So we’re sorry to break the bad news, but Facebook recently announced that it has changed their NewsFeed algorithm which affects how much business or news content its users will actually see.
Facebook is making three big changes to the NewsFeed algorithm which could see brands waving goodbye to their dream social network and saying hello to less viewers and decreased audience interactions.
So here are the big changes you need to know about:
Facebook will start prioritising NewsFeed content by friends.
According to Facebook, many users are not seeing the content they actually care about from friends such as images, videos and statuses. So this type of content will now be higher up in their NewsFeed. Facebook have stated that users will still be able to view content from pages they like and interact with, so they’re hoping to create a balance. But this might not be great news for marketers. If users prefer content from friends, there will be less publisher posts on the NewsFeed, leaving less room for interaction.
Facebook will begin hiding posts that say what your friends have liked or commented on.
These stories will now appear lower down in your news feed as many users complained that they don’t like seeing this content. Users are more likely to see posts directly from their friends or posts they’ve liked. This little change could do some damage to second-hand reach of publishers content, making those crucial engagement statistics decrease.
Facebook users will now be able to see more than one NewsFeed post in a row from the same source. Facebook previously had algorithms in place to stop this from happening. But now, users who don’t have much content in their feed will be able to see more from their friends and pages that interest them. This isn’t bad news for publishers either because users will now be able to see articles from the same source consecutively. So it’s not all doom and gloom…
This update has started to come into play but before you start to panic, just remember that NewsFeed content depends on a number of factors. This includes the pages you follow, the friends you consistently interact with and the type of content you engage with. So even if you don’t follow news websites, if your friends are consistently posting content, you will be likely to see those stories regardless.
So as a business what sort of things do you need to consider from these changes:
- What will make your content more likely to be shared?
- How will this change affect your network traffic?
- What can you do to keep your numbers up?
- Are you using data and analytics to inform your content strategy?