Earlier this month, Facebook updated the algorithm associated to their News Feed. Instead of using quantitative feedback (like and comment count), they’re now using qualitative feedback to show relevant content to users. According to Social Media Today:
“What that means, in practical terms, is that Facebook’s taking into account user feedback, via their survey responses and on-platform actions, and building that into the ranking system, giving them more factors to rank feed content on outside of Likes, Shares and Comments.”
What’s really changed?
Users will be presented with posts based on their previous actions, including what they’ve liked, what they’ve clicked, and what they’ve taken the time to actually read upon clicking through. When a user likes a post from a page or person quickly without clicking and reading the shared article, that will be brought into consideration for future posts the user will see. If a user likes a post after reading a linked article, it will lead to a bigger newsfeed boost for that piece of content.
In a recent Blab, Michael Stelzner recommended having like buttons on all of your blog posts. Apparently, (and I say apparently because who really knows other than Mark Zuckerburg) having the pixel helps too because it will register users’ read times. Stelzner also pointed out that brands should be more cautious about the third party content they share as it will influence page visibility.
Gone are the days when contests were a good “trick” to garner engagement. You may gain new ‘fans’ immediately, however, Facebook is saying they’ll catch it and your future post counts will hardly be affected by the individuals your contest attracted. Straight from the Facebook newsroom, “In general, Pages should avoid encouraging people to take an action (such as encouraging lots of clicks), because this will likely only cause temporary spikes in metrics that might then be rebalanced by feed’s ranking over time.”
So what does this mean for B2B marketers?
If people genuinely interact with your content you should be fine. Your page may even receive a News Feed boost with the people who are clicking through and reading your content but not actually engaging with it.
Pages with not so great content who encourage likes or comments for incentives will see a negative impact from this update. If what you’re sharing is mediocre, it may be time to invest in improving your content. Why wouldn’t you want to better it when it could help both your Facebook and SEO rankings as machine learning becomes more advanced?
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