Everything you need to know about Facebook’s news feed changes
Thank you to Social Media Examiner and founder Mike Stelzner for breaking down the Facebook news feed changes and what it means to all of us. Yes, all of us. Here is everything you need to know….
Why is everyone freaking out?
On January 11th, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s mission is to bring people closer together.
He went on to say, “but recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content–posts from businesses, brands, and media–is crowding out the personal moments. Based on this, we’re making a major change to how we build Facebook.”
Insert panic here.
More info from the Head of News Feed at Facebook, Adam Mosseri:
Fact 1: Adam said, “space in News Feed is limited.”
Fact 2: “We’ll show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses,” he said.
Fact 3: “Pages may see their reach, video watch time, and referral traffic decrease,” said Adam.
Fact 4: “Over the next few months, we’ll be making updates to ranking,” said Adam.
Get ready for a new Facebook experience than the one you are used to.
What to expect:
#1: Video will get less watch time. Inference: you’ll see less video in the News Feed.
#2: Links to external pages will get less visibility. Thus, they won’t be showing as many links to blog posts, news, and so on.
#3: ALL posts from people and pages will be impacted. “The update applies to all post types, from pages and people.”
If you’re thinking of starting a group and hoping that will allow your posts to be seen, that’s not the solution. Those are still posts from people and the content itself is still subject to the News Feed algorithm.
So what are the important ranking factors?
Facebook will “prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people,” said Adam.
In a recent Wired Magazine exclusive interview, Adam said, “we’re going to be (weighing) long comments more than short comments,” and that “comments are more valuable than likes.”
Now to video. Adam said, “video is, primarily, a passive experience. You tend to just sit back and watch it. And while you’re watching it, you’re not usually liking, or commenting, or speaking with friends.”
Still in panic mode? Call us. It means you have to change your strategy on Facebook, almost completely.
Social media examiner gives these tips:
Step 1: Scale back your frequency of posts. Less is more here.
Step 2: Figure out how to create content that will get people talking to EACH OTHER, not just you.
Step 3: Up your live video game plan.
Live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos.
Step 4: Avoid engagement bait. These are posts that encourage people to comment. Facebook will demote these posts in News Feed.
Step 5: Master Facebook ads: This will be one of the only reliable ways you’ll be able to drive traffic off of Facebook.
Step 6: Learn Messenger Chatbots: Moving conversations into Messenger and using bots will be a huge trend that will allow you to nurture leads and sell.
A lot of the above steps will likely require a complete shift in your current Facebook strategy.