionality and algorithms of the social network.

What is Facebook News Feed*

News Feed is a list of posts that friends have posted and pages you follow. The feed is personalized and constantly changing. By default, posts are ranked using a smart algorithm that shows the highest priority posts for the user. Therefore, pages, videos, photos from pages that you are not subscribed to may appear in the feed.

The feed is on the main page of the social network

Advertising in the feed is not disabled, but the content of the posts can be changed - we will talk about this later. And now - how the algorithm works.

How the Facebook Smart Feed* works

Like Instagram*, the Facebook* Smart Feed works based on signals that the user leaves. The algorithm ranks the post according to three principles:

  • Who is the author of the content . Facebook* prioritizes friends and the pages you visit the most.
  • How often interaction with post types occurs . For example, if you respond well to photos, then that content will come up more often.
  • How popular is post . Facebook* evaluates the number of likes, reactions, comments and gives preference to popular posts. Your interest is also taken into account - a popular entry from a group where you often sit will appear higher than a more popular entry from a community where you appear infrequently.

If you want to post more often and appear in your friends' feeds, but don't want to spend a lot of time posting, use SMMplanner to auto-post to social networks.

The feed can be customized: select sources, hide pages, unsubscribe.

How to customize your Facebook feed*

Next, let's look at how to customize it for yourself using the tools provided by the social network.

Setting up Facebook feed* via control panel

Here you can choose who to follow and who to hide from the feed.

Step 1 . Go to profile settings. To do this, click on the extreme icon on the right and select "Settings and privacy.

How to go to profile settings

Step 2 . Select "News Feed Settings".

Where is the Facebook feed setup*

Step 3 . A control panel will open where you can add your favorite friends, cancel your subscription, or block pages temporarily. Let's take a closer look at all five functions.

Facebook Feed Customization Panel*

Manage Favorites . Facebook* itself analyzes your actions, and usually interesting pages are already in the Favorites. But you can choose people yourself or remove someone from the list to customize the feed for yourself. Starred pages and users will receive a higher ranking priority.

Setting up favorite sources for a tape

Unsubscribing . Allows you to unsubscribe from pages and people in one place without going to their profiles. After unsubscribing, you will no longer see their publications in your feed.

Important : the function does not remove people from friends, and after "hiding" they will not receive notifications.

How to unsubscribe from people and pages in the Facebook feed*

For more information on why people defiantly delete friends, read the article Why Facebook* publicly clears friend lists.

Resubscription . After unsubscribing, the list of pages is stored in this section. If you change your mind, from here you can subscribe to them again and return them to the feed.

List of hidden sources for newsfeed

Temporary lock . This is a list of sources that you have blocked for 30 days. Can be extended or cancelled.

Important : The user will not know that they have been temporarily blocked from your feed.

Where to find blocked Facebook pages*

Reaction management . The function allows you to hide the number of likes and publications in the feed for other people's and your posts. The function works for the entire profile, with the exception of the marketplace and rails. Read about the features of the short video format in the article "Instagram Reels: everything you need to know about short video reels on Instagram *".

Disable Facebook like counter*

This completes the feed settings from the control panel. But these are not all the possibilities: you can put the feed in chronological order, block the post and set up ads.

How to set up a timeline feed on Facebook*

Recently, the social network has changed its appearance and for some reason left the button for viewing the feed in order in the old version. But it can still be enabled via a direct link or by playing around with the menu a bit.

Step 1 . Select an item from the Offers menu.

We go into the proposals to return the old interface

Step 2 . Click on the three dots next to "News Feed" and select "Newest".

Turn on the chronological news feed

Step 3 . You will be redirected back to the main page in a new interface. Above the feed, you'll see "Newest" and a "Back to Top Posts" button.

Posts can now be viewed in order

How to block or hide a post in the feed

If you are not satisfied with the content of the recommended posts or a particular page, you can hide them right inside the feed. To do this, click on the three dots to the right of the profile picture.

Hide post in Facebook feed*

A list of options will appear. You can hide a post to get less of this content in your feed. Either temporarily block the profile or unsubscribe from updates. Both of these options do not remove the profile from friends, but only hide posts in your feed.

You can hide a promotional post or complain about the content if you are not satisfied with the message and wording. To learn how to set up your advertising preferences, read the instructions below.

How to report an ad on Facebook*

How to set up your advertising preferences

If you're being harassed by intrusive ads or repetitive offers that aren't interesting, you can manually customize your ad topics. To learn how to launch a target yourself, read the article "Beginner's Guide: How to launch ads on Facebook *?"

Step 1 . Go to your profile settings and select "Settings and privacy".

Go to settings again

Step 2 . Next - "Quick privacy settings".

Go to personal data settings

Step 3 . In the new window, scroll down to the “Advertising Preferences” section and click on the “View” item in it.

Where are the settings for displaying ads on Facebook*

Step 4 . Let's start setting up. You can hide the latest sponsored posts of specific pages. True, it will not work without advertising at all - new offers will appear :-)

Editing the account's advertising preferences

In "Themes" you can limit the display more. For example, if you are not a parent, then the topic "Parenting" is unlikely to be interesting - click on the "Show Less" button.

We remove ads by topics in the Facebook feed*

The social network shows ads based on your interests and actions. Facebook* receives information not only during a session within the social network, but also from external sources. You can prevent the transfer of your data for inclusion in targeted advertising groups. To do this, select the "Advertising settings" item and disable the collection of personal data from social networks, profile and external sites.

Important : You won't remove all ads, only make them less personalized. The volume of advertising will not change.

How to limit the collection of personal data on Facebook*

To recap

Algorithms are constantly changing. Smart feed took shape on Facebook* around 2009 – with the introduction of the “Like” button, the feed began to take shape based on popular topics. Now the social network is actively fighting fake news: priority in ranking is given to exclusive texts, and AI has learned to determine the original, which is most often cited.

Perhaps the most important change happened a few years ago. In 2018, Facebook* changed the ranking algorithm - posts of friends and loved ones appear in the smart feed more often than brand posts. The latter now have to invest more in targeted advertising and make it more effective. Sign up for our Total Advertising: Facebook* and Instagram* course, where in 16 lessons you will learn how to write advertising messages and set up campaigns without errors.

How the Facebook newsfeed works • AIN.

UA

September 07, 2016, 16:00

33931

The Facebook news feed algorithm is constantly changing, and few people understand how it works. People constantly complain that they don’t have what they are interested in in the feed, and brands are angry that the reach of their posts suddenly collapses sharply. Today we will lift the veil of secrecy. For the 10th anniversary of the Facebook Feed, TechCrunch has prepared a detailed guide on how the Facebook News Feed works and how to "master" the algorithm and get your content seen by as many people as possible.

What the News Feed Does

In short, Facebook's goal is to pick the ten most relevant and engaging stories out of the thousands that pop up every day and show them first in your feed. These stories are ranked in descending order, starting with the most important ones, such as your sibling's wedding. Then there are a dozen posts shared by your close friends, then posts from brands you follow, and at the very end, boring events and events of distant acquaintances and total strangers.

Priority is given to the stories you are most likely to like, comment, share, click on and read - that is, in which you are "engaged". Facebook also has online surveys and offline FOCUS groups that give them more insight into what people want to see in their feeds.

No wonder Facebook spends so much time and effort on this: the more users are engaged in content, the more time they spend on the site, the more ads they can show, the more money the social network will earn.

Natural selection

The more people and companies that have pages on Facebook, the more competition for limited space in the news feed. Views do not grow as fast as the amount of content.

This leads to a natural decrease in engagement in content, so the percentage of page subscribers who saw the post out of all those who could potentially see it, sometimes decreases. The reason is not that Facebook wants to pump more paid placements out of the business - it just needs to skillfully compete for a place in the sun in the Facebook feed.

How to influence what you see

So how does the Facebook algorithm determine what appears in the feed and in what order? It assigns each story a personal relevance score that is different for each user who sees it. The most relevant stories are shown first. When evaluating relevance, the algorithm takes into account thousands of different signals. But there are four main factors that decide when to show a story to a particular user.

Who posted this . The more you interacted with the author of the story in the recent past, the more interesting his news is for you, according to Facebook. Interaction is understood not only as likes, comments, messages, but also if you slowed down scrolling when you saw his post, went to his page, tagged him in your posts or he tagged you, etc. That's why you don't see posts from old friends you haven't interacted with in years.

How other people reacted to post . The more engagement a post gets from other users, the sooner Facebook will show it to you. Sometimes people and brands publish boring stories that only a couple of people pay attention to - such posts will immediately sink into oblivion. But if a large percentage of the people who saw the post in the first place liked, commented on, or reacted to it in some way, Facebook would conclude that it was something interesting and show it to more people.

What type of post is this . If you are more likely to respond to a particular type of post (photo, video, status, link, event, job change), Facebook will show you posts of that type more often. Different people like different types of posts. I prefer reading articles, you prefer watching videos. But if you never watch videos, Facebook won't show them to you.

When it was published . The fresher the story, the sooner you will see it. Facebook also checks when you last viewed your feed. If you check it every hour, Facebook will show you the newest posts. If you have not logged in for a week, you will see all the most important events, for example, the post about the birth of your best friend's baby, even if she is already five days old.

All of these factors together have a strong influence on the formation of the news feed and the order in which publications appear in it. Facebook also learns how you interact with the feed, and over time notices what interests and entices you, how your behavior changes and why.

But there are several other factors that affect the tape, although not as much as the ones listed above.

How many other people have posted the same thing . If a dozen or so of your friends have posted a link to the same article or video, Facebook thinks it's very cool content and says "Vasilisa Vasilyeva and 11 other friends shared this..." higher up in your feed.

News created by Facebook . When Facebook releases a new product, like Live video or Slideshows, it needs to test it. The algorithm may initially show too many or too few posts about a new product until it receives feedback to determine the appropriate level of visibility.

How ads are inserted

Facebook also inserts ads in the News Feed. She does not force any organic posts out of it, but simply squeezes between them, dropping all subsequent posts by one slot.

To determine which ads are most relevant to you, Facebook uses a very similar algorithm. At the same time, the social network limits the number of ads that you can see, thus trying to maximize the response to the ad that you will still be shown. After all, if you click on it, the social network will earn money.

The more Facebook knows about you, the more useful ads they will show you. By filling out your profile as much as possible and liking and commenting on brand content that you like, Facebook ads will become personalized and more relevant, informing you about the products, services, events and apps that interest you.

How to Control Your News Feed

Facebook provides explicit and implicit options to tell your news feed what you want to see in it.

Implicit signals are your behavior in the feed. If you like specific people's stories, you'll see more of their posts. If you ignore someone's posts, you will see fewer stories from those people and pages. Therefore, it is important to respond specifically to the content that you like, and not like it to appease someone, or pass by if you don’t like the person who shared it.

Facebook also offers explicit tools for adjusting the news feed. Each post has a drop down menu that allows you to:

  • hide the post from the feed and don't show similar content again;
  • unfollow the author and no longer show his posts;
  • postpone the story for later and show more related content;
  • Disable notifications and no longer receive them from this author.

There is also a "Show First" option. It allows you to select people whose publications you want to see always and immediately. This feature can be useful if you want to keep up to date with your best friends, boss or mom.

List of changes in the news feed algorithm

Facebook is constantly changing the algorithm for issuing posts in the news feed. Adapts it so that people cannot hack the principle and cheat. Learning to reach new content providers and adjust information flows. And so that users do not suspect the company that it has done something to itself, there is a blog in which Facebook informs about all the changes.

The most recent algorithm changes are:

High-quality Page Publications - timely, relevant, shared and recommended, interesting, not memes, can't be complained about, can't be hidden, from a source you trust, with a complete profile and a large follower base.

More relevant ads - less ads that other people hide.

High quality news - more links to quality articles, less links to memes and photos, articles on a similar topic to those you have previously read.

More statuses from friends - more text statuses from your friends, less from pages.

More stories about topics you're interested in - A page post that has been linked to another page may appear in the linked page's followers feed.

Spam Cleanup - Fewer posts from pages that insistently ask people to like, comment, and share their content. Fewer posts that the page has previously shared, fewer spammy links with wording or formatting tricks designed to entice more users.

Focus on shared stories - More stories from third-party apps with organic reach, and fewer artificially and automatically shared stories.

Featured Video Showcase - More videos that people watch and watch longer, more videos for those who love to watch the video, and less for those who ignore it in the feed.

Fighting clickbait - Fewer links that don't explain what's inside, fewer links to sites people spend little time on, more links to sites people spend a lot of time on, more links to sites that discuss after visiting more posts with links in the title format and less with links in the description or captioned on a photo or video ( Viruses spread so often - ed. ).

Feedback on ads — Facebook is investigating how and why users hide ads, with more emphasis on those who don't often hide ads.

More timely stories more stories that reflect the latest trends.

More control over what you see - When you hide someone's story, you can choose to follow up on that person's content.

Less Promotion - Fewer posts that convince people to buy something, install something, move somewhere, or copy someone's promotional content that has already been posted.

Minimizing deception - fewer posts that users flag as fake or delete because they contain lies and falsifications.

More content from friends - more friends posts instead of page posts, more posts for new users with little content in their feed yet.

More stories that you spend more time on

The "priority" function - allows you to select friends whose posts you want to see first.

Focus on how people hide posts - if a person often hides posts in their feed, even those that they liked and commented on, the algorithm takes this into account less often when generating a feed.

Video activity tracking - more videos that people watch with sound, expand to full screen in high definition.

Feed optimization on weak connection - less videos and more statuses if you have slow internet.

Reaction Tracking - More stories similar to the ones you responded to.

Research to avoid low-quality stories - Fewer viral stories that research shows people don't like.

Offline feed - When someone has no internet, Facebook will reevaluate previously uploaded stories and show them instead of the no connection icon.

Qualitative feedback - more stories with surveys and qualitative research that people are more likely to appreciate and honor.

Matching Reactions and Stories - Over time, Facebook hopes to show people more stories that match their reactions, meaning if people frequently react to something with a "haha" emoji, they will see more funny stories.

Live videos at the time of broadcast - they get into the feed as soon as the author starts streaming.

Time spent on sites - More links to articles that people have been reading longer on third-party sites.

Prioritize friends and family over pages - more stories from your loved ones, fewer stories from brands.

Clickbait with fakes or links to an unrelated source - dishonest posts and deceptive maneuvers will appear less often in your feed.

Promoting more informative stories - more useful in the feed.

News Feed Strategy

With all of that said, the best thing you can do to get more of your followers' feeds is to post interesting, relevant, unique stories that resonate with your audience.

Learn more