Facebook Changes News Feed; More Pals, Less Pages

Businesses posting to Facebook already have a lot of hoops to jump through. Don't be 'overly promotional', and don't elicit 'Likes'. You can't post content that may be relevant to your business, either. also, don't try to be like The Onion. Now Facebook is changing their News Feed algorithm altogether, and just plain adding more content from your friends, providing they don't chatter too much. It's not off-the-cuff, though; Facebook says they're making changes in response to user feedback.

The change, like celebrity deaths, comes in threes. The first aspect affects those who don't have a lot of friends on Facebook, or don't 'Like' many pages. Those users will now see multiple posts from the same account in a row; something Facebook previously moved away from.

Facebook is also adding more content from people you know into News Feed, and "tries to ensure that content posted directly by the friends you care about, such as photos, videos, status updates or links". that content will also prioritize higher up in your feed. Friends first for the social giant, it seems.

Unless your friends like a post — those will now appear lower in your feed. Facebook says users told them that seeing posts their pals 'liked' didn't excite them, so they're being demoted.

But how will all this affect a page? According to Facebook, "the impact of these changes on your page's distribution will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity. In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline".

They also say pages should continue to post as they normally would.

Source: Facebook