Facebook is changing its newsfeed algorithm again, so brace yourselves, fanpage owners. This update comes months after Facebook announced its plans to measure how long you spend reading each post, comments or browsing friends photos. If you spend more time on a certain person’s (or fanpage) status, or read through the comments under a particular video, Facebook will fill your newsfeed with similar type of content. Facebook is also making adjustments to make it easier for users to ignore certain types of posts.
Facebook made the changes based on user input collected via a series of surveys (seen in the image above) which asked their users to pick between two stories. The change to the news feed was announced on the official company blog.
“The actions people take on Facebook—liking, clicking, commenting or sharing a post—are some of the main factors we consider to determine what to show at the top of your newsfeed. We’ve learned that honing in on how to value these signals helps make sure we show you the most relevant content. As part of our ongoing effort to improve News Feed, we ask thousands of people every day to rate their experience and tell us how we can improve what they see when they check Facebook.”
Facebook predicts that the change will affect news stories about hoaxes that are purely clickbait articles, which usually receive a huge number of comments, likes, and shares. Stories rated unfavorably by those surveyed by Facebook will automatically be punished and pushed down your newsfeed, even if they have a much higher number of shares and comments. But for users who do not want to leave their news preferences in the hands of Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, the company recently released an update to its iOS application, which returns some of the control over the newsfeed.
“We know that ultimately you’re the only one who truly knows what is most meaningful to you,” Facebook Product Manager Jacob Frantz admitted in a company blog post. “That is why we want to give you more ways to control what you see. Today we are announcing even better tools for you to actively shape and improve the experience. “We’ve redesigned and expanded Facebook’s News Feed Preferences to give you more control.”
The most noticeable change is the ability to choose pages and friends that will always appear at the top of your Facebook newsfeed, so this way you will never miss an update.
Facebook also made unfollowing friends and pages much easier. The new unfollow feature allows you to stay friends (or a fan) without ever having to see their latest photos or status updates.
But the ultimate question is how this update will affect fanpage owners? Will we see a decline in reach or will the engagement finally improve? Only time will tell, and we will report on this issue as soon as we gather enough data.
For more info visit their official blog: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/12/news-feed-fyi-using-surveys-to-better-understand-viral-stories/