It's been almost 2 months since the last time we talked about Facebook changing the way Likes are used in their News Feed algorithm, and on Tuesday, Facebook made another announcement regarding changes that may affect your organic reach.
This latest algorithm update will roll out over the coming weeks and you will begin to see updates highlighting what a friend Liked or commented on either showing up lower in your News Feed or not showing up at all. Max Eulenstein, a Facebook product manager, and Lauren Scissors, a user experience researcher, said that this change was made based on user feedback, "Many people have told us they don't enjoy seeing stories about their friends liking or commenting on a post."
Before we see another round of "Facebook for business is dead" articles, let's take a look at what these updates are and how they might affect your Page.
Update 1: If users run out of content to see but want to spend more time reading their News Feed, more (and possibly duplicate) content will show up.
The first algorithm update is aimed at improving the experience of users who don't have a lot of content available on their News Feeds. Prior to this update, Facebook prevented users from seeing multiple posts from the same source in succession. Now that this is no longer a hard rule, a user may see multiple posts from the same source as they scroll through their News Feed.
Update 2: Updates from close friends will appear higher in the News Feed.
Facebook received feedback from users who were concerned they were missing important updates -- like photos, videos, status updates, or links -- from the friends they care about most. This is a concern especially for users who have a lot of potential content to see in their News Feeds on a daily basis. How this affects each individual will vary according to Facebook, "The impact of these changes on your page's distribution will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity. In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline. Overall, pages should continue to post things that your audience finds meaningful and continue using our Page post best practices."
Update 3: Stories about friends Liking or commenting on posts will appear lower in the News Feed (or not at all).
This update is based on feedback from users who said they don't like seeing stories about their friends Liking or commenting on posts. With this update, users are more likely to see posts from friends and Pages they've Liked.
While none of this should come as much of a surprise to those that have been following Facebook's News Feed changes over the last year, there are a couple of things you should remember:
- Take advantage of Facebook's marketing tools, such as Organic Post Targeting, to make sure that your content performs as best as possible.
- Make sure that the content you post is relevant to your audience. Being consistent and engaging will be more important than bombarding users with a large number of posts.