Curatti

Facebook News Feed Algorithm Changes: What You Need To Know

  • Andy Capaloff

    • By now, April’s major change in the Facebook algorithm isn’t exactly news, even if most people will not be familiar with its minute details.

    Was anyone surprised by this or any other of the Social Media giant’s changes? No, me neither!

    But maybe just maybe, we can start to see some positive trends happening now?

    For a while, each update seemed to negatively affect organic reach. This, in turn, led to an explosion in paid content.

    Perhaps the current trends are more clearly about giving the end user a better experience?

    Ultimately, a happy user who Facebook has almost been pre-qualified for you, is more likely to buy what you are selling – or at least to engage with you.

    The April 2016 Newsfeed News Conference

    In a news conference in April, Adam Mosseri, VP of Product Management at Facebook, explained some of the latest changes in the News Feed.

    He offered new insights into the inner workings of this ever-evolving platform.

    No, it isn’t everything you need to know to make your content go viral, now and forever. Let’s get real — if everyone knew everything, new tweaks would be needed to highlight some of the content above the rest.

    This gist here was to tell you that user experience is their ultimate goal, and that they are working hard to cut out the things that annoy us, while giving us back some control.

    There’s a clear warning here that no matter how much time clickbaiters spend on trying to beat the system, they are Facebook’s public enemy #1.

    Where’s The Beef!

    Your Posts Are Being Ranked, and Mosseri gives us several factors that posts are scored on:

     

    What does all of this mean for Social Media Marketers?

    Unsurprisingly, this announcement was greeted in different ways depending on whether the source was within tech, social media, mainstream press and financial publications. But I’m guessing that each will be interesting to pretty much everyone.

    Yes, there are some points made in more than one of the referenced articles. But I’ve edited them out or shown you the nuances in how the same thing was presented, according to the writer’s perspectives. And of course, there are plenty of takeaways at the end of the article.

    Facebook’s Own Suggestions

    There are quite a number of key points made in Mosseri’s presentation, some of which are mentioned in this article by Moshe Blank and Jie Xu, also of Facebook:

     

    The Change History of News Feed Algorithm

    Changes to the Facebook algorithm are not new!

    You could be forgiven for thinking that they are addicted to tinkering, and sometimes do so for the sake of it. (I actually have a theory about that. Bear with me a while longer)

    This constantly updated timeline graphic from Wallaroo Media shows the history of all major changes.

    Most recently we have seen these major updates –

     

     

     

     

     

    The Tech Perspective

    Techcrunch

    The main theme, as Haje Jan Kamps and Josh Constine of Techcrunch see it, is that the changes will prioritize the pages you read. Or maybe, (a little bit ominously?) the sites Facebook thinks you will read.

    They picked up on these intertwined thoughts –

    Source: Techcrunch

    They wryly note that Facebook has realized people’s clicking habits may be an indicator of what they want to read, before adding – “Presumably, that is why my Facebook News Feed is now exclusively kitten videos and TechCrunch news.”

    The points picked up on here include –

    The Financial Publication Perspective

    Forbes

    Amit Chowdhry’s take relates more to unique user experiences. He lists 3 updates –

     

    Chowdhry reminds us that as far back as November 2014, the average newsfeed contained 1,500 stories, whereas the average user saw about 100 stories per day.

    Knowing what we all do about the continuing explosion in content, it’s fair to guess that there are now a greater number of stories in the average feed. Equally fair to suggest that consumption growth hasn’t kept pace.

    So if anyone is wondering why constant algorithm changes are required, bounce this around your brain for a while: the more content that is produced, the more that further tinkering will be needed.

    The Publisher’s Perspective

    Source: Unknown

    Fortune

    Matthew Ingram clearly sets out the tone of his article with a very clear title – “What does Facebook’s latest algorithm change mean for publishers? As always, no one really knows.”

    He opens with what he calls the “two immutable certainties when it comes to Facebook and the media world.”

     

    He follows this with a direct quote, that perhaps didn’t come off as Facebook had intended –

    “We will now predict how long you spend looking at an article in the Facebook mobile browser or an Instant Article after you have clicked through from News Feed. This update to ranking will take into account how likely you are to click on an article and then spend time reading it.”

    Am I being pedantic by pointing out that you either measure how long a person spends looking at an article, or you predict in advance how long a person might spend on one, based upon past behavior with similar types of posts? Probably!

    Facebook polled users in its Feed Quality Program, and concluded that –

     

    It has also decided that time spent reading an article doesn’t in itself mean that it should be scored higher. That favors longer articles simply because it takes longer to read them.

    Ingram mentions that the “Time Spent”, as a metric, appears to have been borrowed from publications such as the Financial Times, and that in theory at least, it may “reward serious journalism.”

    The Mainstream Press Perspective

    The Guardian

    OK. Not the true mainstream, but certainly one of the more thought-provoking and original ones.

    Naturally, it has concerns over political stories. So I’d urge anyone who writes political or national news stories to click on the article link. But author, Sam Thielman also delves into an aspect of the changes that affect all of us, and that, apart from a brief mention by Mosseri, nobody else has talked about – the editor panel responsible for trending news.

    The article quotes leaked documents, which show that human intervention is at a higher level than we have previously suspected. For example, the guidelines for US trending news include –

     

    In all likelihood, this will not affect your business or mine. But it will give you a better understanding of why you see what you see. If you’re interested in a sneak peek into an aspect of the inner workings of Facebook, and want to see the entire leaked document, click here.

    The Social Media Perspective

    Source: Unknown

    Quartz (qz.com)

    Now this one is entertaining as well as informative! A new study of 10 ‘folk theories’ around the News Feed algorithm shows some interesting insights from actual users.

    The 7 authors are from 3 US universities, and between them, they polled 40 users. They titled their paper, “First I “like” it, then I hide it: Folk Theories of Social Feeds.”.

    The theories include:

     

    Not one of the participants had an opinion on how they might modify their feeds to gain control of them. One made the following telling statement:

    “If I understood how Facebook chose to do what they did, then I would know what I needed to do, but since I don’t know what that is, I don’t know. If they told me what to do, I would do it!”

    And so would I. And so would you!

    How to Move Forward as a Social Media Marketer

    The general rule of thumb to live by is that Facebook is always changing – and that this is not about to stop!

    But this doesn’t mean they are out to get their publishers. As the user experience improves, it helps us create better content that stands out from the rest.

    There are several reasons for this:

     

    Takeaways for Businesses

    You’re not going to ever master the algorithm, so don’t waste your time trying. Facebook can be relied upon to keep making changes, so at best, you might be the world’s leading authority in this iteration – for however long it lasts.

    Instead, think of Facebook as you do your blog. Provide valuable content that your audience – different on each platform – wants to spend time-consuming. If they stay with you for a while, and better yet, if they engage with you, you will appear high on the newsfeed.

    The likelihood of near instant gratification when people comment on Facebook – whether likes of responses – encourages interaction. If only your blog could inspire that reaction from people!

    And let’s break down the real bottom line. In an increasingly ADD world:

    Suggestions for future Facebook changes?

    I think these changes are on the right track. I even have a suggestion of my own, of something more that Facebook could do to catch clickbaiters –

    Right now, they are looking at how quickly people click off of posts without any interaction, to help determine that an article doesn’t deliver what it promises.

    But what about the clickbait posts that are broken down into many small pages, maybe with one image on each? It can take 2 or 3 clicks for readers to really they’ve been conned out of some time that they’ll never get back. But do these articles score points because of the ‘next page’ clicks? They shouldn’t!

    How About You?

    Do you have any questions or did you draw any conclusions that you’d like to share?

    Is there anything you wish Facebook would change in their algorithm?

    Please comment, below!

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    Lead Image attribution: Copyright: ‘http://www.123rf.com/profile_kentoh‘> / 123RF Stock Photo

    Takeaways Image: Copyright: ‘http://www.123rf.com/profile_chudtsankov‘ / 123RF Stock Photo

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    Andy Capaloff

    Andy Capaloff is the COO of Curatti. Prior to moving into the world of Content Marketing, Social Media Management and the day-to-day running of a Digital Marketing company, Andy spent over 3 decades in various aspects of IT. It is here that he honed his writing and technical skills, and his ability to ask uncommon questions.
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