Facebook announced two new changes to the News Feed ranking algorithm! Its all about timing, timing, timing! ① TRENDING TOPICS First, Facebook will start showing stories about trending topics higher up in the news feed as soon as the trends occur, so you can immediately know what your friends or favorite Pages are saying about the stories of the day. Good news: early testing of this new algorithm tweak shows a 6% increase in engagement (more shares, likes, comments, and clicks). [Paraphrased from Facebooks announcement.] Whew, well thats good news, right? I mean, who wants to hear about a trend thats no longer timely. (Wouldnt that mean it was no longer a trending topic? Lol.) Very Twitteresque, eh! Also, the immediately know part presupposes youre on Facebook all day, right? ② POST ENGAGEMENT TIMING The second factor takes into account *when* people like, comment and share a post. To date, one of the news feed signals Facebook looks at is the *total* number of likes a post receives to determine how high to show the post in News Feed. Now, this new engagement timing signal means that if a post gets engagement right away and then not much a few hours later, this tells Facebook the post was likely most relevant and interesting at the time it was posted and potentially less interesting later. So, that signal would make the post most likely to show higher in News Feed earlier on, and lower once the engagement dies off. Remember Story Bumping? Yep, that was announced back in August 2013 and is where Facebook resurfaces stories that were further down News Feed that you may not have seen yet. Well, this new signal will also apply to which stories Facebook chooses to bump. In other words, if a posts engagement died off soon after it was posted, itll be less likely to get bumped up. (Yay, thats a good thing, yes?!) HOW THIS AFFECTS YOUR PAGE POST VISIBILITY & CONTENT STRATEGY Okay, first, dont get too excited. It could be that these two new tweaks impact personal profile posts more than they do Page posts. Even though Facebook clearly states in the announcement that Page posts are included. Second, my guess is we may see more Pages trying to do trendjacking and hashtag stuffing. But then, Facebook will introduce yet another algorithm tweak to ensure those posts are weeded out. Good. Nonetheless, Pages can for sure get creative with keeping an eye on seasonal, timely, or trending topics - just like on Twitter. (Remember the timely Oreo ad you can still dunk in the dark during the Super Bowl 2013 blackout?! Impeccable timing by an agile team. Of course, thankfully you can actually plan for many trends in advance!) ✅ So, the bottom line is this: continue to post relevant, timely, quality posts that resonate with your audience. Its the same approach that successful Pages have been using for awhile. And, tbh, Im not big on the advice to post more often. It truly does depend on each page and each audience, of course. But increasing post frequency can have the counter effect, causing the fans who do see your posts to hide one or all posts. Dont be afraid to experiment, though! Btw, Page owners, note this final paragraph on Facebooks announcement: Will this affect my Page? We will be rolling out these changes gradually and do not expect posts to see significant changes in distribution as a result of this update. If a Page posts about a trending topic or if a post sees a high velocity of engagement early on that then drops off, that post may begin to see increased distribution early on and less distribution over time. Pages should keep producing great content that is relevant and resonates with their audience. So, there you have it -- positive changes, yes? Will you be paying more attention to trending topics, and what appears higher in your own Facebook News Feed, in order to inform your Page post strategy?
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 06:00:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015