Facebook News Feed Changes - What Does It Mean For Your Reach & Engagement?

Yesterday, Facebook announced some pretty fundamental changes to how its news feed algorithms will work. I’d encourage all brands to read the official post here, and especially Mark Zuckerberg’s initial post here, but - in an attempt to be more active on here - below is my personal summary.

Framing of the change

1. At its core, Facebook is framing this update as an attempt to get back to their original mission: to connect people. As Facebook has become a haven for brand & media publishers, those forms of “public content” are crowding out what Zuckerberg calls “personal moments”. It’s also hard not to think these changes aren’t directly related to the “fake news” charges laid against Facebook over the last year.
2. They’re also framing this around social good:

“The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos -- even if they're entertaining or informative -- may not be as good.”

The Changes

Here’s the point blank directive, moving forward; Zuckerberg states:

“Based on this, we're making a major change to how we build Facebook. I'm changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.

We started making changes in this direction last year, but it will take months for this new focus to make its way through all our products. The first changes you'll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups.

As we roll this out, you'll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard -- it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”

In my opinion, the part I've bolded above is the most important part of the announcement, in that it couldn’t be clearer of the direction of News Feed in the future.

What does this mean?

Facebook have been surprisingly candid with this announcement. Because News Feed space is finite, the obvious impact of showing more posts from friends and family that spark conversation means that there will be less space for posts from publishers and brands.

This means brands should prepare for seeing their reach and engagement metrics fall over the coming months. However, bear in mind that - although this is a fundamental shift in the news feed algo - the change itself is just another push for brands to move in the direction Facebook has been pushing us all for years now anyway. Facebook has consistently been pushing engagement for quite some time, and they've been very clear about that. Because this change is all about encouraging meaningful interactions, brands whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an impact to their performance stats.

What types of posts from Pages will show higher in New Feed?

As above - posts that generate conversations. Facebook particularly point towards live video being a prime example of posts that prompt conversation (although we’ve seen early signs of success with this at Gold Coast Tourism, I’m taking this with a grain of salt… Facebook has been trying to push more publishers to adopt live video prior to this announcement anyway).

What we’re unsure of still

Whether this change will impact Facebook ads’ prominence in your Facebook feed. We can only assume that this will likely lead to an increase in advertising costs, as more brands are forced into the paid space).

What’s next

In summary, I’d expect brands should prepare for the following:

• Decreased page reach and engagement
• Increased ad prices
• An expectation that posts will spur interactions, or not perform.

So… in the end, the more things change, the more they stay the same!