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Facebook Announced Three Big Algorithm Changes to its Users’ Newsfeed
Facebook has recently announced about the roll out of three algorithm changes to its users’ news feed. According to many industry observers, this comes on the heels of Google’s roll out of mobile-friendliness algorithm update on April 21st 2015. According to Facebook Media, the new algorithm change will balance more content from its users’ friends and from Pages. The social networking site wants to let people know about a change that may affect referral traffic for publishers. Also, the social media site asked its users to rate their Newsfeeds and requested information on how they could make a Feed better for them. Based on the feedback and how users interact with their Newsfeed, Facebook found that these three updates would improve user experience.
More than One News Feed post from the Same Source
Facebook announced that its users will now see more than one News Feed post from the same source in a row. Before that, the social media site’s algorithm update prevented multiple posts on the same update. Facebook has now removed this restriction so that users with little content will have more posts in their Newsfeeds. The social media site says that if a user runs out of content, but want to spend more time in Newsfeed, then they will see more in their feed.
Prioritizing Content Posted by Users’ Friends
Another algorithm change that Facebook users can expect from the social media site is that it will now prioritize content posted by users’ friends and it will be ranked higher in the news feed so that users will not miss anything. For those users who do not want to miss their Friend’s updates, Facebook will place these updates (such as photos, videos, status updates and links) higher in the Newsfeeds so that users will not miss a thing. You will still able to see content from prominent news websites in the Newsfeed, but content from your Facebook friends will be given the highest priority.
Hiding Posts that are Liked or Commented on by Friends
The third algorithm change that Facebook will introduce is the facility of hiding posts that are liked and commented on by your Friends. Many Facebook users have told the social media site that they do not like to see stories their Friends had liked or their comments on a post. According to Facebook Media, this update will make these posts appear below in the Newsfeeds or not at all.
The real objective of Facebook introducing algorithm changes is that it will show only content that matters to its users. This needs a combination of updates from Friends, publishers, Public Figures, local organizations and businesses that users are connected to and the balance differs from user to user based on what people are interested in learning about daily. Also, the social media site has to keep improving Newsfeed as more people and pages are sharing more content, and thereby maintaining the right balance.
What this Means for Businesses
It was in 2014, when Facebook delivered a big blow to businesses when they restricted the visibility of their posts that are too promotional. And now, it seems that Facebook is imposing more ‘restrictions’ on content posted by marketers. Your loyal fans that interact with your content will continue to be served posts, unfortunately, that group is very small for most brands, and this change may decrease their odds of growing it at all. After all, second-hand referrals via comments or likes will be marginalized, and besides paid posts and advertising, this was pretty much only way users who didn’t already ‘like’ your brand page could organically discover the content posted by a band.
Facebook’s move pretty much formalizes what we have seen coming for a while now, that the social media site is primarily an advertising medium for businesses, and they need to think of it as thus. The good news is that Facebook can be a highly effective advertising medium when used properly, especially when you consider the Facebook’s recent announcement that they are beginning to track conversions that generate from ads. If you are focusing your marketing campaigns on Facebook then it time to think about choosing paid features provided by the social media site.
