Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the reconstruction of Facebook’s Newsfeed to prioritise meaningful connections between users. In a post on the subject, he says, “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.

”Motivation for the change comes from community feedback, as well as research revealing that social media can be a double-edged sword; while it can often help users to feel “more connected and less lonely,” it also has the potentional to negatively affect mental health when passively consumed. Zuckerberg’s desire is to ensure “[Facebook’s] services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people's well-being.”

What’s new? Facebook’s focus has shifted from “public” content to user-generated content. In other words, the platform will be raising posts crafted by each user’s family and friends above unpaid posts from businesses, brands and media sources.

When will we see changes? These changes were set in motion last year and will continue to unfold rapidly over the coming months. Because shared videos and articles have historically dominated newsfeeds, the most notable change in early implementation will be the increased visibility of updates from an individual’s Friends List.

What does this mean for brands? Moving forward, “pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease.” Zuckerberg even predicts the overall time spent on Facebook will decrease in the short term; however, the time spent on the platform should be of higher quality, making a brand’s interactions with the right consumer more effective. Facebook is looking for Company Pages to “prompt conversations” encouraging that an integrated social strategy should be focused on more than collecting “likes.”

While Facebook’s newest algorithm updates are significant, it is worth noting that the changes are geared toward organic content. The prominence of Search Optics’ main paid strategies will not be affected. Those who publish unpaid posts and expect key performance indicators to remain consistent may consider revisiting their paid social strategy to ensure continued exposure and engagement.

At Search Optics, we strategize for our clients to create compelling content that is authentic to our clients’ brands. Ultimately, people are what matter. As Facebook continues to evolve, we accept the exciting challenge of evolving ourselves to bring our clients smarter solutions and better results through social media.

Sources:

https://media.fb.com/2018/01/11/news-feed-fyi-bringing-people-closer-together/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/11/facebook-news-feed-algorithm-overhaul-mark-zuckerberg

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2018/01/11/facebook-focuses-news-feed-on-friends-and-family-curbing-the-reach-of-brands-and-media/#71d6354c5b69