Yes.

Really?? Is this true? I had no idea Facebook uses 'pokes' as a way for ranking friends in your news feeds.

Yup, Facebook not only uses the pokes but also the amount of emails you send to the "friend" using FB mail system. That is why you may have 300 friends but only see the feed for a selected few.

interesting... i just thought that those people were less involved and/or turned off their news feed notifications. I couldn't find anything on Facebook confirming their use of 'pokes' and emailing as a way of 'ranking' friends for you. Have they confirmed this in the past or is it just known or heavily speculated?

If you research BrandHacker last year's event featuring Facebook marketing people - you will find this info. Also, I strongly recommend you to visit the blog - webmetricsguru.com and search for brandhacker and facebook. Marshall, the blogger, chronicled this event and the fact about the pokes on his blog.

Nice - i'll have to check it out and put it to the test

And here I was thining that FB pokes were the online equivalent of shooting spit balls. And if any one asks what a spit ball is and make me feel old I will hunt you down and shoot one at you! LOL

Oh that's a good one Marketing Rob. A good spit ball can poke you on the eye! ouch. :-)