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Things are changing on your Facebook feed, in fact, things are changing in a huge way so are you ready for the new well-being stage of Facebook’s evolution?
This may be a costly change for those seeking to sell or gain more followers using advertising and sponsored posts on their Facebook feed. The new algorithm change will prioritise friends and posts that create comments between them. This will come at a cost of public content, news outlets and total time spent on Facebook and the ads you see.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook recently, “I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.” VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri stated, “I expect that the amount of distribution for publishers will go down because a lot of publisher content is just passively consumed and not talked about. Overall time on Facebook will decrease, but we think this is the right thing to do.”
Facebook Feed Is Changing
The idea is to give users a greater sense of community and well-being as they find Facebook more rewarding and less of a time absorbing void, you know the current experience of viewing mindless video clips and articles that create a sense of guilty pleasure! It will still provide referral traffic for news publishers and marketers, but it will provide less than previously seen.
Take time to view this video for Facebook update
There is no doubt that publishers who have invested in eye-catching pre-recorded social videos will be some of the biggest losers. Mosseri says, “video is such a passive experience.” He admits that he expects publishers to react with “a certain amount of scrutiny and anxiety,” but didn’t have any concrete answers about how publishers should scramble to react beyond “experimenting … and seeing … what content gets more comments, more likes, more reshares.”
The Art Of Well-Being On Facebook
It appears that the new way will be about being active, not passive. So, the focus is on the well-being of the user following research that shows that isolated feed scrolling can be harmful to people’s health. On the other hand, we see that that private chatting with friends and back-and-forth discussions of content leads to positive sentiments.
Zuckerberg said recently that “Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,” and today wrote that “We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being.”
There is an interesting outcome that Zuckerberg expects from this change of direction of Facebooks forthcoming algorithm change, and he wrote “Now, I want to be clear: by making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable.”
From what I’m understanding at this point of writing this blog is that Facebook will prioritise posts in your Facebook feed that create a back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts that you want to share and react to. Space is limited in the news feed and by showing more posts from friends and family plus updates will spark conversations that will limit public content, including videos and posts from publishers and businesses.
To get this in context the recent Golden Globes speech by Oprah’s is the type of content that would fare better in the revamped Facebook feed. Live videos generating discussion, star social media creators, celebrities, Groups posts, local business events and trusted news sources are other types of content that should get a boost.
So it’s not all bad news for those looking to leverage Facebook for awareness, business or financial outcomes.
That said there is a good chance that pages may see their reach, video consumption, and referral traffic decrease. The video explosion is one of the contributing factors in this new Facebook direction. It appears low-quality posts will really suffer and the quick hitters who post low-value content will be hit big time.
More Friends Or News?
It may be that news will generate fewer comments than friend’s photos, but this may be what brings the world closer together? By showing more posts to friends the world of Facebook will become more of a divided world than ever if I’m seeing this way I think Facebook is?
“Video and other public content have exploded on Facebook in the past couple of years,” Zuckerberg writes. “Since there’s more public content than posts from your friends and family, the balance of what’s in News Feed has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do — help us connect with each other.”
I am hoping that the most important news will still make it into the news feed because I actively discuss such posts with my friends and others on this social platform although this isn’t the way the majority engage with Facebook.
Facebook’s algorithm change may be necessary to promote social cohesion and make the internet less exploitative and more meaningful. This move may impact on publishers and marketers who invest time and money into Facebook. I’m not completely sure that Facebook will weaken its business or revenue streams for the greater good of its community but only time will tell!
Why not get in touch, I’m on 07823 449485 or email me on terry@salesremedy.co.uk I’m always looking to widen my audience and have more connections and give advice.
Terry Carney