Mom’s Facebook Problem Is Real
My mom loves me. But she also “likes” me very much. And obviously, when she does it on Facebook, it lowers my chances of becoming the next viral sensation.
On his blog, engineer Chris Aldrich explains what he calls the Facebook algorithm mom problem . When you post something to Facebook and your mom likes it first (why can’t she? She’s your mom!), Facebook thinks it’s family-related content and tunes the audience accordingly.
Here is Aldrich’s dilemma:
I write my content on my own personal site. I automatically submit it to Facebook. My mom, who appears to be on Facebook 24/7, immediately likes the post. Facebook’s algorithm immediately thinks that because my mom liked it, it should be family content – even if it’s clearly about theoretical math, a subject that my mom has no interest or knowledge of. (My mom has about 180 Facebook friends; 45 of them are the same as mine, and the vast majority of them are close family members.)
The algorithm narrows the content presentation down to very close relatives. Then my mom’s sister sees it and after a moment clicks like. Now Facebook’s algorithm has created a self-fulfilling prophecy and further narrowed down the audience for my message. As a result, my post doesn’t get any further spread on Facebook, except perhaps for five people – the family circle that intersects in all three of our social graphs.
I also have a happy mom. Two seconds after I post a story I wrote, say, a 3,000-word article about government-banned fishing areas, my mom will love it. She hasn’t read, and probably never will, but she loves seeing her daughter’s face on her computer, and really, who can protest unconditional support? But because of her eager click, Facebook is merging the content with my photos of my baby’s first avocado and only showing it to a small group of family members.
While early likes from other relatives may have a similar effect, Aldrich says the algorithm problem seems to be mostly mom-focused .
Aldrich writes that until Facebook stops punishing mom with autolikes, the problem can be circumvented with a little extra effort. Here’s how to get your Facebook posts to reach audiences other than Mom, Aunt Susie, and Uncle Ken in Kansas.
1) Set your message privacy settings to Friends except Mom or Everyone except Mom.
I know what you are thinking. How awful! How can you do this to your mother? Did you know it took you 38 hours to give birth? Millennials!
Wait, wait, wait, everyone. There is a second step.
2) At the end of the day, or as soon as the post seems to have reached its maximum audience, change the audience settings to “friends” or “public.” Aldrich does this and gets more impressions from his posts. “I am happy to report that in general, the target audience I wanted to see the post is actually seeing it,” he writes. “Mom will just see it a little later.”
Mom’s problem with the Facebook algorithm | Boffo Soko