Facebook jumps on the content bandwagon

December 3, 2013

Which social media site do you find is the best for breaking news? Twitter does tend to dominate this area, as it has that real-time analysis and opinion that other social networks cannot match.

However, Facebook has updated its News Feed algorithm to get a piece of the action. Instead of ranking posts that you or your friends have engaged with higher, Facebook will now begin recommending related articles to users who click on a link from their feed.

The aim is to present users with more ‘high quality content’ in the form of news articles, blogs and current events. Photos that have been recommended by friends will also be more prominent in the News Feed, and will feature your friends’ recommendation below the original post.

Facebook summed up the changes on the company’s blog this week:

‘We’ll be doing a better job of distinguishing between a high quality article on a website versus a meme photo hosted somewhere other than Facebook when people click on those stories on mobile. This means that high quality articles you or others read may show up a bit more prominently in your News Feed, and meme photos may show up a bit less prominently.’

So what does this means for companies using Facebook? It means that they better invest in quality content. 60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content, so the key is to create content that will engage your audience and then promote it via Facebook. If your content is what your audience is looking for, then it will now be more likely to reach more and more users’ news feeds across the platform.

What do you think about Facebook’s new algorithm change? Let us know and add your thoughts below…

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