Is your Facebook news feed overloaded? Tired of having one big pile of information thrown at you? What if someone were to organize it? Well, Facebook is setting out to do just that, to categorize your friends, family, and fanpage posts into tabbed sections. The new feature would allow users to browse across multiple feeds, rather than just one really long news feed. The multiple news feeds would organize updates from people and fanpages into different topics, such as “humor”, “promotions,” or “music.” We’re unsure if this would affect your main news feed, however, it is a strong possibility. Could this be a blessing for marketers? Or another blow to already struggling businesses on Facebook. Hypothetically speaking, by organizing the flow of information, Facebook could ease up on reach restrictions, as flooding someone’s wall wouldn’t be an issue anymore.
Facebook did experiment with a similar feature on its website back in October 2015. Many users reported seeing a “Topics” option inside the website’s sidebar. It included sections such as “Health & Fitness,” “Food,” “Animals,” and “Sports.” This was only available on the desktop version of Facebook, as this new feature was missing on Facebook’s mobile application. The new feature is currently being tested, and there’s no guarantee that it will ever see the light of day. Big companies such as Facebook and Google constantly test new features with small groups of users to explore new possibilities. Nonetheless, this test is yet another indication that the big social giant sees itself as a central hub for all of your Internet needs, rather than just a social network for connecting with friends and family. Since last year Facebook implemented plenty of new features, the most notable ones are Instant Articles and Facebook Messenger add-ons. We’re personally very excited to see this new feature implemented, but like everyone, we’re worried about how it will affect fanpage reach. Will the users have to opt-in? Or will the tabs be a default feature? Will Facebook go easy on the reach? Will sponsored stories still be able to cross into our personal tabs? There are may issues Facebook will need to address before they go live, but let’s stay positive and hope for the best.