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WHAT IS AN ALGORITHM?

An algorithm is a set of instructions for solving a problem or accomplishing a task. For example, it might be as simple as a recipe, with specific instructions for preparing a dish, or really complicated mathematical rules and calculations . All computerised devices use algorithms in order to function. 

Websites and magazines like P-O Life use social media regularly,  partly to give out more immediate information such a one off event or Covid updates which might not still be relevant by the time the next newsletter is published. Social media also helps us to promote ourselves and encourage readers to use our advertisers, without whom we would quite simply not exist,  and is of course a great opportunity to interact socially,  get to know our readers and, if we’re lucky, make some new friends at the same time.

The Facebook algorithm is made up of four main areas: how recently the post has been published, how popular it is (calculated by likes we suppose but how can you like it if you can’t see it?), content,  and relationship.

Basically, it decides which posts you see and what order you see them when you check your  Facebook feed.

Facebook say that their algorithm is built to try and predict what is “most valuable and meaningful to an individual over the long term,” although how they can possibly know that is a mystery, at least to me!

Certainly, part of that algorithm is to keep people scrolling down and down. The more we scroll, the more Facebook adverts we see! Pas bête Facebook, pas bête.

So, the Facebook algorithm evaluates, scores and arranges our posts in order of interest for each of its billions of individual users.  Clever certainly,  but frustrating when we don’t get any say in it.

COMMENT, LIKE, SHARE

Here at P-O Life, one of the main uses of Facebook and social media in general, is to bring people together. Yes, we want you to use our advertisers so that we can persuade them to renew their advert – but over the years we have brought so many people together, first via our FORUM,  then via FACEBOOK and many firm friendships have been forged.

You can help us on Facebook by COMMENTING, LIKING and SHARING posts from us and each other. This helps Facebook to decide that we publish interesting or useful information.

COME AND JOIN US!

WHY DON’T I SEE ALL POSTS?

Have you noticed that you are only seeing updates in your newsfeed from the same people lately? Have you also noticed that when you post things like status messages, photos and links, the same circle of people are commenting and everyone else seems to be ignoring you?

Don’t worry, everyone still loves you and nobody has intentionally blocked you. The problem is that a large chunk of your friend/fan list can’t see anything you post because the “New Facebook” has a newsfeed setting that, by default, is automatically set to ONLY SHOW POSTS FROM PEOPLE WHO YOU’VE RECENTLY INTERACTED WITH OR INTERACTED WITH THE MOST (which would be limited to the couple of weeks just before people started switching to the new profile).

So in other words, for both business and personal pages, unless your friends/fans commented on one of your posts within those few weeks or vice versa – you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you!

HERE’S THE FIX:

Scroll down to the bottom of the Newsfeed on your HOME page and click on“Edit Options”. In the popup, click on the dropdown menu next to ‘Show posts from:’ and select “All Of Your Friends and Pages” and then clickSave.

Note: This is the fix for personal pages but I am unsure of whether or not the business pages are set up the same way.

Simply posting an update about it won’t do any good because lots of your friends/fans already can’t see your posts by default. You’ll either have to send out a message to everyone on your list (which I’m not even sure business pages can do and is a rather tedious method) or post an event explaining the situation like this one and invite your entire fan base and/or friend list. You can also tweet about it hoping that most of your fellow facebookers are also on twitter.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS NOTE WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN SO WE CAN TRY AND GET EVERYONE INFORMED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Anyone who isn’t seeing your posts right now will never see them until they have changed their settings as explained above.

Of course, by the time you read this, the whole thing might have changed again!