Changes Coming To Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg seemingly shook the world by stating that his 2018 resolution is to make Facebook more "meaningful" for it's users. What Mark was alluding to is the upcoming changes to the way the Facebook newsfeed works and how it is displayed to it's users.

What is the Facebook news feed and how does it work right now?

Currently, the Facebook news feed is a single feed that includes posts from your friends, posts from pages or groups you follow, and sponsored ads that might also be targeted at you. Your news feed may also include 'Shared' posts from pages you don't follow but have been shared by your friends. Facebook attempts to prioritize the news feed in the following way:

1. Friends and family.
   
   
2. Ideas and posts that may be of interest and important to you.
   
   
3. Authentic communication and stories that resonate the most with people like you.
   
   

Why is Facebook looking to change?

Unfortunately, we have all experienced how Facebook has become inundated with posts by publishers. You can see an example of this by scrolling through your news feed and seeing all the content that appears from publishers you don't follow. This can be cooking videos, memes, news articles, and advertisements. 

As Mark stated in his post, which you can read by clicking here, Facebook is going to be focusing on "helping you find relevant content" and "helping you have more meaningful social interactions." According to his post and recent reports, Facebook has found that though there is engagement and interactions with posts that are generated by publishers, Facebook wants to make sure that it prioritizes relationships and interactions between people first.

How is this going to affect your business page?

It is yet to be seen how the new Facebook algorithm will work and how it will affect any advertising or branding you do on the platform. What we can do is understand Facebooks goals and how advertising and publishing will evolve with the platform. So here are a few things to expect.

1. Content generated by publishers will be held to a higher degree of quality.
   With Facebook trying to focus on making sure that it is a 'people first' platform you can expect that low quality posts from publishers will be deprioritized. It is unknown whether or not they will change the way users interact with these posts, but you can expect Facebook will take some major steps in making sure your news feed isn't mostly 'shared posts' from publishers.
   
   
2. Publishing business related content to your personal page will be enforced.
   One of the cardinal sins of Facebook marketing is using your personal page as a business page for your commercial gain. Unfortunately many people do this anyways even though it's against Facebooks Terms of Service. If Facebook is going to try to clean up the news feed, this will be one rule they should attempt to enforce.
   
   
3. Facebook targeting could get even better
   When you advertise on Facebook, you're fighting for screen real estate in front of your target audience. With a cleaner and more engaging news feed, Facebook should be able to leverage more advanced targeting and higher engagement for advertisers with quality content.
   
   

What should you do moving forward?

Until Facebook rolls out it's changes we won't know exactly how publishers will be able to take advantage of the new news feed algorithm. In the mean time, it is key for publishers to continue to post quality and engaging content. It is likely that Facebook will assess and grade publishers based on their prior posts to then decide what content gets shared more easily around the platform.

We expect a big change going forward for all users and publishers on the Facebook platform. With Facebooks goal in mind, it looks as though there will be plenty of opportunity for businesses to market themselves while still maintaining a fun and engaging environment for the users. We will see how it pans out in the next few weeks.