Facebook announced a change to it’s algorithms that will affect the reach of comments on a post. Comments that have specific quality signals will be highly ranked. Low quality comment practices may result in less reach.
Comment Ranking in News Feeds
Facebook noted that not only are posts ranked in news feeds but comments are also ranked as well.
Posts with comments that have positive quality signals will be seen by more people. Posts with low quality signals will have their news feed reach reduced.
Facebook Comment-Quality Signals
Facebook noted that their updated comment algorithm has four features:
- Integrity signals
- User indicated preferences
- User interaction signals
- Moderation signals
Integrity Signals
Integrity Signals are a measure of authenticity. Comments that violate community standards or fall into engagement-bait are negative signals. Violations of community standards are said to be removed.
Engagement Bait
Facebook engagement bait is a practice that has four features:
1. React Baiting
Encouraging users to react to your post
2. Follow and Share Baiting
This is described as telling visitors to like, share or subscribe.
3. Comment Baiting
Encouraging users to comment with a letter or number are given as examples.
. Monetization Baiting
This is described as asking for “stars” in exchange for something else, which could include something trivial like “doing push ups.”
User Indicated Preferences
This is a reference to user polls that Facebook conducts in order to understand what users say they wish to see in comments.
User Interaction Signals
These are signals related to whether users interact with a post.
Moderation Signals
This is a reference to how users hide or delete comments made in their posts.
Here is how Facebook describes it:
“People can moderate the comments on their post by hiding, deleting, or engaging with comments.
Ranking is on by default for Pages and people with a a lot of followers, but Pages and people with a lot of followers can choose to turn off comment ranking.
People who don’t have as many followers will not have comment ranking turned on automatically since there are less comments overall, but any person can decide to enable comment ranking by going to their settings. (See more details here.) “
Facebook Targeting Low Quality Comments
One of the stated goals of this update is to hide low quality posts from people’s Facebook feeds and to promote high quality posts by people you might know.
This is how Facebook described it:
“To improve relevance and quality, we’ll start showing comments on public posts more prominently when:
- The comments have interactions from the Page or person who originally posted; or
- The comments or reactions are from friends of the person who posted.”
Read Facebook’s announcement here: Making Public Comments More Meaningful
Images by Shutterstock, Modified by Author
