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How Does Facebook Determine What Shows Up On Your Newsfeed?

By Melony Roy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - According to Facebook, the average user's News Feed has the potential of around 1,500 possible stories per day but only 20-percent of them actually make your feed. So how does Facebook determine which 20-percent you see?

Every day 700 million people use Facebook's news feed but most don't understand how it decides which posts to show. Facebook will begin publishing blog updates on how the news feed algorithm is changing starting with story bumping.

"They created this custom algorithm where they are ranking stories that they think you might like more so that others," says Kylie Flett, Social media director for Philadelphia advertising agency Neff Associates. "Those algorithms and scoring is based on your relationship to that person, and how may likes and comments the post has so it's almost like a custom newspaper."

According to Facebook, the goal of News Feed is to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don't miss the stories that are important to them and advertisers

"So that's really exciting for brands and businesses because the short research already shows increased engagement, higher levels of interacting whether it be reading, liking or people interacting by sharing."

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