To the surprise of few digital marketers, today's Facebook news feed redesign announcement had one strong underlying theme: better visuals.
Facebook community managers and advertisers saw this change coming. When the infamous 20% rule was instituted for ad images and cover photos, most of us assumed it was step one in a larger plan to make images more prominent in users' news feeds.
Well the other shoe dropped today. Now, not only are news feed images going to be much larger, but there will be more of them. Cover images will now appear in like stories (IE: If a friend likes a page, you will now see the page's thumbnail and cover image in your feed). Also, there will be a dedicated image feed that will showcase images from your friends and the pages you like.
So what does all this mean to businesses? Simply put, focus on your creative. Images are going to define your brand on Facebook now, more than ever. Freshen up that cover image; Start getting creative with your product photos; Make sure your images are high quality.
Additionally, if you are a content marketer, make sure you include a quality image with your content that Facebook is able to pick up. Link images will appear larger in news feeds now and will serve as a good hook to attract new visitors to your content, when shared.
Thanks to these changes to Facebook's news feed, the images your business shares will now be like downtown window displays for your brand. Make them look good and engaging and more people will like and engage with your page content.
Image Credit: Facebook