Friends are back in favour on Facebook, thanks to the latest tweak of Facebook’s News Feed algorithm.
The social media giant that started its journey a decade ago as a social networking site to connect friends had somewhere down the line changed tracks.
It started encouraging businesses to set up pages, and garner page likes. The stakes were high. Businesses realised that the more the number of Page Likes, the greater was the possibility of their content being bumped high on Facebook News Feed.
Facebook even encouraged businesses to inflate their Page Likes through clever advertising (Page boosts as Facebook called this activity).
The Indian publishers too noticed this change, and swiftly altered their strategy. Visitors were encouraged to like their Pages, even login through Facebook.
The Facebook Social Media button started whirring like a Formula 1 car. The Times of India stole a lead over others, and its Facebook Page Likes have grown to 6.7 million.
The Page Likes garnered by other publishers are equally impressive. They are: Dainik Jagran (6.3 m), Dainik Bhaskar (5.9 m), The Hindu (3.8 m), The Hindustan Times (3.5 m), Navbharat Times (2.9 m), The Indian Express (2.6 m) and The New Indian Express (2.2 m).
The Facebook algorithm ensured that the stories promoted by these publishers on their Facebook pages went into the News Feed of hundreds of thousands of Facebook members. The resulting clicks produced a flood of traffic.
This traffic now stands threatened thanks to the changes announced by Facebook on April 21.
Max Eulenstein, Product Manager and Lauren Scissors, User Experience Researcher, in their Facebook post titled “News Feed FYI: Balancing Content from Friends and Pages” list three significant updates that Facebook has made.
These are:
1. Friends first: Content posted directly by friends, such as photos, videos, status updates or links, will be displayed high up in News Feed. This will redress the fears of those Facebook members who are worried about missing important updates made by their friends because posts made by news or business pages will no longer swamp their News Feed. Result: Indian publishers will have to work harder to get their posts noticed.
2. More content to see: Facebook, so far, did not allow multiple posts from the same source to be pushed in a member’s news feed one after the other. It has now decided to revise this rule. Members who run out of fresh content in their News Feed will be shown more content.
3. Limiting unwelcome posts: Facebook will now push down those posts where members have liked or commented on a post that is not directly related to them. This change will benefit those Facebook members who don’t enjoy seeing stories about their friends liking or commenting on posts that don’t interest them. This update too may have a negative impact upon publishers.
Facebook says, “The impact of these changes will vary considerably depending on the composition of the audience and the posting activity.”
However, Facebook also issues a warning, which the Indian publishers should not ignore. Says Facebook, “In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline.”
It goes further and advises members to post things that are listed in Facebook’s Best Page Post practices.
It is still early days, but Indian publishers should note these changes, and revise their posting strategy.
Leave a Reply